Courthouse Steps
Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
New Hardware Could Affect Online Subscription Pricing
As a companion to his feature article on online content aggregators, Chris Castle discusses some of the new hardware that is available for downloading and playing online music ' and its possible effect on online music subscription rates.
Attorney Fees Update
Depending on the circumstances and the law, parties on either side of an entertainment suit may ask a court for an award of attorney fees. Following are recent court rulings that deal with this and related concerns.
Employment Relations Training
Anti-harassment and diversity training can be a very effective tool in preventing claims of workplace discrimination and minimizing risk. It is essential, however, to be aware of the snares along the way: poorly executed training may be as good as no training at all, or worse. Properly executed, anti-harassment and diversity training holds out some hope for employers as a means to avoid the adage, all too familiar in the human resource community, that "no good deed goes unpunished."
Workplace E-mail: Employers Beware!
E-mail has become a way of life. Its advantages in the business world are widely known: It is an inexpensive, easily distributed medium, which can be accessed, even wirelessly, almost instantaneously anywhere in the world. In this fast-paced global economy, these features are highly desired. E-mail in the workplace is a double-edged sword, however, and the problems associated with workplace e-mail, particularly in connection with litigation-related discovery, have been recognized with increasing frequency by courts and litigants around the country.
Personal Jurisdiction and The Internet: An Update
As set forth in a prior article appearing in the April issue of the <i>Internet Law & Strategy</i> newsletter, despite some suggestions to the contrary, the rise of the Internet as a business tool does not portend the end of limits on personal jurisdiction. Rather, the courts are continuing to find that the Internet merely provides another vehicle (albeit an electronic one) through which a party may purposely avail itself of the privilege of conducting business in a foreign state and thus subject itself to jurisdiction in that state.
The Internet's Legal Digital Divide
Few Internet law issues create a greater challenge than Internet jurisdiction, which raises the fundamental question of whose law applies to activity that takes place online. While some experts initially hoped that the Internet might breed a new era of global legal harmonization, a closer examination reveals that legal differences are cropping up everywhere as countries become more assertive in ensuring that their Internet legal framework is consistent with national policy priorities.
