Copyright

  • Morning Docket: 05.27.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.27.16

    * Yikes! Thanks to its expensive legal battle with Hulk Hogan — one that’s been revenge-financed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel to the tune of millions of dollars — Gawker Media is exploring a possible sale of the company and has hired Mark Patricof of Houlihan Lokey to provide financial advice. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Maybe Harvard Law grads are a like Carrie Bradshaw after all — except their degrees cost more than their shoes: In addressing Harvard’s 2016 grads at the Law School’s Class Day, Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City admitted she had no idea why she was chosen as a speaker, and said she initially turned down the offer. [Harvard Crimson]

    * Alan Koslow, formerly of Becker & Poliakoff, resigned yesterday after he was charged in a federal money-laundering conspiracy scheme. Koslow’s charge is the result of a three-and-a-half year undercover FBI sting. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sun-Sentinel]

    * “Oracle shouldn’t ‘own’ programmers simply because they had taken the time to learn Java.” Google escaped an almost $9 billion copyright lawsuit with the help of a jury that concluded the tech giant had made fair use of Oracle’s Java programming language in the creation of its Android operating system for its phone business. [Big Law Business]

    * Closing the gender gap, one job at a time: The OnRamp Fellowship, a program that pairs female lawyers who want to return to practice with the nation’s top firms in the hope of receiving an offer at the end of their one-year stints, has now expanded to in-house legal departments. Congratulations on your excellent work. [WSJ Law Blog]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.28.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.28.16

    * If Bush v. Gore didn’t teach you that election laws are a mess, then this season of Veep will hammer the lesson home. [Strook]

    * D.C. Circuit Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh knows the value of saying no — especially to a sitting president. [United States Law Week]

    * Oh, this is fun, well, at least if you are an avowed Trekkie. There’s an amicus brief written entirely about the Klingon language. When arguing that Paramount cannot claim a copyright over the Klingon language, what better to spice up your prose than some quotes actually written in Klingon? [Popehat]

    * A look at the most cited law reviews in Supreme Court opinions from the 2013 Term to the present. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Wait — what did this Oklahoma court say? That forcing an unconscious woman to perform oral sex isn’t sexual assault? What. The. Hell. [Slate]

    * Pauli Murray, lawyer, scholar and activist, just had a residential college named after her at Yale. [New York Magazine]

  • Morning Docket: 04.22.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.22.16

    * Prince will forever be remembered as a pioneering musician who mastered multiple genres, including rock, soul, pop, and funk, but members of the legal profession will always remember him as a ferocious defender of his music’s copyright protections. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Per a recent study that’s being referred to as the Glass Ceiling report, Wall Street Biglaw firms rarely promote women to partner. In fact, out of the 8,549 attorneys practicing at the 300 large law firms surveyed, only 3.9 percent are female partners. [Law360 (sub. req.) via ABA Journal]

    * Hunton & Williams recently launched a new practice group dedicated to dealing with legal issues related to 3D printing. The innovative team will work on legal questions involving everything from intellectual property and product liability to insurance and tax. The firm now joins Reed Smith in this unique practice area. [3DPrint.com]

    * Anna Alaburda’s case against Thomas Jefferson Law over its allegedly deceptive employment statistics may have ended in defeat, but there’s still one more law school lawsuit fighting its way through the courts. A case that was filed against Widener Law was appealed to the Third Circuit, and a decision is expected soon. [News Journal]

    * Thanks to a ruling issued by Judge John A. Ross of the Eastern District of Missouri, the 42 lead plaintiffs in the Ashley Madison privacy hack case will not be allowed to proceed anonymously. It may be embarrassing, but as class representatives, they’ve got special roles. They must identify themselves, or proceed as mere class members. [Reuters]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Morning Docket: 04.21.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.21.16

    * Who says we have a divided Supreme Court? When it comes to mercilessly mocking bad advocates.[Slate]

    * The ongoing Led Zeppelin infringement suit takes a comical turn when someone uncovers a melody that sounds, well, at least as similar as the one Spirit bases its claim upon, in a Sonata from the 1600s. [Digital Music News]

    * “Was Kanye’s Tweet Legally Binding?” Society should punch itself that this is a valid question. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Compliance lawyers are increasingly concerned over their personal liability. Hey, this was all fun and games until someone said there might be consequences to this job! [Law360]

