Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

The Inescapable Intersection Of Race, Law, And Sports: Perspectives From The Field, N. Jeremi Duru, Michele Roberts, Woodie Dixon, Jeff Whitney

Presentations

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, race and sport were thickly intertwined. Athletes such as Arthur Ashe, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos, and Tommie Smith used their platforms as sports stars to challenge racial and economic injustice. In the decades that followed, that activist spirit largely receded, but over the past several years athlete activism has been on the rise. From Miami Heat players posting a group photo in hooded sweatshirts in protest of Trayvon Martin’s killing to St. Louis Rams’ players running onto the field with hands above their heads in protest of Michael Brown’s killing to Colin …

For Fear Of The Fans: An Argument For Holding Sports Teams Accountable For Fans' Post-Match Conduct, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Negotiated Rulemaking: A Method For Addressing Ambiguity Of Title Ix's Applicability To Transgender And Gender Non-Conforming Students, Greta Allardyce

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Insta-Famous: Challenges And Obstacles Facing Bloggers And Social Media Personalities In Defamation Cases, Maureen T. Desimone

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

In Search Of The Final Head Ball: The Case For Eliminating Heading From Soccer,, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Soccer is unquestionably the world's most popular sport. Two hundred and eleven countries have national soccer associations, hundreds of millions of people across the globe play recreationally, and Federation Internationale de Football Association's ("FIFA") quadrennial World Cup soccer tournament is unchallenged as the highest profile4 and highest grossing sporting competition on Earth. Notwithstanding its popularity, however, soccer sits at a troubling crossroads as the sport's governing bodies grapple with the impact that the risk of brain injury is having on the game. Soccer is, of course, not alone in this regard. The risk of brain injury exists in all team …

Show Me The Money: A Discussion On The Business Of Sports Agency, N. Jeremi Duru, Ed Tapscott, Josh Kusnick, Billy Walker

Presentations

Ed Tapscott; Josh Kusnick; David Reid; Dr. Billy Walker

It's Time To Stop Punting On College Athletes' Rights: Implications Of Columbia University On The Collective Bargaining Rights Of College Athletes, Lucas Novaes

American University Law Review

The National Labor Relations Board ruled in Columbia University that student assistants who have a common law employment relationship with their university are statutory employees under the National Labor Relations Act, which granted them full bargaining rights and union protection. However, just one year earlier, the Board decided to not address the question of whether college athletes receiving grant-in-aid scholarships should similarly be accorded the protections of the Act as statutory employees. Importantly, the Board noted that it was well-suited to make that determination in the future.

College athletes have been left in legal limbo as the teams, universities, and …

Blog: Without Rhyme Or Reason, Meikhel M. Philogene

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

The Student-Athlete's Right To Organize: How The United States Is Violating The International Labor Organization Constitution And Declaration Of Fundamental Rigths, Matthew Phifer

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hitting A Home Run In Your Writing, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Registering Offense: The Prohibition Of Slurs As Trademarks, Christine Haight Farley

Contributions to Books

Since 1967, Pro-Football has registered six marks that include the term “redskins,” a derogatory racial epithet that refers to Native Americans. The use of disparaging marks dates back to the 19th century when brands commercialized racial stereotypes, such as Aunt Jemima. Today, offensive marks, including those that ridicule race, ethnicity, gender and religion are proliferating prompting the question of what role trademark law plays in protecting the interests of diverse communities. Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act prohibits the registration of marks that consist of matter that may disparage or bring into contempt or disrepute any person, institution, or belief. …

Code Of Best Practices In Fair Use For The Visual Arts, Peter Jaszi

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Stabilizing Morality In Trademark Law, Christine Haight Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Almost all of the commentary concerning the statutory prohibition on registering offensive trademarks lambasts it as a misguided attempt to enforce civility through trademark law. This Article carefully considers the challenges accompanying section 2(a) of the U.S. Trademark Act and defends it as good policy. There are, however, a few instances in which the jurisprudence under section 2(a) has created more problems than it has solved. To alleviate these problems, this Article proposes judging words per se and abandoning the traditional trademark notion of evaluating words in context. Judging words per se is warranted given the very different objectives underlying …

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Copyright law grants authors certain rights of creative control over their works. This Article argues that these rights of creative control are too strong when applied to the performing arts because they fail to take account of the mutual dependence between writers and performers to fully realize the work in performance. This failure is particularly problematic in cases in which the author of a source work, such as a play or a choreographic work, imposes content-based restrictions on how a third party may render the work in performance. This Article then explores how Congress might craft a statutory license to …

A Conversation On Nfl Diversity And Social Cohesion Initiatives, N. Jeremi Duru

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Comcast/Nbcu: The Fcc Provides A Roadmap For Vertical Merger Analysis, Jonathan Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The FCC’s analysis of the Comcast-NBCU transaction fills a gap in the contemporary treatment of vertical mergers by providing a roadmap for courts and litigants addressing the possibility of anticompetitive exclusion. The FCC identified the factors any judicial or administrative tribunal would likely consider today in analyzing whether a vertical merger would lead to anticompetitive input or customer foreclosure, and a range of economic methods potentially relevant to applying that template to the facts of a transaction. Notwithstanding the difference between administrative adjudication under a public interest standard and judicial decision-making under the Clayton Act, the legal framework and economic …

