Announcing the Volume 35 Masthead
Richard Prince Finds Himself in Another Lawsuit
Appropriation is commonplace in today’s art world. But what happens when the appropriator appropriates too much? Richard Prince has made a name for himself as a well-known appropriation artist. Naturally the use of a copyrighted image without permission of the…
Police Suppression of Assembly and Free Speech Rights
“Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.” —U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo In fall 2015, a unique class-action lawsuit was filed against the City of New York for unconstitutional arrests…
Politics as Entertainment, Fair Use, and the Campaign Industrial Complex
In the spirit of Comic-Con and Star Trek conventions, political junkies now have Politicon, a nexus where they can socialize, debate, share obscure knowledge, and hope to catch a glimpse of a famous political figure or two.[1] Politicon seems to…
Kim Kardashian’s Morning Sickness: How the FDA Regulates Consumer Advertising on Social Media
In early August 2015, the Queen of the Internet, Miss Kim Kardashian West, caught the eyes of the Food and Drug Administration via her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. The reality TV star was then pregnant with her second child,…
‘Haters Gon’ Hate’ Rule 12(b)(6): The Potential for Bad Blood Between pro se Plaintiffs and the Well Pleaded Complaint in Copyright Infringement Lawsuits
On November 10, 2015, Federal Magistrate Judge Gail Standish from the Central District of California dismissed a copyright infringement suit made by Jesse Braham against music powerhouse Taylor Swift. Braham claimed that the lyric in Swift’s song “Shake It Off,”…
Politics as Entertainment, Fair Use, and the Campaign Industrial Complex
In the spirit of Comic-Con and Star Trek conventions, political junkies now have Politicon, a nexus where they can socialize, debate, share obscure knowledge, and hope to catch a glimpse of a famous political figure or two.[1] Politicon seems to…
Government Regulation of Daily Fantasy Sports is on the Way: On the Heels of the Employee Scandal within DraftKings and FanDuel, Nevada Rules that Betting on Daily Fantasy Sports is Gambling
On Thursday, October 15, Nevada regulators took the plunge to combat Daily Fantasy Sports (“DFS”) sites like DraftKings and FanDuel and ruled that DFS gaming is a game of chance rather than a game of skill. As such, the Nevada…
The Precarious Fate of Homosexual Emojis
Shigetaka Kurita had a goal in mind when he set out to create the emoji: to invent a quick and simple way to express emotion without words. [1] Emojis are defined as “[a] small digital pictograph used in electronic communication…
Forever 21 Under Fire Again… this Time by H&M!
Merely a few weeks ago we discussed a trademark infringement suit initiated by Adidas against Forever 21. Forever 21 had allegedly copied Adidas’s famous three-stripe trademark. The infamous fast fashion company is now in trouble with a brand that many…
Leaked Sony Emails and the NFL’s Continued Suppression of Concussion Dangers
At the beginning of September, Sony Pictures Entertainment released a trailer for Concussion, a movie that paints a scathing picture of how representatives of the National Football League (NFL) attempted to cover-up and discredit the research of Dr. Bennet Omalu,…
Looted Cubaism: Premature hopes of restitution thanks to détente in Cuban American hostilities
Recent claims of conciliatory Cuban-American relations have dominated the news and the illusions of those with personal or commercial hopes for the island. This new dialogue has led families harmed and impoverished by the looting and nationalization of property after…