Digital Commons Network^™

Melodies Manipulated: Intellectual Property & The Music Industry, Fordham Iplj

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Marilyn Mosby, Founder and Managing Partner of Mahogany Elite Consulting, opened the IPLJ Symposium with her Keynote Address which focused on the cultural, political, and social context surrounding the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal prosecutions.

The opening panel, “Do You Get Déjà Vu?,” comprised of Gary Adelman, Partner, Adelman Matz PC; Linna Chen, Senior Legal Counsel, Litigation & Copyright, Spotify; and Ilene Farkas, Partner, Pryor Cashman, and was moderated by Sarah Matz, Partner, Adelman Matz PC, and Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law. The panel discussed recent copyright cases, specifically Williams v. Gaye …

Originalism, Bruen, And Constitutional Insanity, Eric J. Segall

Fordham Urban Law Journal Online

No abstract provided.

Dead Bodies As Quasi-Persons, Ela A. Leshem

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Should The Innocent Suffer? Mental Harm As Disability And The Establishment Of A Post Bellum Duty Of Care For Enemy Civilians, Solon Solomon

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Jack Daniel’S Dialogues, Michael Grynberg

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC threatened to upend the balance between trademark rights and expressive freedom. While not going as far as it might have, the opinion limits the ability of defendants to resist trademark claims that target artistic or noncommercial speech.

As important as this result is, we should not overlook a fundamental preliminary question. How could a dog chew toy that mocks Jack Daniel’s whiskey be the basis of a viable trademark infringement claim? Answering that question requires discussing deep issues within modern trademark law.

These antecedent questions were not directly before the Court, but …

Photographic Memory: Expanding “News Deserts” Threaten To Erase The Visual Record Of Contemporary American History, Frank D. Lomonte, Lila Greenberg

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

As local newspapers close their doors across America, one of the unheralded casualties of their demise may be the loss of the institutional memory of their communities. Photo morgues maintained by newsroom librarians are an invaluable reference for researchers and filmmakers seeking to trace the visual history of localities. While some forward-thinking news organizations have donated their archival photos for preservation, there appears to be no industrywide plan for doing so, meaning that countless thousands of unpublished—but historically valuable—photos are at risk of destruction as cost-cutting newspapers eliminate their libraries, sell off their buildings, or go out of business entirely. …

Ai Voice Enters The Copyright Regime: Proposal Of A Three-Part Framework, Prachi Patel

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

We are told that our voice is one of the most powerful tools we have. However, is it just as powerful if it can be replicated? Artificial intelligence has developed to the point where it can create an exact clone of a person’s voice. While there have been many advancements in this field, there are few laws that address artificial intelligence and its use. Artificial intelligence has been used to create artificial voices of well-known figures, both deceased and alive, some without their consent. This creates a need to balance the incentivization of technological development and the protection of an …

If Not Here, Where?: Transnational Litigation Against U.S. Tech Giants Around The World, Pamela K. Bookman

Faculty Scholarship

In recent suits around the world against U.S. tech giants-e.g., litigation in Canada against Twitter (now X), in Kenya against Facebook, and in Europe against Google-plaintiffs urge foreign courts to adapt concepts like specific personal jurisdiction in flexible ways to allow litigation to proceed. In their defense, the U.S. companies are reusing the argument that similarly situated defendants successfully deployed in U.S. courts over the last few decades-that the cases are too foreign and do not belong in these courts. But these defendants have lost their home court advantage. They find themselves in courts with closer ties to the disputes …

Stop The Violence: A Taxonomy Of Measures To Abolish Evictions, Andrew Scherer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Good Lawyers, Good Sports?: The Professional Identity Of Sports Lawyers Representing Not-For-Profit Entities, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

ABA accreditation standards require law schools to develop students’ professional identity, including by encouraging “an intentional exploration of” the legal profession’s “values [and] guiding principles.” This Essay invites legal academia as well as practitioners to explore issues of legal ethics, professionalism, and, especially, professional identity in the context of a new area of legal practice: sports lawyers’ representation of “NIL collectives,” which are not-for-profit entities that college boosters establish to enable college athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness (“NIL”). The work of sports lawyers advising NIL collectives offers an interesting case study for considering how professional …

The Marketplace Of Ideas Mandate: What The Postal Power Requires From Congress In The Age Of Ai, Kevin Frazier

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Given the impending glut of AI-altered content that threatens to distort the flow of information on social media platforms, this Article comes at an inflection point. Absent the widespread adoption of a historically-accurate understanding of the obligation of the federal government to facilitate the spread of news and views on current affairs, the public may soon lose its ability to speak, listen, and learn to the extent required by a functioning deliberative democracy.

