Law Commons^™

Principles Of Contract Law Applied To Entertainment And Sports Contracts: A Model For Balancing The Rights Of The Industry With Protecting The Interests Of Minors, Richard J. Hunter Jr., John H. Shannon

Richard J Hunter Jr.

This paper discusses the context of common law and statutory materials dealing with a minor who participate in the entertainment and sports fields. The paper describes the changes undertaken as a result of several notorious cases involving prominent child actors and how the California legislature dealt with issues ranging from set asides of income, approval of contracts by a competent court of jurisdiction, recognition of the legitimate interests of all parties to the contract, to principles under which a minor would be precluded from disaffirming a contract. The paper then applies and extends the principles developed in entertainment contracts to …

"Statutory Damages" In Copyright Law And The Mp3.Com Case, Michael B. Landau

Michael B. Landau

No abstract provided.

Csi Las Vegas: Privacy, Policing, And Profiteering In Casino Structured Intelligence, Jessica D. Gabel

Jessica Gabel Cino

This Article argues that the intricate, vast amounts of consumer information compiled through casino structured intelligence require greater protection and oversight in the contexts of both bankruptcy and law enforcement. Section II examines the various types of casino technology and information gathering that casinos perform. Section III considers the available protections of private information in terms of security breaches, law enforcement sharing, and sales in the context of a bankruptcy. Section IV discusses additional safeguards and ethical concerns that should be considered as casinos continue to increase their data mining efforts. Finally, Section V concludes that, minimally, consumers are entitled …

Panelist, Impact Of Regulation And The Fda On Stem Cell Development, Mary Ann Chirba

Mary Ann Chirba

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property, Marathons, And Other Running Events, John C. Zwisler

John C Zwisler

No abstract provided.

Troubled Waters: Diana Nyad And The Birth Of The Global Rules Of Marathon Swimming, Hadar Aviram

Hadar Aviram

On September 3, 2013, Diana Nyad reported having completed a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. The general enthusiasm about her swim was not echoed in the marathon swimming community, whose members expressed doubts about the integrity and honesty of the swim. The community debate that followed gave rise to the creation of the Global Rules of Marathon Swimming, the first effort to regulate the sport. This Article uses the community’s reaction to Nyad’s deviance to examine the role that crime and deviance plays in the creation and modification of legal structures. Relying on Durkheim’s functionalism theory, the Article argues …

The Nba's 2011 Collectively Bargained Amnesty Clause-Exploring The Fundamentals, Adam Epstein, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to fundamentally introduce the amnesty clause, a relatively new provision in the labor and employment law discussions involving sport. The expression amnesty clause or amnesty provision is found in the 2011 NBA CBA. To date, academic references to the amnesty clause within the sport genre are virtually non-existent. The amnesty clause provides NBA teams a tool to release players from their contracts if they feel that the player turned out to be a bad investment, regardless of the reason. Additionally, by releasing a player under an amnesty clause provision, the team exercising the clause …

“Can I Profit From My Own Name And Likeness As A College Athlete?” The Predictive Legal Analytics Of A College Player’S Publicity Rights Vs. First Amendment Rights Of Others, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Two federal court decisions during 2013 have changed the game for college students versus the schools, the NCAA and video game makers. This article explores whether for the first time in history these athletes can profit from their own name and likeness and prevent others from doing so. But those cases still leave many untested applications to new facts – facts that the courts have not faced. Particularly intriguing is how 21st Century technology will apply to this area in future litigation. No publicity rights case or article to date has explored the application of predictive analytics, computer programs, algorithms, …

Federal And State Open Records Laws: Their Effects On The Internal Auditors Of Colleges And Universities, Michael D. Akers, Gregory J. Naples, Luke J. Chiarelli

Michael D. Akers

No abstract provided.

The Olympics, Ambush Marketing And Sochi Media, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of ambush marketing and the legal environment surrounding it. With the advent of the Sochi Olympic Games held in February, 2014, ambush marketing again makes its way to the forefront of national and international attention. Certainly, the discussion of ambush marketing in advertising strategies would be a useful tool at any point in a law course that addresses intellectual property such as trademarks and domain names, and consumer protection issues in general. For decades, non-official sponsors of the Olympic Games have found ways to use the Olympic event platform to …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Examining Whether College Conference Exit Fees Are An Enforceable Form Of Liquidated Damages Clause, Adam T. Kahn

Adam T Kahn

No abstract provided.

Copyright Without Creators, Jonathan M. Barnett

Jonathan M Barnett

Copyright is typically justified by the rationale that profits induce authors and other artists to invest resources in cultural production. This rationale is vulnerable to the objection that some artists have intrinsic incentives to invest in cultural production and do not require significant capital to do so. Even accepting this objection, copyright is justified by an alternative rationale: it supports the profit-motivated intermediaries that bear the high costs and risks involved in evaluating, distributing and marketing content in mass-cultural markets. This “authorless” rationale is consistent with the intermediated structure of mature mass-cultural markets and accounts for long-standing features of copyright …

