Legal Analysis

Review of the Fastcase iPhone App

by Joshua Auriemma January 29, 2010 Law School

Well, friends, the first full-fledged legal research app is born. Some of you may have heard that the new Fastcase iPhone app dropped tonight.  At Legal Geekery, we had the good fortune of getting an advanced preview, so this review is the result of a few days of playing around with the app. For those [...]

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FTC Guidelines on Online Disclosure: Bad for Bloggers and Business?

by Laura Bergus October 11, 2009 Legal Analysis

You may have read the buzz earlier about how the Federal Trade Commission will be requiring disclosure from those who use social media (including blogging) for reviews or endorsements. As I’ve written elsewhere, I think these rules are bad for more than just bloggers who get free iPhones or baby toys, since liability for failure [...]

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United States v. Microsoft, A Decade Later

by Laura Bergus September 28, 2009 Geekery

Last week in antitrust class we covered United States v. Microsoft. Our analysis centered on “Microsoft III” and the Sherman Act Section 2 violations issues. (Section 2 of the Sherman Act makes monopolization a felony.) There has been an awful lot said about US v. Microsoft, 10 years later (like the Berkman Center’s conference on [...]

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Holden Caulfield, Gay Superheroes, and the Death of The Author

by Sean McGilvray July 13, 2009 Legal Analysis

Two recent developments have raised questions about the amount of control an author has over his characters once they leave the womb of his or her creative imagination and enter the collective consciousness. There’s a fine line between the public awareness and the public domain, and just because a character has embedded itself in the [...]

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A Different Kind of Prosecutorial Discretion

by Joshua Auriemma April 21, 2009 Legal

Most LG readers are likely familiar with prosecutorial discretion in one form or another.  Generally, I think of the process as (1) charges are made by police officers; and (2) the DA’s office decides whether to go ahead with the charges, add/drop/change charges, or drop the charges entirely. During a meeting with my field placement [...]

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Family Guy Wins Court Battle Citing Fair Use

by Joshua Auriemma March 16, 2009 Legal

In another victory for fair use, Judge Deborah Batts ruled today that the adaptation of the song “When You Wish Upon A Star” was protected by Section 107 of The Copyright Act, otherwise known as the fair use exception. I’m always interested to see these parody cases play out because parody is so ingrained in [...]

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Penn State Law’s Appellate Clinic Files Amicus Brief in Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs.

by Mr. X February 12, 2009 Law School

Penn State Law’s Civil Rights Appellate Clinic recently filed an amicus brief in Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs. with Cohen Milstein and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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Palin v. Peta – Round 1

by Joshua Auriemma December 24, 2008 Legal

Hat tip to Andy here at LG for bringing this debacle to my attention.   Apparently, Sarah Palin and PETA have been slinging mud at each other over a PETA game parodying Governor Palin.   Of particular legal interest is the following email from Ingrid Newkirk of PETA to Bill McAllister from Palin’s office: Dear Mr. [...]

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Does Copyright Make Sense?

by Joshua Auriemma December 19, 2008 Law School

  I finished my copyrights exam the other day after 22 hours and 7 minutes straight with no eating or sleeping.  We were limited to 6 pages so my preambular rant took some serious cuts, but here it is as it existed for submission: Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution [...]

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