Fallout from the 9th Circuit’s “Innocence of Muslims” Ruling
Approximately one month ago, the 9th Circuit released its decision in Garcia v. Google, Inc. In Garcia, a writer/producer by the name of Mark Basseley Youssef cast Cindy Garcia in…
Privacy Under the Federal Trade Commission: Enforcement Actions of the FTC
Congress created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914 to prevent unfair methods of competition in commerce. In 1938, Congress gave the FTC the grant to enforce the prohibition on…
On the Offensive: College Athletes Seek to Unionize
Earlier this year, a group of Northwestern University (NU) football players led by team quarterback and captain, Kain Colter, took a bold and unprecedented step toward forming a labor union…
Black, white, and watched all over: classic films and the public domain
A few weeks ago, there was an article by Nicolas Rapold in the New York Times about classic films that have fallen into the public domain. The article was essentially…
How to Misuse Fair Use and Get Away With It
Every now and then someone takes the internet and transplants into real life. And every now and then parody is so successfully employed as to benefit both the object and…
What’s in a Name? Defining a Patent Troll
The question of how to deal with patent trolls has plagued patent academics and practitioners both. But the term patent troll is an empty one, which is defined differently in…
Rights for Recipes?
#instafood #delish #foodstagram They are the next best thing to “selfies.” Food pics. Yes, that’s right, the Instagram shots artistically taken to make all your followers believe that what you…
The Future of Online Streaming: Aereo, FilmOn, and “Public” Performances
Once the prime vehicle of audiovisual media consumption, television has, in recent years, seen its role marginalized. With the advent of popular online streaming services, paying for a television subscription—or…
Could Hola mean more freedom, less censorship online?
With only a few clicks and no fees, users in China and Iran turn on Hola to access Facebook. Users in the United States can use it now to stream…
Contrasting Approaches Towards Curbing Music Piracy
The “Stick” Approach In 2003, a 12-year-old girl and a 71-year-old grandfather were among the 261 people served with lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[i] They were…