This is not hyperbole. By 2026, experts forecast that “synthetic” information may account for ninety-percent of online content. The anticipated deluge of AI-altered …

Time To Abolish The Dea: Evaluating The Agency’S Failures And Calling For Community Investments, Ifetayo Harvey

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Measures Of Justice: Researching And Evaluating Lay Legal Assistance Programs, Tanina Rostain, James Teufel

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Maximizing Housing Stability And Minimizing Evictions: Evidence-Based Models That Keep Tenants In Their Homes And Out Of The Courts, Neil Steinkamp

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A People-Centered Approach To Designing And Evaluating Community Justice Worker Programs In The United States, Matthew Burnett, Rebecca L. Sandefur

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Robots Vs. Predators: Can Generative Artificial Intelligence Help To Address The Justice Gap In Consumer Debt Litigation?, Raymond H. Brescia

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fend For Yourself: Lifetime Consequences Of Sending Kids To Municipal Courts Without Legal Representation, Lucy Johnston-Walsh, Tom Welshonce

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Hacktivists As Combatants: What Ukraine’S Counteroffensive To Russia’S Cyberwarfare Means For Civilian Hackers’ Status Under The Laws Of War, Emily Stubblefield

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Right To Food For “Justice”-Impacted People: An Abolitionist Strategy To Build Community, Sustainability, And Small Business In The United States, Elissa Underwood Marek

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Toward Abolitionist Remedies: Police (Non)Reform Litigation After The 2020 Uprisings, Cara Mcclellan, Jamelia Morgan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

New York City’S Public Housing Preservation Trust: The Case For Cautious Optimism, Necessity, And Racial Justice, Andrew Darcy

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Multitudinous Racial Harms Caused By Florida’S Anti-Dei And “Stop Woke” Laws, Katheryn Russell-Brown

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pocket Sportsbooks: Mobile Sports Gambling In The Modern Era, Jacob Davis

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Do Not Resurrect The Draft: The Current Recruiting Crisis And Why The United States Should Sustain The All-Volunteer Force, Marcanthony Parrino

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Major Question For The Sec: Analyzing Constitutional Limits On Regulatory Authority, Matthew Diller, Meredith Berger, Samuel W. Buell, John M. Golden, Suzanne Ashley, Coy Garrison, Aaron Saiger, Suman Naishadham, Mary Jo White

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Why Do Banks Fail Together? Evidence From Executive Compensation, Deniz Anginer, Jinjing Liu, Cindy A. Schipani, H. Nejat Seyhun

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Recent bank failures have elicited extensive interest about the causes, focusing on incompetence of bank executives, policymakers, bank regulators and supervisors and even uninsured depositors. Yet, before we can prescribe solutions to bank failures, we need to identify the correct causes of the underlying problems. We argue that the problem is not so much with incompetence of executives, depositors, or regulators per se, but rather with managerial incentives.

We provide both a conceptual basis as well as empirical evidence to show that bank executives have incentives to increase systemic risks in order to maximize the benefits of bank bailouts. Consequently, …

A Bona Fide Dispute: Can Bankrupt Debtors Sell Assets Free And Clear Of Federal Civil Forfeiture Claims?, Joseph Peter Gomez

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Auctions are wheeling-dealing extravaganzas in which frenzies of bidders fight over shiny objects. What would happen if the government busted down the doors of the auction house, took the shiny objects, and sold them online? An asset sale through section 363(b) of the Bankruptcy Code provides a court-supervised opportunity to maximize economic value for the bankruptcy estate. To sell estate assets, the debtor must either (1) pay off each creditor holding an interest in the assets or (2) strip the creditor’s interest and attach it to the proceeds of the sale. When the government asserts a civil forfeiture claim against …

Another Major Question: The Department Of Labor Should Retire The Tiebreaker Rule And Reemploy Pecuniary Language In Erisa, Brandon Chesner

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) soon turns 50. Instead of celebrating with cake, retirees and future retirees alike get to witness a new chapter in the debate over the consideration of Environmental, Social, or Governance (“ESG”) factors in investing with plan assets. As employees cross the bridge into retirement, they look to their 401(k)s and pension plans for peace of mind, for it is ERISA that has been working silently in the background establishing minimum standards, practices, and fiduciary duties to protect participants. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has passed three regulations—two …

Speech Without Speakers: Eliminating Artificial Barriers To Pleading Corporate Scienter In Securities Fraud Claims, Jennifer Ligansky

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

To successfully plead securities fraud claims under Rule 10b–5, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”) requires that plaintiff-investors raise a “strong inference” that the defendant acted with scienter when issuing a false statement. But pleading scienter presents a challenging issue when the defendant is not a person, but an entity. When the defendant is a corporation, U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals have adopted different approaches for determining whether the plaintiff has pleaded a strong inference of scienter. Some circuits hold that plaintiffs can raise a strong inference of corporate scienter only if the complaint identifies a speaker who knew …

The Lease Of All Evils: How A Middle-Ground Approach Can Resolve The Bankruptcy Code Conflict Between Section 363(F) Sales And Section 365(H) Lessee Protections, Kate Christensen

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in In re Royal St. Bistro, LLC has awakened an unsettled issue in the Bankruptcy Code that has divided the bankruptcy community for over two decades. The question examined by the Fifth Circuit was whether a non-debtor lessee with a right to continued possession through section 365(h) of the Bankruptcy Code loses this right if the debtor-lessor can sell its property “free and clear” under section 363(f). While early decisions held that section 365(h) always protects lessees against debtors’ free and clear sales, some subsequent decisions created a circuit split by ruling that section 365(h) …