Hollywood Deals: Soft Contracts For Hard Markets, Jonathan Barnett

Jonathan M Barnett

Hollywood film studios, talent and other deal participants regularly commit to, and undertake production of, high-stakes film projects on the basis of unsigned “deal memos”, informal communications or draft agreements whose legal enforceability is uncertain. These “soft contracts” constitute a hybrid instrument that addresses a challenging transactional environment where neither formal contract nor reputation effects adequately protect parties against the holdup risk and project risk inherent to a film project. Parties negotiate the degree of contractual formality, which correlates with legal enforceability, as a proxy for allocating these risks at a transaction-cost savings relative to a fully formalized and specified …

Cracking The Cable Conundrum: Government Regulation Of A La Carte Models In The Cable Industry, Jade Brewster

Jade Brewster

This Article examines the practice of cable bundling, a term describing how cable providers offer channels in “packages” of channels rather than allowing consumers to buy channels individually. These cable bundles have been criticized by politicians, academics, and the public alike, many of whom believe cable bundling simultaneously increases the price of cable and forces consumers to pay for programming they neither want nor use. Politicians have responded to these criticisms by advocating for legislation requiring cable companies to offer a la carte pricing options, in which customers can pick and choose individual channels. But evidence that an a la …

The Next Great Youtube: Improving Content Id To Foster Creativity, Cooperation, And Fair Compensation, Benjamin Boroughf

Benjamin Boroughf

YouTube prides itself on its automatic copyright detection and filtering program known as Content ID because it goes beyond YouTube’s legal responsibilities under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and because it allows copyright holders to control and profit from their content. However, Content ID is not the technological paragon YouTube and some scholars see it as. By relying on a system that automatically matches, blocks, and monetizes videos that allegedly contain any amount of infringing content, both YouTube and copyright holders have promoted a system that opposes the Copyright Act and YouTube’s goals of promoting creativity and protecting fair use. …

Novel Ideas: Literary Agents, Writers, And The Law [Entertainment & Intellectual Property], William Byrnes

William H. Byrnes

No abstract provided.

'Whatever They Need, We Will Get Them', Roger Abrams

Roger I. Abrams

No abstract provided.

The Trading Card Effect, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a teaching method that I have used for the last several years and have found to be effective particularly during the challenging final weeks of the semester. I reward students with trading cards for answering questions currently during an unannounced quiz to provide positive reinforcement in an engaging way. Students ultimately form teams and receive a relevant and classic football, baseball, basketball, hockey, or other trading card that they can keep as a souvenir to the class and the course. The intent is to give something to the students directly relevant to …

Taming The "Feral Beast": Cautionary Lessons From British Press Reform, Lili Levi

Lili Levi

Abstract: As technology undermines the economic model supporting traditional newspapers, power shifts from the watchdog press to those it watches. Worldwide calls for increased press “responsibility” are one result. Pending British press reform provides a troubling example with far-ranging implications for freedom of the press. Under the guise of modest press self-regulation, the U.K. is currently poised to upend 300 years of press freedom via the recently-approved Royal Charter for Self-Regulation of the Press. The Royal Charter was adopted in response to the moral panic engendered by Britain’s tabloid phone-hacking scandal. An example of 20^th Century regulation poorly fitted …

Brief Amicus Curiae Of Pacific Legal Foundation And Cato Institute In Support Of Petitioners Christie V. Ncaa, Et Al, Dylan O. Malagrino

Dylan Malagrinò

Reconciling Original With Secondary Creation: The Subtle Incentive Theory Of Copyright Licensing, Yafit Lev-Aretz

Yafit Lev-Aretz

Copyright literature has been long familiar with the lack of licensing choices in various creative markets. In the absence of a lawful licensing alternatives, consumers of works as well as secondary creators wishing to use protected elements of preexisting works are often left with no choice but to either infringe on the copyright of the rightholder or refrain from the use. As further creation is regularly impeded, the dearth of licensing greatly conflicts with the utilitarian foundation of copyright and its constitutional goal to promote creative progress. Legal scholarship has submitted various recommendations in response to the licensing failure, homing …

When Men Were Men, Roger Abrams

Roger I. Abrams

No abstract provided.

A New First Amendment Goal Line Defense – Stopping The Right Of Publicity Offense, Mark Conrad

Mark A. Conrad

The use of images with the recognizable features of former NCAA student-athletes by a digital video firm has resulted in two highly publicized lawsuits by former college players claiming violations of their right of publicity. Thus far, two federal appeals courts – the Third Circuit in Hart v. Electronic Arts and the Ninth Circuit in Keller v. Electronic Arts -- have refused to dismiss their claims, concluding that the use of the player images constitute a valid cause of action. While their actions have garnered sympathy among the public and many scholars, it is the author’s contention that both lawsuits …

Panel I: The Future Of Sports Television, Ronald Cass, Mark Abbott, Irwin Kishner, Brad Ruskin

Ronald A. Cass

No abstract provided.

Change The Rules Of The Games, Roger Abrams

Roger I. Abrams

No abstract provided.

The Court Of Arbitration For Sport And Its Global Jurisprudence: International Legal Pluralism In A World Without National Boundaries, Matthew J. Mitten

Matt Mitten

This article considers an issue of global importance that has received little scholarly attention: whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose developing body of lex sportiva is a form of international legal pluralism, provides an appropriate level of procedural fairness and substantive justice to the world’s athletes, who are subject to its jurisdiction as a condition of their participation in Olympic and international sports competition. It provides an overview of the CAS arbitration system and the very limited scope of national judicial review of its arbitration awards decisions. It concludes that the CAS is a procedurally fair private …

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 …