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The end of the Paramount antitrust rules signals an opportunity for new vertical integration

The end of the Paramount antitrust rules signals an opportunity for new vertical integration

A federal judge has approved an end the Paramount Consent Decrees which prohibited the Golden Age Movie Studios from a number of anti-competitive practices, including block booking and blind bidding. The consent decrees also stopped those movie studios from owning theatrical exhibitors.

U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres provided an example of the modern movie business in her decision:

Moti…

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German Surveillance Program Declared Unconstitutional by the German Constitutional Court

German Surveillance Program Declared Unconstitutional and extends fundamental rights of freedom from German surveillance to all foreigners.

Court extends fundamental rights of freedom from German surveillance to all foreigners across the globe, forcing BND to scrap telecommunications surveillance strategies

In 2016, German lawmakers approved a highly controversial espionage law that effectively authorized unlimited surveillance on non-Germans. At the time, the law was widely criticized. “The most controversial section of the law is a…

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US-UK Agreement under the CLOUD Act to Take Effect this Summer

US-UK Agreement under the CLOUD Act to Take Effect this Summer

In March 2018, the US Congress passed an amendment to the Stored Communications Act (SCA)[1] and Wiretap Act[2] in an attempt to facilitate access to electronic data stored outside the US in criminal investigations. Known as the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act,[3]this legislation endeavours to more quickly resolve conflicting legal obligations of companies faced with a request…

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Building a More Equitable Gig Economy by Ending Hour Discrimination

Building a More Equitable Gig Economy by Ending Hour Discrimination

Expanding employer contributions to health insurance for gig workers and part-time employers improves the health of the public and economy

Through the bipartisan effort in Congress, gig workers were able to receive stimulus funds. The need to assist part-time and gig workers during the pandemic, however, merely highlights the same need to address the inequities that exist among categories of…

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Trademark policy dispute to set a first in the Supreme Court with broadcast of live argument

Trademark policy dispute to set a first in the Supreme Court with broadcast of live argument

CSPAN will broadcast oral argument live on May 4th.

As CSPAN explains, “the Supreme Court for the first time in history hears oral argument via teleconference. The case concerns a popular travel reservation company’s fight to trademark its website, booking.com.

The Supreme Court has refused to allow cameras in the courtroom, rejecting CSPAN’srequest since to open the high court to public…

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The EU’s Goals for Artificial Intelligence Legislation

The EU’s Goals for Artificial Intelligence Legislation

In February, the European Commission released a White Paper entitled,“On Artificial Intelligence – A European Approach to Excellence and Trust,” in support of the European Commission (EC) five-year strategy for EU technology policy. Presented by EC President Ursula von der Leyen in support of her goal of “tech sovereignty” for the EU,[1] the White Paper was released in conjunction with “A…

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CJEU to Address EU-US Data Protection in Schrems II

CJEU to Address EU-US Data Protection in Schrems II

Guest Post by Susan Stephan

Within the next several weeks, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is expected to rule on the validity of the current data transfer processes for personal data flowing across the EU border from companies within the EU. In Data Protection Commission v. Facebook Ireland Limited, Maximillian Schrems (C-113/18) the CJEU will for the second time in five…

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Waking the FTC to the Messaging Monopoly

Waking the FTC to the Messaging Monopoly

Campaign trails converge with economic realities to recognize the need to manage mega-mergers

As reported by the New York Times, the FTC has been making initial efforts to enjoin the marketing and social media firm Facebook from technically integratingthe communications platforms it acquired through merger, enabling regulators or Congress an opportunity to revisit the appropriateness of these…

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The Time May have come to Flee Google

The Time May have come to Flee Google

News continues to emerge from Mountain View regarding the increasingly predatory and paranoid behavior of the company that once touted its corporate motto as “don’t be evil.” A combination of November’s corporate takeovers and internal management decisions has veered so far to the dark side that consumers should be wary of using even the basic services.

Where to start?

 This week, Alphabet…

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NCAA Reverses Course and Agrees to Let Student Athletes Commercialize their Identity

NCAA Reverses Course and Agrees to Let Student Athletes Commercialize their Identity

In a change that started with a dispute over EA Sports collegiate video games, the NCAA Board of Governorsyesterday voted unanimously “to permit students participating in athletics the opportunity to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.” There is a caveat in the new policy that the exploitation by the athletes of their identity must be done “in a manner consistent with the…

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Time for an Antitrust Policy in the Public Interest of Competition, Diversity, and Localism

Time for an Antitrust Policy in the Public Interest of Competition, Diversity, and Localism

In the October 26, 2019 Copyright and Technology Blog, Bill Rosenblatt offers a very thoughtful and helpful discussion of the expanding conflict between the six major publishers and the U.S. public library system. This conflict is extremely troubling because it presages a growing divide between free, publicly available content and content protected behind rapidly expanding paywalls.

This…

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Deepfake Fund Highlights the Fallaciousness of Online Content

Deepfake Fund Highlights the Fallaciousness of Online Content

On September 26, 2019, Google joined efforts by Facebook, Microsoft, and a consortium of universities to develop research needed to identify and eventually purge the Internet from “deepfakes.” As the Economistsummarized, “events captured in realistic-looking or -sounding video and audio recordings need never have happened. They can instead be generated automatically, by powerful computers and…

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Google Wins in Europe over Right to Be Forgotten

Google Wins in Europe over Right to Be Forgotten

EC Court of Justice applies territoriality to protect access to information outside Europe

In a pair of crucial judicial decisions, the European Commission Court of Justice on September 24, 2019 pulled the EU’s approach to information away from trying to enforce a global standard.

The two cases, C-507/17, Google (Portee territoriale du dereferencement) and C-136/17, G. C. e.a.…

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Kona Coffee Class Action Heats Up

Kona Coffee Class Action Heats Up

Producers are Using Chemical Fingerprint to Distinguish Magic Beans from the Ordinary Pits

A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of Hawaii’s Kona coffee bean farmers is making its way through the courts. The suit alleges that the coffee sold in the nation’s largest retailers – Walmart, Costco, Amazon, Safeway, and Kroger – is often mislabeled, using the name “Kona” to sell inferior beans…

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Berger Boot Camp Reaches more than 250 Entrepreneurs

Berger Boot Camp Reaches more than 250 Entrepreneurs

Through a partnership with the Shepard Broad College of Law and the Sharon and Mitchell W. Berger Entrepreneur Law Clinic has hosted the second annual Sharon and Mitchell W. Berger Entrepreneur Bootcamp.

This free program is designed to immerse entrepreneurs in the skills and disciplines needed to successfully launch a start-up business, with a focus on those companies built on intellectual…

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When Good Algorithms Go Bad: Implicit Bias by the Numbers

When Good Algorithms Go Bad: Implicit Bias by the Numbers

A recent paper on algorithm bias in hiring, “Closing the GAP: Group-Aware Parallelization for Online Selection of Candidates with Biased Evaluation,” by Jad Salem and Swati Gupta at Georgia Tech, highlighted an approach to address structural bias that is built into the use of computer-mediated hiring processes.

Before addressing the problem, it is important to contextualize the issue of hiring…

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YouTube Receives Trivial Fine for Violating COPPA

YouTube Receives Trivial Fine for Violating COPPA

The FTC has claimed success with a $170 million fine against YouTube for its latest abuse of the public trust. “The settlement requires Google and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York for allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act(COPPA) Rule. The $136 million penalty is by far the largest amount the FTC has ever obtained in a COPPA case…

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