    * Judge Rosemary Collyer is taking senior status, creating a vacancy that I’m sure the Senate will act quickly and responsibly to fill. [National Law Journal]

    * An ICE lawyer gets 30 days in the slammer for forging a document to keep an otherwise legal Mexican immigrant out of the country. Maybe Donald Trump can pay his legal bills, too. [ABC News]

    * Oh great! Creating a new law school. [The News Tribune]

  • Morning Docket: 04.20.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.20.16

    * Puff, puff, pass the vote! In honor of today’s nationwide holiday for cannabis aficionados, these are all of the states that have legalized marijuana, be it for either recreational or medical use. This year, at least 10 more states may legalize weed by ballot referendum for recreational use, and pot could be rescheduled by the Drug Enforcement Agency depending on the outcome of the upcoming election. [Refinery 29]

    * Members of student activist group Reclaim Harvard Law have demanded that the prestigious law school eliminate tuition completely. They propose that the school dip into its endowment to cover tuition, or cut costs like faculty salaries to make debt-free legal education a reality. This won’t happen, but it’s a nice thought. [Harvard Crimson]

    * The ABA is investigating Brigham Young Law’s policy of expelling ex-Mormon students. Per ABA guidelines, law schools can’t discriminate on the basis of religion, and yet the BYU honor code requires students to get annual endorsements from LDS Church members — endorsements for which former Mormons aren’t eligible. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Pharma bro Martin Shkreli was dropped from a lawsuit related to his purchase of the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s latest album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” It’s likely plaintiff Jason Koza, who claims his art was used for the album without his approval, dumped Shkreli due to a purchase-agreement indemnity clause. [New York Post]

    * Because a judge reduced his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide at the last minute, former NYPD Officer Peter Liang will not serve jail time for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley. Liang once faced up to 15 years in prison, but instead he was sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service. [CNN]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.13.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.13.16

    * Led Zeppelin doesn’t want drug or alcohol evidence coming into the upcoming “Stairway to Heaven” suit. Good luck… it’s not possible to talk about that song without drugs. [National Law Journal]

    * A lot of small and solo lawyers are shy about big bills. They shouldn’t be. [Business of Law Blog / LexisNexis]

    * “10 Supreme Court Novels to Get Your Mind Off the Nomination Battle.” Great, now we’ve got to wait until Senator Grassley gets through all of these before he sets up a hearing. [ABA Journal]

    * Speaking of Judge Garland, Fix the Court sees this nomination as an opportunity to generate some momentum around the concept of Supreme Court term limits. [Fix the Court]

    * Apparently the key to getting good grades from narcissistic professors is to be a narcissist yourself. That seems odd because you’d expect narcissists to chafe at someone striving to steal the spotlight but “game recognize game,” I guess. [TaxProf Blog]

    * Remember when we said that the Florida bar exam results were bad? They were really bad. [Bar Exam Stats]

    * A Rutgers Law professor is in hot water over allegedly mishandled funds. [Legal Profession Blog]

    * BarBri Law Preview has a $10k scholarship for a lucky 1L this coming year. If you want it to be you (or someone you know), then act fast because the deadline is Friday. [BarBri Law Preview]

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  • Morning Docket: 04.13.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.13.16

    * You may think that your law school graduation speaker is cool, but you should think again, because your law school graduation speaker probably isn’t Vice President Joe Biden. This spring, the Veep will be delivering the commencement address at Syracuse Law, his alma mater. [Syracuse.com]

    * Bill Mateja, one of Polsinell’s finest white-collar criminal defense attorneys, will be representing Texas AG Ken Paxton in his latest foray into the wrong side of the justice system. How do we know Bill Mateja is good at getting his clients off? “Unlike many attorneys, Bill Mateja does not expect repeat business.” [Big Law Business]

    * The Supreme Court may be behind the times when it comes to technology (cellphones are typically banned inside the courtroom’s walls), but the justices will allow a group of about a dozen deaf and hard-of-hearing lawyers to use them to see a live transcript during their swearing-in ceremony next week. Congratulations to all! [ABC News]