Imagining The Law: Art, Christine Haight Farley

Contributions to Books

Law’s relations to art--to its creation, its production, and dissemination, its restriction as well as to commercial and contractual agreements about art works—are as multiform and complex as the category of art itself. Acknowledging that there is no discrete body of law that governs art, the author defines art law as “the survey of legal issues raised by art, artist, and the art world” and surveys four central themes: the law as art, the law of art, the law of creativity, and the collision of art and law. Any legal dispute about art usually evokes a plea for special legal …

Presenter, “The Bca And The Ncaa: How Title Vii May Level The Playing Field In The Collegiate Coaching Ranks”, N. Jeremi Duru

Presentations

In January 2007, only 5% of the 119 head coaches in Division I-A college football teams were minorities. This number is startling in light of the fact that in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football teams 55% of the student-athletes are from minority groups. Even the president of the NCAA, Myles Brand, has stated that this organization has had a “dismal record of hiring people of color into head coaching positions, especially in the sport of football.” The disparity between the numbers of coaches and players has prompted an action brought by the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA). The BCA …

Friday Night Lite: How De-Racialization In The Motion Picture Friday Night Lights Disserves The Movement To Eradicate Racial Discrimination From American Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Fielding A Team For The Fans: The Societal Consequences And Title Vii Implications Of Race-Considered Roster Construction In Professional Sport, N. Jeremi Duru

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Professional sports organizations' relationships with their players are, like other employer-employee relationships, subject to scrutiny under the antidiscrimination mandates embedded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professional sports organizations are, however, unique among employers in many respects. Most notably, unlike other employers, professional sports organizations attract avid supporters who identify deeply with the teams and their players. To the extent an organization racially discriminates, therefore, such discrimination creates the risk that fans will identify with the homogenous or racially disproportionate roster that results. The consequences of such race-based team identification are wide-reaching and potentially tragic. Through …

Shades Of Grey: Can The Copyright Fair Use Defense Adapt To New Re-Contextualized Forms Of Music And Art?, Nicholas B. Lewis

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Inspired by passionate contemporary debates about music copyright, this Article investigates how, when, and why music first came within copyright's domain. Ironically, although music publishers and recording companies are among the most aggressive advocates for strong copyright in music today, music publishers in eighteenth-century England resisted extending copyright to music. This Article sheds light on a series of early legal disputes concerning printed music that yield important insights into original understandings of copyright law and music's role in society. By focusing attention on this understudied episode, this Article demonstrates that the concept of copyright was originally far more circumscribed than …

Screening The Law: Ideology And Law In American Popular Culture, Mark Niles, Naomi Mezey

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Judging Art, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

What is art? Surprisingly, this question is addressed in various places in the law. At these junctures, courts typically attempt to avoid making a judgment. Indeed, the law generally resists any definition of art. The reasons given for this are that these determinations are too subjective for the courts and that judges lack proper training and expertise. Thus, the doctrine of avoidance is the most stable and explicitly stated proposition to be found in these encounters. However, the question of whether an object is a work of art for treatment under the law is often unavoidable. This question gets resolved …

On Media Consolidation, The Public Interest, And Angels Earning Wings, Victoria F. Phillips

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Whose Music Is It Anyway? How We Came To View Musical Expression As A Form Of Property, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Many participants in the music industry consider unauthorized transmissions of music files over the Internet to be theft of their property. Many Internet users who exchange music files reject this characterization. Prompted by the dispute over unauthorized music distribution, this Article explores how those who create and distribute music first came to look upon music as their property and when in Western history the law first supported this view. By analyzing the economic and legal structures governing music making in Western Europe from the classical period in Greece through the Renaissance, the Article shows that the law first granted some …

The Lingering Effects Of Copyright's Response To The Invention Of Photography, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In 1884, the Supreme Court was presented with dichotomous views of photography. In one view, the photograph was an original, intellectual conception of the author-a fine art. In the other, it was the mere product of the soulless labor of the machine. Much was at stake in this dispute, including the booming market in photographs and the constitutional importance of the originality requirement in copyright law. This first confrontation between copyright law and technology provides invaluable insights into copyright law's ability to adapt and accommodate in the face of a challenge. An examination of these historical debates about photography across …

A Primer On U.S. Intellectual Property Rights Applicable To Music Information Retrieval Systems, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Digital technology has had a significant impact on the ways in which music information can be stored, transmitted, and used. Within the information sciences, music information retrieval has become an increasingly important and complex field. This brief article is addressed primarily to those involved in the design and implementation of systems for storing and retrieving digital files containing musical notation, recorded music, and relevant metadata – hereinafter referred to as a Music Information Retrieval System (“MIRS”). In particular, this group includes information specialists, software engineers, and the attorneys who advise them. Although peer-to-peer computer applications, such as Napster’s MusicShare or …

Grabbing Them By The Balls: Legislatures, Courts, And Team Owners Bar Non-Elite Professional Athletes From Workers' Compensation, Rachael Schaffer

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Naked Feminism: The Unionization Of The Adult Entertainment Industry, Holly J. Wilmet

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.