Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

On Aereo And "Avoision", Rebecca Giblin, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Avoision describes conduct which seeks to exploit 'the differences between a law's goals and its self-defined limits' – a phenomenon particularly apparent in tax law. This short paper explains how the technology company Aereo utilised avoision strategies in an attempt to design its way out of liability under US copyright law. The authors argue that existing formulations encourage such strategies by applying differently depending on how the transaction is structured, resulting in a wasteful devotion of resources to hyper-technical compliance with the letter rather than meaning and purpose of the law.?

Lessons From The Nba Lockout: Union Democracy, Public Support, And The Folly Of The National Basketball Players Association, Matthew Parlow

Oklahoma Law Review

By most accounts, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA)—the union representing the players in the NBA—conceded a significant amount of money and other contractual terms in the new ten year collective bargaining agreement (2011 Agreement) that ended the 2011 NBA lockout. Player concessions were predictable because the NBA’s economic structure desperately needed an overhaul. The magnitude of such concessions, however, was startling. The substantial changes in the division of basketball-related income, contract lengths and amounts, salary cap provisions, and revenue sharing rendered the NBA lockout—and the resulting 2011 Agreement—a near-complete victory for the owners. Several interpretations have been offered to …

Copyright And The Tragedy Of The Common, Tracy Reilly

Tracy Reilly

In his 1968 article, The Tragedy of the Commons, biologist Garret Hardin first described his theory on the ecological unsustainability of collective human behavior, claiming that commonly held real property interests would not ultimately be supportable due to the competing individual interests of all who use the property. In the legal field, Hardin’s article is frequently cited to support various theories related to real property and environmental law issues such as ownership, redistribution of wealth, pollution, over population, and global warming. Most scholars claim that a tragedy of the commons does not exist in intellectual property-related goods due to the …

The Technological And Business Evolution Of Machine Based Gambling In America, Darren Prum, Carlin Mccrory

Darren A. Prum

Machine Based Gambling has become a major source of revenue to many states across the country that need the money but face obstacles to raising taxes within their jurisdiction. The figures are startling with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s cut at over $1.456 Billion in 2011, which exceed the next closest state by $500 million. In addition, there are more than twice as many slot machines available to the public than ATMs. The benefits of machine based gaming has allowed many governments to revitalized tourism locations, make some Native Americans economically self-sufficient, and save horse and dog race tracks from closing …

Gamechanger: Ncaa Student-Athlete Likeness Litigation And The Future Of College Sports, Maureen A. Weston Prof.

Maureen A Weston

In re NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation is a consolidated lawsuit that arose principally from two federal lawsuits filed in California in 2009 against the NCAA, EA, and the CLC: Keller v. Electronic Arts, Inc., and O’Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass’n. These cases attack the practice of using the names, images, and likenesses (NIL) of student-athletes in broadcasts and rebroadcasts of games, DVDs, photos, video games, etc., without compensation to the athletes. This Article examines the implications of the challenges raised in In re NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation on the future of amateurism, the …

Promises To Keep? Coaches Tubby Smith, Jimmy Williams And Lessons Learned In 2012, Adam Epstein, Henry Lowenstein

Adam Epstein

The primary purpose of this article is to explore the 2012 legal decision that stemmed from an employment-related fiasco in 2007 when Coach Orlando Henry “Tubby” Smith first formed his staff at UM and asked coach Jimmy Williams from Oklahoma State University to join him as an assistant coach. Smith’s offer, however, proved not to be a legally binding offer, at least according to the Minnesota Supreme Court, because Smith apparently did not have the authority to make the offer in the first place. In fact, Jimmy Williams was declared by the Minnesota Supreme Court majority to have been sophisticated …

"Show Me The Money!"-Analyzing The Potential State Tax Implications Of Paying Student-Athletes, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

On March 26, 2014, the Chicago district (Region 13) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Northwestern University football players qualify as employees and can unionize and bargain collectively, a decision which contravenes the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) core principle of amateurism. Shortly after, Northwestern University filed an appeal with the NLRB in Washington, D.C. to quash the prior Region 13 decision. This case has added fuel to the longstanding debate over whether student-athletes should be paid. Amidst arguments both for and against supporting the pay-for-play model from a purely compensatory stance, there has been minimal focus …

Lessons From The Nba Lockout: Union Democracy, Public Support, And The Folly Of The National Basketball Players Association, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

The Potential Unintended Consequences Of The O'Bannon Decision, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow

Out Of 'Control': The Operation Gold Exception And The Ncaa’S Susceptibility To Lawsuit Under Title Vi, Rob C. Burns

Rob C Burns

This Note looks at the bylaws of the NCAA and argues that certain bylaws concerning athletes competing in the Olympic Games, which permit American athletes to receive medal bonuses that their foreign counterparts cannot, are discriminatory on the basis of national origin in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Panel I: The Conflict Between Commercial Speech And Legislation Governing The Commercialization Of Public Sector Data, Robert Sherman, Paul Schwartz, Deirdre Mulligan, Steven Emmert

Paul M. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Getting Down To (Tattoo) Business: Copyright Norms And Speech Protections For Tattooing, Alexa L. Nickow

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

What level of First Amendment protection should we afford tattooing? General public consensus formerly condemned tattoos as barbaric, but the increasingly diverse clientele of tattoo shops suggests that tattoos have become more mainstream. However, the law has struggled to adjust. The recent proliferation of municipal near-bans on tattooing has brought tattooing to the forefront of First Amendment debates, with cases such as Anderson and Coleman leading the way toward recognizing tattooing as pure speech. Tensions between formal and informal copyright norms in the tattoo industry further highlight the collaborative and expressive nature of the artist-customer relationship and its resulting products, …

Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The government is not the only player in copyright reform, and perhaps not even the most important. Left to free market negotiation, risk averse licensors and licensees are contracting around the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content, and achieving greater efficiency via private ordering. This emerging phenomenon, herein termed “private copyright reform,” presents both adverse selection and distributive justice concerns: first, circumvention of the statutory license goes against legislative intent by allowing for the reduction, and even elimination, of statutorily mandated royalties owed to non-parties. In addition, when presented without full term disclosure, privately determined royalty rates can …

The Regulation Of Mixed Martial Arts, Angelo Schildhauer

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Professional Sports Lockout On A Regional Economy, Brandyn Hinnrichs

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Response To Michael Sandel, Stephen F. Smith

Stephen F. Smith

No abstract provided.

An Act To Restrict The Use Of Erotic Material For Commercial Purposes, Robert E. Rodes

Robert Rodes

No abstract provided.

Dastar's Next Stand, Mark Mckenna

Mark P. McKenna

No abstract provided.

Postsecondary Athletics And The Law: A Selected Bibliography, Edmund P. Edmonds

Edmund P. Edmonds

Although sports have for many years been an integral part of American higher education, it was not until recent years that athletics in colleges and universities became enmeshed in legal problems. The heightened interest in the legal aspects of sports is apparent to even the most casual reader of the daily sports pages, and it is increasingly becoming a major concern of administrators in American colleges. Because of this interest one finds a number of articles appearing in law reviews in recent times, when in the past they were almost non-existent. In fact, the existence of this symposium issue is …

A Channel Worth Changing? The Individual Regional Sports Network: Proliferation, Profits, Parity, And The Potential Administrative And Antitrust Issues That Could Follow, Stephen Dixon

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.