    * FBI Director James Comey acknowledges similarities between arguments made in the gun-control debate and Apple’s quest to maintain privacy through encryption, but says “[w]e can’t resolve these really important issues that affect our values — technology, innovation, safety and all kinds of other things — in litigation.” [WSJ Law Blog]

    * “There’s a plaintiff who’s sure, his tunes could’ve made gold, and he’s buying a lawsuit in C.D. Cal.” Ever seen a cause of action for the falsification of rock n’ roll history? It’s taken about 40 years to happen, but now Led Zeppelin is going to trial over a copyright claim to its hit song “Stairway to Heaven.” [THR, Esq. / The Hollywood Reporter]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Morning Docket: 04.06.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.06.16

    * Gawker asks judge to reduce or set aside the $140.1 million Hogan verdict. That’s nice to offer the judge avoid a humiliating reversal on appeal. And yet I’ve seen Wrestlemania, so expect the doomed judge to hit Nick Denton over the head with a chair while he isn’t looking before this gets better. [Capital New York]

    * Ramon Fonseca assures the world that all of its operations were legal. Sure. I mean, cockfighting is still legal in Panama so this might not be the most ringing affirmation. [NBC News]

    * The Stoli trademark battle may be headed to the Supreme Court. That’s absolut-ly crazy. [Law360]

    * There’s an unauthorized Walking Dead theme restaurant out there in case you had a hankering for some possum and cheese whiz and there’s no Carl’s Jr. nearby. [Litigation Daily]

    * Which Biglaw firms are making big bucks off baseball season? [The Am Law Daily]

    * Eric Conn, dubbed “Mr. Social Security” arrested on federal charges that his immense success is due less to his legal acumen than “paying a doctor and a judge to rubber-stamp false disability claims using phony medical evidence.” Remember when he hired Miss Congeniality USA as a PR flack? Those were happier days. [ABC News]

    * North Carolina releases its February bar exam results. So we know of at least 201 people who couldn’t let the championship game spoil their high. You may say, “well Duke students weren’t going to be devastated by the game.” Silly rabbit, Duke kids aren’t taking the February exam. [Bar Exam Stats]

  • Morning Docket: 04.01.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.01.16

    * According to a statement released by the RIAA, hundreds of musicians and songwriters — like Katy Perry, for example — have called on Congress to reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Safe-harbor clauses are absolutely killing the artists’ bottom line, and something must be done. [THR, ESQ. / Hollywood Reporter]

    * “[M]any law firms have had breaches, which they’ve kept quiet.” Following the news that Cravath and Weil Gotshal had been victims of data breaches, Edelson, a plaintiff’s side firm, announced it would be filing class-action suits against 15 major Biglaw firms with cybersecurity problems. We can’t wait to find out which ones will be on the receiving end of these complaints. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Being the world’s first publicly traded law firm has turned out to be quite the debacle for Slater & Gordon. First, the Australian firm announced market losses of about $740 million, citing “underperformance in U.K. operations,” and now its general counsel has decided to throw in the towel after only two months on the job. Ouch. [Am Law Daily]

    * “I have lost my faith in the potential for the Law School or its curriculum to put out people who care deeply about things.” Members of Harassment/Assault Law-School Team, a student group that advocates for sexual assault victims, aren’t impressed with Harvard Law’s inaction on educating students about sexual assault. [Harvard Crimson]

    * How can we guarantee educators are being honest about graduates’ job prospects? Based on the results of the Corinthian Colleges fiasco and the Alaburda v. TJSL trial, it seems like “[s]trict disclosure rules for all schools would be better than lawsuits and government aid as a way to ensure educator honesty.” [DealBook / New York Times]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 03.15.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 03.15.16

    * A harrowing tale of regret from a former juror who sentenced a man to death for his crimes. [The Marshall Project]

    * I guess tears and apologies weren’t enough: Michael Eakin has resigned from the Pennsylvania bench for sending racy emails on the job. [Penn Live]

    * Disappointing news for proponents of cameras in the courtroom. The Judicial Conference of the U.S. voted against expanding the pilot program testing cameras in federal courts. [Fix the Court]

    * Breaking news: student debt causes stress in law students. Film at 11. [Chronicle of Higher Education]

