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Protecting The First Amendment Rights Of Video Games From Lanham Act And Right Of Publicity Claims, Yen-Shyang Tseng
Protecting The First Amendment Rights Of Video Games From Lanham Act And Right Of Publicity Claims, Yen-Shyang Tseng
Pepperdine Law Review
In 2013 and 2015, the Ninth Circuit decided two nearly identical cases in which professional football players alleged a video game publisher used their likenesses without authorization in a game that simulates real football games. One plaintiff brought a false endorsement claim under the Lanham Act, while others brought state law right of publicity claims. That made all the difference. The Ninth Circuit found the First Amendment protected the game against the false endorsement claim, but not against the right of publicity claims. These contradictory results stem from court’s application of the Rogers v. Grimaldi test to Lanham Act claims …
Our Campaign Finance Nationalism, Eugene D. Mazo
Our Campaign Finance Nationalism, Eugene D. Mazo
Pepperdine Law Review
Campaign finance is the one area of election law that is most difficult to square with federalism. While voting has a strong federalism component—elections are run by the states and our elected officials represent concrete geographical districts—our campaign finance system, which is rooted in the First Amendment, almost entirely sidesteps the boundaries of American federalism. In so doing, our campaign finance system creates a tenuous connection between a lawmaker’s constituents, or the people who elect him, and the contributors who provide the majority of his campaign cash. The recent explosion of outside spending in American elections by wealthy individuals and …