Yesterday’s law.com has a story about a case brought by Stephanie Lenz v. Universal Music. Lenz has sued Universal for misrepresenting its copyright rights under the DMCA when Universal sent Youtube a DMCA takedown notice. At issue is a home video, posted to Youtube, of Lenz’s toddler pushing a walker and jumping up and [...]

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Ann’s post about having faculty members write only in their home school’s law reviews is an interesting one, although it still leaves open the question of where non-law faculty would publish (presumably anywhere?). This might continue the “placement as a proxy for the quality” of non-law faculty articles.
If we really want to eliminate the importance [...]

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Thanks to Deven for getting this excellent discussion started.
I agree with the proposition that experiential learning is very valuable and should probably occupy a more significant place in the legal education than it presently does, particularly on the transactional side. However, experiential learning is often extremely expensive. By necessity, student-faculty ratios must be low in [...]

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Arstechnica has a story suggesting that Apple is negotiating to offer unlimited downloads to iPod owners who pay a set fee. The scheme essentially means raising the price of iPods, and “giving away” the music.
I speculate that this makes sense as the next development in how consumers spend their entertainment dollars. Each person [...]

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Well, I admit to a looonnnggg period away from blogging, but I have an explanation (if not an excuse). My co-author Joe Liu and I have finished a new casebook on copyright that will be published by West in time for fall adoption. One thing I have learned for sure – the last [...]

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George Mitchell’s recent report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball identified many players as users of various substances, including steroids and human growth hormone. Of those identified, Yankee ace Andy Pettitte is perhaps the most prominent to confirm his use of such substances and give his side of the story. In a nutshell, [...]

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The Joy of Sox has been writing about a problem with Major League Baseball’s DRM scheme. Boing Boing, Wired, Slashdot, and Techdirt have also picked up the story.
Apparently fans who purchased digital downloads from MLB have discovered that MLB has changed its DRM scheme.  Fans who downloaded complete games from MLB had to log in [...]

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As arstechnica.com reported this afternoon, a Minnesota jury awarded the music industry $222,000 against Jammie Thomas.  I’m not at all surprised that Ms. Thomas lost.  The plaintiff had good evidence, and she litigated the case primarily on a “I didn’t do it” basis.  However, the size of the verdict is a mild surprise.  Although the [...]

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arstechnica.com has fairly detailed coverage of the Capitol v. Thomas case, in which the music industry has sued Jammie Thomas for allegedly making a number of music files available over Kazaa.  The case is the first of its kind to go to full trial.  From reading the arstechnica.com accounts, it appears that the music industry [...]

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In the September 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, Peter King writes that Eric Mangini broke “a long-held code that NFL coaches live by: Don’t go against the family.”  According to King, there are three parts to the code:  1)  “don’t mess with a former colleague’s players,” 2) “don’t mess with a former colleague’s coaches,” and [...]

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Today, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick the league maximum of $500,000 for having a staff member videotape the New York Jets’ defensive signals in violation of league rules.  The NFL further fined the Patriots $250,000 and confiscated a first round draft pick (assuming they make the playoffs, which [...]

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This story appeared today on Yahoo!:  Apparently Thai police officers who commit offenses must wear armbands featuring Hello Kitty.  To quote a Thai officer, “(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps.”
I’m wondering what happens after the second offense — perhaps a Hello Kitty [...]

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The Wall Street Journal’s law blog has covered Professor Wendy Seltzer’s disupte with the NFL over her YouTube posting of a game clip showing the NFL’s copyright notice. The NFL sent YouTube a DMCA take down notice, Professor Seltzer objected, and the NFL sent another take down notice that YouTube apparently complied with.
For those [...]

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By now, most have heard about the unauthorized postings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Count me among those who think that this copyright infringement won’t damage sales of the book. It’s only more free advertising. I hope that people don’t use the unauthorized posting problem to argue for more draconian [...]

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I just saw in Newsweek (July 18, Periscope) an “offenses index” that lists the fines/damages that parents can face if their children misbehave.  Leading the list of monetary fines (there is also listed a 6 months jail sentence in Kansas for allowing underage drinking at home) was “illegal downloads,” with a fine of “up to [...]

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The Ninth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of Perfect 10’s complaint against Visa and MasterCard for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement (opinion here).  The court’s opinion, though not perfect, laudably recognizes that a decision in Perfect 10’s favor would have opened potentially endless claims of liability against a wide range of potential defendants who simply [...]

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Associated Press has reported that the administrative law judge who sued a dry cleaner for $54 million over a lost pair of pants now plans to file a motion for the trial judge to reconsider or reverse her ruling against him.  Meanwhile, the defendants have filed a motion to have the judge pay their attorneys’ [...]

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The New York Times recently ran a story about a reporter ejected from a baseball game for blogging about the game while it was in progress. Apparently, the NCAA, which organized the game, issues press credentials only if the reporter agrees not to blog about game action while the game is in progress. It’s understandable [...]

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The Associated Press (via law.com) reports that the administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaner for $67 million over a lost pair of pants has reduced his damages claim to $54 million.  Yowza.  I guess the initial damages claim was unreasonably high.

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As an update to my blog post on attorneys assuming different identities while investigating online IP infringement, it’s interesting to note that the New York County Lawyers’ Association has issued an opinion that permits lawyers to use investigators who “dissemble” in order to identify infringers.  The opinion takes a dim view of dissembling during investigation, [...]

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