Communications Law Commons^™

Franquicia Maestra (Master Franchise), Rodolfo C. Rivas Rea Esq., Marco A. Vargas Iñiguez Esq.

Rodolfo C. Rivas

The authors focus on how the Master Franchise agreement provides a solid legal strategy to expand a successful franchise beyond domestic borders.//////////////////////////////////////////////////Los autores analizan como el contrato de Master Franquicia proporciona una sólida estrategia legal para expandir una exitosa franquicia más allá de las fronteras nacionales.

Presented Paper: The Judicial Role In Telecommunications Reregulation, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

The Journalism Ratings Board: An Incentive-Based Approach To Cable News Accountability, Andrew Selbst

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The American establishment media is in crisis. With newsmakers primarily driven by profit, sensationalism and partisanship shape news coverage at the expense of information necessary for effective self-government. Focused on cable news in particular this Note proposes a Journalism Ratings Board to periodically rate news programs based on principles of good journalism. The Board will publish periodic reports and display the news programs' ratings during the programs themselves, similar to parental guidelines for entertainment programs. In a political and legal climate hostile to command-and-control regulation, such an incentive-based approach will help cable news fulfill the democratic function of the press.

Craigslist, The Cda, And Inconsistent International Standards Regarding Liability For Third-Party Postings On The Internet, Peter Adamo

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

This Comment explores the nature and purpose of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the legislative upbringing, and the application of the CDA to Craigslist. It compares the CDA to approaches taken abroad through legislation and judicial proceedings. It explains, contrary to the one other commentator to broach the subject matter, how the CDA continues to provide robust protection to Craigslist. Finally, it explores potential avenues for redrafting the CDA as well as the difficulties and trade-offs associated with implementing such change.

The Future Of Privacy, Rebecca Wong Dr

Dr Rebecca Wong

The Art. 29 Working Party (hereinafter “Art. 29 WP”) is an influential body comprised of representatives from the Member State Data Protection Authorities2 established under the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, has recently issued an opinion with the Working Party on Police and Justice. This is quite significant, since the opinion sets out some of the issues that will need to be addressed in the lead up to the revision of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.3 This comes at a time, when there have been discussions on the current application of the European Data Protection Directive to the internet,4 (such as …

El Derecho De Sucesiones Se Debe Atemperar A Los Cambios De La Sociedad Del Siglo Xxi, Edward Ivan Cueva

Edward Ivan Cueva

No abstract provided.

Virtual Takings: The Coming Fifth Amendment Challenge To Net Neutrality Regulation, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

“Net neutrality” refers to the principle that broadband providers should not limit the content and applications available over the Internet. Long a rallying cry of techies and academics, it has become one of the central pillars of the Obama Administration’s telecommunications policy. The Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to regulate the “onramp to the Internet” have attracted significant attention from the telecommunications industry and the academic community, which have debated whether the proposed restrictions violate broadband providers’ First Amendment rights. But there is an additional constitutional implication of net neutrality that has not yet been sufficiently addressed in the scholarly literature: …

More Speech: Preempting Privacy Tourism, Stephen Bates

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Many commentators have decried the phenomenon of "libel tourism," where a plaintiff brings a libel suit in a country that affords minimal protection to free expression, even though the defendant and the publication at issue have little connection to the country. In particular, London has often been called the libel capital of the worldfirst, because British libel law strongly favors plaintiffs; and second, because a British court will accept jurisdiction over a libel suit if only a few copies of the publication have circulated there. In 2010, the United States responded to the threat of libel tourism by enacting the …

The Better Angels Of Our Fanfiction: The Need For True And Logical Precedent, Stacey M. Lantagne

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Music sampling has become a well-respected form of art. So why isn't the same true of fanfiction, which follows similar parameters? Without the benefit of a true and well-reasoned legal precedent, fanfiction has existed in a gray area dominated by highly emotional arrguments. However, most of the emotional arguments offered against fanfiction actually support a finding that fanfiction is fair use. Authors would be better served by stripping the emotion from the discussion.

Legislative And Regulatory Strategies For Providing Consumer Safeguards In A Convergent Information And Communications Marketplace, Rob Frieden

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The Federal Communications Commission desires to apply a single regulatory category to services and service providers, a process the Commission can achieve when ventures concentrate on one function and offer one readily identifiable service, such as telephony. However, technological convergence, digitization and the ability of the Internet to handle many different service types within a single bitstream now make it possible for companies to offer "quadruple play" bundles of wireless and wireline telephony, video, and Internet access services. Following Comcast Corp. v. FCC, the FCC must rethink how to best serve the public interest and safeguard consumers. Absent a legislative …

The Parents Television Council Uncensored: An Inside Look At The Watchdog Of The Public Airwaves And The War On Indecency With Its President, Tim Winter, Clay Calvert, Robert D. Richards

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article addresses the Federal Communication Commission's ("FCC") controversial and contested regulation of indecency on the broadcast airwaves. It pivots on an exclusive in-person interview conducted by the authors in Los Angeles in June 2010 with Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council ("PTC"). The PTC is perhaps the most vociferous-and controversial-public watchdog on broadcast indecency, with its members filing thousands and thousands of indecency complaints with the FCC each year. The article is especially timely because, in July 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Fox Television Stations v. FCC declared the FCC's indecency …

