Rights in pre-Feb. 15, 1972, sound recordings ' which are protected by state law, rather than federal copyright law ' are hotly litigated in the digital music era. On April 17, for example, major record labels sued the music-streaming service Pandora in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan. The suit alleges common-law copyright infringement and unfair competition from Pandora's use of pre-1972 recordings.
The April issue of <i>Entertainment Law & Finance</i> reported on a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit involving the Internet video <i> Innocence of Muslims.</i> That article discussed the court's "secret" takedown order and the court's view on copyright ownership of acting roles in movies. The article that follows provides further analysis of the copyright ownership issue in the case.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) has come under recent scrutiny due to its use against unsuspecting individuals who may not be the malicious hackers that the Act was originally meant to address.
Although the reach of the federal government is impressive, all 50 states have had for some time a powerful weapon in the form of the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without the State (Uniform Act). Originally enacted in New York in 1936, it is used today to facilitate the issuance of extraterritorial or "cyber subpoenas," with nationwide reach.
Do you want to be considered a thought leader in your field? What law firms need to do is expose their expertise and practice groups to new prospects for their services.
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Insiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
While the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.
