Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Who's The Vandal? The Recent Controversy Over The Destruction Of 5pointz And How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give To Authorized Aerosol Art?, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 326 (2015), Susanna Frederick Fischer

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This paper considers the extent to which federal moral rights law protects authorized graffiti and aerosol art against destruction, in the context of the controversy over the destruction of 5Pointz. 5Pointz, a sprawling complex of warehouse buildings in Queens, was a Mecca for aerosol art. The buildings’ owners ordered the demolition of 5Pointz after the November 2013 order by New York federal district judge Frederic Block denying the artists a preliminary injunction to stop destruction under the federal moral rights statute, the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). This paper argues that Judge Block erred in finding that the transient nature …

Bad News Birkins: Counterfeit In Luxury Brands, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 249 (2015), Colleen Jordan Orscheln

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The luxury fashion industry spends millions of dollars each year fighting counterfeits, yet a fake Louis Vuitton bag is easily purchased on street corners around the world. Proponents of the counterfeits argue that the fakes translate to advertising for the brands, while the luxury brands argue that it damages the future of their brand. The counterfeit market has been linked to child labor, human trafficking, organized crime, and some terrorist groups. The current federal civil and criminal statutes exclude purchasers from prosecution and instead focus on the distributors of the goods. This comment proposes the strengthening of these laws by …

Professional Video Gaming: Piracy That Pays, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 217 (2015), Elizabeth Brusa

UIC Law Review

This Comment will focus on the legal implications of end user gamers who profit from the infringing use of copyrighted video gameplay content.

Doping In Cycling: Incentivizing The Reporting Of Uci Anti-Doping Rules Violations Through Organizational Oversight And Accountability, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 625 (2015), Tom Laser

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Northwestern Football And College Athletes: Be Careful What You Wish For, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 655 (2015), Patrick Johnston

UIC Law Review

This comment analyzes the arguments the Northwestern University football team have made to the NLRB and discuss potential adverse tax consequences to the Players as a result of those arguments.

The Insufficiency Of The Musical Instrument Passport Program Under Cites And The Lacey Act: The Need For A Centralized Wood Title Certification System For Manufactured Wood Products And Wooden Musical Instruments, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 495 (2015), Joseph Furlett

UIC Law Review

This comment begins with overviews of the Lacey Act, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The purpose of this background information is to provide context for the recent creation of a “passport” system for musical instruments to protect them from confiscation based on violations of CITES and the Lacey Act. This comment will then analyze the inherent flaws in the current passport system and describe the difficulties facing corporations and individual consumers as they try to navigate current laws that affect musical instruments. This …

Manufacturing A Run: How Major League Baseball Can Use The Morals Clause To Clean Up Baseball, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 539 (2015), Nathan Law

UIC Law Review

This Comment will explore the applicability of the morals clause to the PED scandals that have afflicted baseball in the twenty-first century and how it might be employed to clean up the sport. This Comment first discusses the development of the morals clause in sports and entertainment contracts. Then the Comment proposes a revision to the morals clause in MLB players’ contracts to effectively deal with the PED issue.

Pensions Or Paintings?: The Detroit Institute Of Arts From Bankruptcy To Grand Bargain, 24 U. Miami Bus. L. Rev. 1 (2015), Maureen Collins

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the issues faced by the City of Detroit and the Detroit Institute of Arts when Detroit filed for municipal bankruptcy. Creditors called for the sale of the highly esteemed DIA art collection to pay outstanding municipal pension obligations. The DIA and the Michigan Attorney General viewed the collection not as an asset, but as a charitable public trust. Simply put, the City faced the question of what mattered most – pensions or paintings? Along the way, the parties and courts struggled with valuation of the art collection, a history of judicial decisions and lawmaking regarding charitable trusts …

Judges Are Not ‘Super-Referees’: Why A Qualified Statutory Exemption To The Sherman Act Is Needed To Reform The Ncaa And Its Exploitive Amateur Model, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 125 (2015), Christopher Sweeney

UIC Law Review

This Comment will analyze the historical application of antitrust laws to the rules and regulations of the NCAA and argue that, in light of a recent shift in judicial treatment, the next round of antitrust litigation threatens to destroy the entire NCAA model.

Music As Cultural Heritage: Analysis Of The Means Of Preventing The Exploitation Of Intangible Cultural Heritage, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 228 (2015), Ronald Inawat

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

What started out as a law school requirement quickly snowballed into an analysis of the relationship between intellectual property and cultural heritage. I am a music guy at heart, having played piano since I was five years old, having composed one song (after multiple tries), and now working directly with musicians and artists. So when I began researching a topic for an article that would connect the dots between the cultural heritage and its respective music, I could only come across legal doctrine and articles that focused heavily on tangible art and artifacts. So what happened to the music? After …

Did Copyright Kill The Radio Star? Why The Recorded Music Industry And Copyright Act Should Welcome Webcasters Into The Fold, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2015), Patrick Koncel