File Sharing Is Dead! Long Live File Sharing! Recent Developments In The Law Of Secondary Liability For Copyright Infringement, Christian E. Mammen

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In the past several years, courts have issued a number of rulings on the issue of online service providers' secondary liability for copyright infringement in connection with online file sharing. Overall, it appears that the larger, more established providers who "play fair" with content owners tend to fare better than brasher, more rebellious providers. Is this correct because more rebellious providers are guiltier than the established ones? Or is there a double standard at play? Could the brash, rebellious "bad guys" ever win the protection of the safe harbor? It is difficult to make a direct apples-to-apples comparison, because each …

Is Your Furniture Spying On You?: Covert Use Of Gps In Advertising, Brandy Worden

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Advancements in technology have been paired with advertising. The result is personalized, but at times intrusive, advertising tactics. The Note uses an advertising campaign titled "The Real Good Experiment" ("the Experiment") as a case study to examine how advertising invades our personal spheres, and also how the legal framework should be fortified to protect consumer privacy.

The subjects of the Experiment brought furniture that had been seemingly abandoned into their homes only to later discover that the furniture had GPS devices hidden within them. The Note considers various categories of legal protection available when advertising invades consumer privacy. The Note …

Effective Reader Privacy For Electronic Books: A Proposal, Jennifer Elmore

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Historically, reader privacy has been heavily protected in the United States. Numerous library laws, bookstore laws, and Supreme Court opinions have affirmed and upheld reader privacy for traditional paper books. However, electronic readers and electronic books are becoming increasingly popular. These new devices are undoubtedly beneficial; however, with this new technology comes increased privacy concerns. The electronic format allows the reading and purchasing habits of consumers to be tracked in a way that was formerly impossible with traditional books. Electronic readers often track which books are purchased, which pages are read, and more. Additionally, the laws that apply to traditional …

All Your Face Are Belong To Us: Protecting Celebrity Images In Hyper-Realistic Video Games, Krista Correa

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

As the law is currently structured, there is no clear protection for a celebrity who is personally offended (but not financially harmed) by another party's use of that celebrity's image. This lack of clarity is particularly problematic today due to the hyperrealism of nextgeneration video games. This article begins with a review of the legal rights and remedies currently available to a celebrity whose face or image is used by a game developer without the celebrity's consent. Part II of the article considers whether the current regime provides sufficient protection, while Part III turns to other sources of law and …

The Ncaa And The Right Of Publicity: How The O'Bannon/Keller Case May Finally Level The Playing Field, Julia Brighton

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note explores the potential impact of litigation pending against the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA"), the national governing body that.oversees college sports. The NCAA and its licensing partners make enormous profits from the sale of collegiate-branded merchandise. College athletes, on the other hand, are prevented from making money from commercial use of their names and likenesses by the NCAA's strict rules regarding amateurism. Former collegiate stars Ed O'Bannon and Sam Keller have accused the NCAA of profiting beyond the bounds of fairness by securing for itself and its member universities the exclusive right to all of the proceeds from …

I Can Has Lawyer? The Conflict Between The Participatory Culture Of The Internet And The Legal Profession, Lucille A. Jewel

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The Internet allows citizens to comment on public affairs with an amplified and unfiltered voice, creating an open, community-based "participatory culture" where robust debate flourishes. However, many of the ideals and practices of participatory culture clash with the traditional legal culture as it exists in the United States. This cultural conflict can be seen in emerging narratives, in the form of web blogs and lawyer emails that go "viral," in which lawyers comment on the lack of humanism within big law firm hiring and firing practices; expose the alienating work environments experienced by low-level contract attorneys; or criticize judges who …

Cultural Losses And Cultural Gains: Ethical Dilemmas In Wwii-Looted Art Repatriation Claims Against Public Institutions, Erin L. Thompson

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Alongside their campaign of physically exterminating the Jewish population of Europe, the Nazis carried out a highly organized plan of cultural genocide which involved the confiscation or forced sale of hundreds of thousands of pieces of art. Although a sizable number of these works were returned to their owners or their heirs by the Allied forces after the war, many disappeared into the hands of private possessors. Many remain hidden in private collections, but a number of these artworks were given to or purchased by museums or other public institutions. In recent decades, the heirs of Holocaust victims have been …

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

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic 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 …

Political Satire And Political News: Entertaining, Accidentally Reporting Or Both? The Case Of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Tds), Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

For the last decade, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (TDS), a (Comedy Central) cable comedy show, has been increasingly seen as an informative, new, even revolutionary, form of journalism. A substantial body of literature appeared, adopting this view. On closer inspection, it became clear that this view was tenable only in specific circumstances. It assumed that the comedic structure of the show, TDS' primary text, promoted cognitive polysemy, a textual ambiguity which encouraged critical inquiry, and that TDS' audiences perceived it accordingly. As a result I analyzed, through a dual - encoding/decoding - analytical approach, whether TDS' comedic discourse …