2015 DCS Annual Meeting
MLRC Members Review Accomplishments and Plans for 2016 The annual meeting of the Defense Counsel Section was held on Thursday, November 12 at Proskauer Rose. DCS President Sam Fifer led the meeting, which saw the election of Jay Brown of Levine Sullivan Koch & Shulz as DCS Treasurer. Sam welcomed Charles Tobin as the incoming…
USPS Wrestles With Mailing Newspapers Containing Marijuana Ads
By Steven D. Zansberg At present, four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington), have legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use, and 23 states have legalized the sale of marijuana for medicinal use. As a result, in all those states individuals and businesses are engaged in large-scale cultivation growing, packaging, distribution, and sales of…
Second Circuit Affirms Acquittal of “Cannibal Cop”
Court of Appeals Also Takes Narrow View of Computer Fraud & Abuse Act By Jeff Hermes On December 3, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling in the high-profile case of U.S. v. Valle, Nos. 14-2710-cr, 14-4396-cr (2nd Cir. Dec. 3, 2015). The case has received extensive coverage in…
Court Holds Threats Against Credit Card Companies Violated First Amendment
By Lisa B. Zycherman In a victory for the First Amendment and internet speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that Cook County, Illinois’s sheriff violated the First Amendment rights of classified-ads website Backpage.com by pressuring credit card companies to stop processing ad sales on the site. Backpage.com v. Dart. The…
FAA Treats “Commercial” Newsgatherers and Citizen Journalists Differently
By Justin S. Wales and Jorge A. Pérez Santiago More than 1 million small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (also known as “Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or “drones”) have been sold during the 2015 holiday season. Most of these commercially available UAVs weigh less than seven pounds and have built-in cameras that allow their operators to…
From the Next Gen Committee: The Frailty of New York CPLR § 301
Personal Jurisdiction over Defendants in New York By Matthew L. Schafer We know that personal jurisdiction over nonresident defendants is a bit of a strange bird in New York—one that can present problems for plaintiffs who prefer to sue for defamation in New York. Most notably, the State’s long-arm statute, CPLR § 302, contains some…
Seventh Circuit Vacates Post-Trial Defamation Injunction as Too Broad
Judge Posner Sympathetic to Permanent Injunctions Against Judgment-Proof Defendants In a non-media defamation case involving a bitter dispute over the control of a religious order, a Seventh Circuit panel held that a permanent injunction violated the First Amendment by prohibiting the defendants from making a wide variety of statements. McCarthy v. Fuller, Nos. 14-3308, 15-1839…
Court Affirms Dismissal of Defamation Lawsuits by Founder of BOSTON
“More Than A Feeling,” the Articles Regarding Suicide Were Protected Opinion By Joseph D. Lipchitz The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently affirmed the dismissal of two defamation lawsuits brought by Tom Scholz, the co-founder of the 1970’s rock band “BOSTON,” arising from reporting on the suicide of the band’s lead singer, Brad Delp. Scholz v….
2d Cir. Affirms Dismissal of Libel Claims Against Conde Nast and Other Publishers
Public-Figure Defamation Plaintiffs Must “Plausibly” Allege Actual Malice By Max Mishkin The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of libel claims against Condé Nast and its investigative journalist David Grann arising from an in-depth feature in The New Yorker about controversial art authenticator Peter Paul Biro, as well as…
SDNY Dismisses Copyright Suit Against Playwright And Producers
Who’s On First? Transformative Use, Naturally In another strong fair use decision from within the Second Circuit, a New York federal district court dismissed a copyright suit against the author and producers of the Broadway play Hand to God for copying a short excerpt of the famous Abbott & Costello comedy skit “Who’s on First?”…
Slants, Redskins and Other “Disparaging” Trademarks
By Ron Coleman Item, per NPR News: An Asian-American rock-band with an eyebrow-raising name has scored a big victory in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court ruled that their name—The Slants—is private speech and therefore protected by the First Amendment. The government, the court writes, has no business trying to regulate…
Santa’s Gift List for Media Players Naughty and Nice
From the Executive Director’s Desk It’s the holiday season, and so rather than one of those end-of-the-year reviews or even hopes and predictions for next year, I thought I would get into the Xmas spirit and play Santa Claus. So although it was a year with a few highs and unfortunately many tragic lows, Santa…
MediaLawLetter December 2015
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s Desk Santa’s Gift List for Media Players Naughty and Nice DCS Annual Meeting Reports from Committees on Accomplishments and Plans for 2016 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Fed. Cir.: Slants, Redskins and Other “Disparaging” Trademarks Excluding ‘Disparaging Marks’ From Registration Unconstitutional In re Simon Shiao Tam S.D.N.Y.: Court Dismisses Copyright Suit…