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Copyright Act has not kept pace with the times, and the next revolution is going full stream ahead. Rather than adapt, entrenched interests at the Copyright table push for more protection, while new technologies are demonized and underrepresented. The resulting Copyright Act’s provisions relating to internet-based radio, ranging from passive over-the-air broadcasts to fully interactive music hosting sites, are a patchwork of accommodations and concessions to these interests. For all non-interactive services, licensing music typically occurs within the Copyright Act’s compulsory licensing system. For interactive webcasters, licensing negotiations take place with the copyright holders directly. These negotiations have proven …

How Law Defines Art, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 314 (2015), Derek Fincham

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Defining art is both hard and subjective. But in lots of contexts the law must arrive at a just solution to hard and subjective questions. The art community has largely neglected the task of defining artworks. This neglect has crept into legal disputes, particularly those involving conceptual art which has loosened the limits of aesthetics, form, function, and composition. This makes crafting a definition of art even more challenging. Yet the Law has an important part to play in resolving art disputes—courts end up defining art no matter how cautiously they approach the question. They do not set out to …

A Rose By Any Other Name: How An Illusionist Used Copyright Law As A Patent, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 357 (2015), Sydney Beckman

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Teller is a famous illusionist who, in recent years, has been performing a stage act with Penn Jillete in Las Vegas, Nevada. Teller’s signature trick, known as “Shadows,” was copied by a magician in Belgium who offered to sell the method. The Belgian’s trick, titled “The Rose and Her Shadow,” was virtually identical to Teller’s illusion. That which we call a rose by any other name . . . Teller wanted the Belgian magician to stop offering the trick for sale. After an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate, Teller took his dispute to federal court. His goal? To protect that which …

The Next Great Copyright Act And The Future Of Radio, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 378 (2015), Christopher Doval, Don Anque, Maesea Mccalpin

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

With the advancement of digital broadcasting technologies, the lack of a revision to copyright law has created a creative and distribution bottleneck for artists by companies. The current range for compulsory licensing agreements does not protect the interests of artists through modern digital transmission tools, and leaves them fending for themselves if they wish to have access to new digital platforms. Moreover organizations, such as the Recording Industry Association of America, are in greater positions of power when applying existing copyright laws and definitions to new technologies that innovators never intended to be analogous to pre-existing technologies to begin with. …

On Art Attacks: At The Confluence Of Shock, Appropriation, And The Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 392 (2015), Rachel Buker

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Does the law adequately recognize the expansive nature of art, especially in scenarios involving controversial acts of appropriation art? Of particular curiosity is just how the law should treat acts of artistic appropriation involving the creation of artwork on top of other original works of art, or art attacks. This is an issue that has been largely unaddressed by the courts outside the realm of criminal proceedings. However, the legal implications of such acts reach far beyond crimes and property torts, involving copyright, moral rights, freedom of expression, and the preservation of cultural heritage. Indeed, the issues are not just …

The Law As Art Material, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 418 (2015), Daniel Mellis

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Daniel Mellis is an artist who incorporates the law and legal language into his work. This article discusses four such works: I. A postcard that predicts when its copyright will expire. II. A performance piece that uses the Visual Artists Rights Act to turn money into Art. III. An installation about the fourth amendment on the paper bags at a liquor store. IV. A bureaucratic entity that allows people to renounce, not their citizenship, but rather their symbolic attachment in a nation state or empire.

The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The recent rise of fantasy sports has created a conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The legal question being discussed is whether athletes have a right of publicity in their identity, specifically their performance statistics and biographical information. If a right of publicity violation does exist, courts will have to determine whether a fantasy provider’s First Amendment privilege can prevail against an athlete’s publicity rights. This comment examines recent litigation surrounding athletes’ identities and the problems courts have in balancing the conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment. …

From The Statute Of Anne To Z.Z. Top: The Strange World Of American Sound Recordings, How It Came About, And Why It Will Never Go Away, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2015), Bruce Epperson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Uniquely among all industrialized nations, the United States extended no copyright protection to sound recordings until 1972. The individual aural representation captured for playback could only be protected by the common or statutory laws of individual states. This feature was carried forward into the comprehensive revision of the Copyright Act implemented on January 1, 1978. Although the Copyright Act contained a sweeping provision that brought works created prior to the legislation under federal protection, pre-1972 sound recordings were specifically exempted. The extent to which this lack of status has created a legal and environmental void is best demonstrated by a …

Food Art: Protecting "Food Presentation" Under U.S. Intellectual Property Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2014), Cathay Smith

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In 2006, a scandal broke in the culinary world. It was alleged that Robin Wickens, chef at (now closed) Interlude restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, had copied dishes by renowned American chefs Wylie Dufresne, Jose Andres, and Grant Achatz. It is not uncommon for chefs to borrow recipes from other chefs, and there has been a long culture of sharing in the cuisine industry. However, what made Wickens’ actions scandalous was that he had purportedly copied the artistic presentation and plating of other chefs’ dishes, not just their recipes.