    * The latest filing in the Paramount/Star Trek fan film copyright case is a treasure trove of all the Trekkie trivia anyone could possibly ask for. [Slate]

    * As much as liberals may dream about this, actually prosecuting a case against Donald Trump for inciting a riot would be legally difficult to prove. [Law Newz]

    * The struggles is real! It is hard to do things that we know are good for us, especially amid the crazy schedule most lawyers keep. [Forbes]

    * Jane Sanders tweeted about the horrific condition found in the jail tent city created by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I guess she wasn’t broken up when Sheriff Joe endorsed someone other than her husband for president. [The Slot]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 03.14.16
    In-House Counsel, Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 03.14.16

    * Ivanka Trump is getting called out on Instagram. Seems one of the shoes in her eponymous line is a dead ringer for Aquazzura’s Wild Thing fringe sandal. [The Fashion Law]

    * The billable hour actually makes law firms less competitive — not that this revelation will stop firms from conducting business that way. [Lawyerist]

    * When people attack Judge Jane Kelly because she used to be a public defender, they are really taking a crack at the Sixth Amendment. [Slate]

    * All the things that in-house counsel really want from their outside attorneys. [Ten Things]

    * A contested convention looks increasingly likely, and the GOP establishment is busy planning for that eventuality. [Bloomberg Politics]

    * Our friends at Solo Practice U turn 7! Don’t miss their anniversary special. [Solo Practice University]

    * Word to the wise: when you start looking to House Of Cards for political tactics, you might be one of the bad guys. [The Slot]

    * What it takes to pull off a career comeback. (Spoiler alert: it isn’t easy.) [Law and More]

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  • Morning Docket: 02.10.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 02.10.16

    * Uh-oh! Martin Shkreli may have gotten more than he bargained for when he bought the one and only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” An artist whose work appears on the album’s packaging has filed a copyright infringement suit against the smug pharma bro. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * A Texas ADA was arrested this weekend for DWI after crashing into a parked car. According to police, it appeared as if she was trying to leave the scene. She’s been a prosecutor for almost a year, and hasn’t been put on a leave of absence for her alleged transgressions (yet). [FOX 7 Austin]

    * “I don’t understand why donors should not donate money to the Law School because some moron, some racist decided to put black tape on some portraits.” Some alumni (not this guy) are uncertain if they’ll continue to donate to Harvard Law. [Harvard Crimson]

    * President Obama has proposed a cybersecurity plan that’ll cost $19+ billion. Americans will learn how to better secure their accounts to prevent illegal hacks. That’s a lot of cash to teach people not to use “123456” as their password. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

    * Have your birthday cake and eat it too, because the terms of Warner Music Group’s “Happy Birthday to You” settlement have been disclosed, and up to $14 million is up for grabs for those who’ve had to pay licensing fees to use it. [L.A. Now / Los Angeles Times]

  • Morning Docket: 01.19.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 01.19.16

    * The New York Times editorial board believes SCOTUS justices “already have all the evidence they need to join the rest of the civilized world and end the death penalty once and for all” — and they may get the chance to do so this Term (but won’t). [New York Times]

    * A Texas lawyer has filed the first “birther” lawsuit against Republican candidate Ted Cruz, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Canadian-born senator isn’t eligible to run for president. The filing is a pretty entertaining read in that it’s completely insane. [KHOU 11 News]

    * Just when ex-Dewey & LeBoeuf chair Steven Davis thought his legal troubles were over, Citibank swooped in to slap him with a suit seeking repayment of a $400,000 loan for his capital contribution to the failed firm. [New York Law Journal via ABA Journal]

    * The U.S. Copyright Office has formed an academic partnership with George Mason University School of Law. We bet students and law school administrators alike are probably hoping it’ll turn into an employment partnership as well. [IP Watchdog]

    * Lower-ranked law schools ought to thank their lucky stars that U.S. News “ranking competition” exists, because if not for fear they’d sink in the rankings, higher-ranked schools would’ve enrolled students typically bound for unranked schools. [Forbes]

    * Not only has Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s first bid to get a new trial been rejected, but in what’s been called a “symbolic gesture,” the convicted Boston Marathon bomber has now been ordered to pay more than $101 million in restitution to his victims. [Boston Globe]