This Article examines whether chefs can protect the artistic presentation or plating …

Rediscovering Cumulative Creativity From The Oral Formulaic Tradition To Digital Remix: Can I Get A Witness?, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 341 (2014), Giancarlo F. Frosio

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

For most of human history, the essential nature of creativity was understood to be cumulative and collective. This notion has been largely forgotten by modern policies that regulate creativity and speech. As hard as it may be to believe, the most valuable components of our immortal culture were created under a fully open regime with regard to access to pre-existing expressions and re-use. From the Platonic mimesis to Shakespeare’s “borrowed feathers,” the largest part of our culture has been produced under a paradigm in which imitation—even plagiarism—and social authorship formed constitutive elements of the creative moment. Pre-modern creativity spread from …

An Evolving Ncaa Leading To An Expanding Client List, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 463 (2014), Frank Battaglia

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

On the heels of the popular March Madness National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) Basketball tournament, and following Northwestern University student-athletes’ success in unionizing, the extent of student-athlete publicity rights is now more contentious than ever. The divide between an ever-profiting NCAA and exploited NCAA student-athletes has sparked an evolving class-action lawsuit by former student-athletes, who challenge the licensing of their images and likenesses. This lawsuit has become a landmark test of the NCAA’s governance and notions about amateurism in college athletics. The outcome of this case will be a possible sign that compensation for both current and former student-athletes may …

The Consistently Inconsistent "Instance And Expense" Test: An Injustice To Comic Books, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 91 (2014), Thomas Deahl Ii

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Joe Simon once said that “we always felt, we wuz robbed.” He is not alone. This article will discuss Jack Kirby’s estate’s case against Marvel and how the current state of the law robs creators of the rights to their own works. The evaluation of case law will show that the application of the ‘instance and expense’ test creates an injustice of inconsistent results in litigation, where creators attempt to regain control of their works. If the court continues to inconsistently apply the law to these work-for-hire cases, then the Supreme Court or Congress needs to address the intended purpose …

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us: Defining The Line Between Personal And Professional Context On Social Media, 35 Pace L. Rev. 398 (2014), Raizel Liebler, Keidra Chaney

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow individuals and companies to connect directly and regularly with an audience of peers or with the public at large. These websites combine the audience-building platforms of mass media with the personal data and relationships of in-person social networks. Due to a combination of evolving user activity and frequent updates to functionality and user features, social media tools blur the line of whether a speaker is perceived as speaking to a specific and presumed private audience, a public expression of one’s own personal views, or a representative viewpoint of an entire …

Twilight: The Unveiling Of Victims, Stalking, And Domestic Violence, 21 Cardozo J. L. & Gender 39 (2014), Susan L. Brody

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

They’Re Playing Our Song! The Promise And The Perils Of Music Copyright Litigation, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 555 (2014), William R. Coulson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Music copyright cases are unique, costly, difficult, and complex. It was no different in the case where Ray Repp, a music composer for a Catholic publishing house, filed suit against Andrew Lloyd Webber, the famed British composer most famous for such Broadway hits as Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Repp alleged that Webber’s “Phantom Song,” the theme music for the Phantom of the Opera musical, infringed Repp’s song “Till You,” which he wrote and copyrighted almost a decade earlier. Webber in turn claimed that Repp’s “Till You” was in fact a copy of an even earlier Webber song, “Close …

Streaming Into The Future: Why Legislation And Technology Have Opened Pandora’S Box For The Recording Industry And The Webcasting Services, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 649 (2014), Rachael Stack

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Today, music is everywhere, but this was not always the case. Listeners are surrounded by endless access to libraries and playlists from the advancement in technology. With the rapid technological advancements, Copyright law has been left behind at a stand still. Since the enactment of the Copyright Act, sound recordings have received less favorable treatment compared to their music counterpart. Sound recording copyrights are afforded digital performance royalties when broadcasted on popular Internet streaming services, like Pandora. In the last few years, music streaming has become more popular among listeners and thus, more sound recording royalties have been distributed; but, …

Tweet Tweet: A First Amendment Wake Up Call Regarding Social Media In The Sports Arena, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 117 (2013), Samantha Levin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Intentional Grounding: Field Quality In The Nfl And The Legal Ramifications For Choice Of Playing Surfaces, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 115 (2013), Jennifer Simile

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer Who Built Titletown: Gerald Clifford, The Green Bay Packers And Community Ownership, 14 U. Denv. Sports & Ent. L.J. 3 (2013), Maureen Collins

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, 32 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 131 (2013), Daryl Lim

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Few patented inventions challenge the traditional boundaries of the patent and antitrust laws like those that are capable of multiplying as they are used. These self-replicating technologies are embedded in our food, fortify our vaccines, and form the computer code upon which the information age is based. These inventions create an inherent conflict between patentees and their customers. The conflict arises because every customer could become competitors as the product replicates, potentially making every first sale the patentee's last. They also challenge how we think about fundamental issues of ownership as well as innovation and market competition, and make it …