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Suspended Boston Cop Sues City
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/06 16:22
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Courthouse News reports that a Boston police officer who called Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in an email he sent to a Boston Globe columnist says the city and its police commissioner violated his rights by suspending him. Justin Barrett sued the city in Federal Court.
Barrett claims he was "off duty from the Boston Police Department, at a private home and using a privately owned computer" when he sent the email.
Police Commissioner Edward Davis suspended Barrett with pay and sent officers to Barrett's home to confiscate his badge and gun.
Barrett says the mayor and police commissioner caused him pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, sleeplessness, indignities and embarrassment, degradation, injury to reputation, and restrictions on personal freedom.
He wants them enjoined from decreasing, terminating, or withholding any wages or benefits for the duration of the litigation. He also seeks attorney's fees and punitive damages. |
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11-Word Press Snippets Might Violate Copyright
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/30 16:17
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According to Courthouse News, a Danish press-clipping company could be violating copyright by printing out 11-word snippets of news articles, the European Court of Justice ruled.
The Luxembourg-based court remanded the issue to Denmark for a determination on whether the snippets comprise intellectual property.
Media monitoring services company Infopaq International challenged the Danske Dagblades Forening, an association of Danish daily newspapers, over a requirement for permission to distribute 11-word extracts of news stories.
Legal framework for the permission requirement includes the 1979 Berne Convention, the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as administered by the World Trade Organization, and European directives from 1996 and 2001 meant to govern electronic information and protect "European cultural creativity."
Infopaq argued that its process of scanning news articles, converting the data to text and emailing its customers summaries containing the five words before and after a keyword comprise fleeting use that's exempt from the permission requirements. Infopaq also prints out cover sheets with the text snippets.
The Court of Justice said it is up to the national court to determine whether the snippets comprise intellectual property. |
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Sotomayor Running Out Of Potential GOP Support
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/28 16:52
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According to The National Law Journal, the chances are dwindling that a substantial number of Republicans will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, after a key GOP senator announced his opposition Monday morning.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ended months of public indecision when he announced he would vote against confirmation, eliminating one of the last, best chances Sotomayor had of winning over prominent conservatives. Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had previously said he had concerns about her nomination but had stopped short of saying he would oppose her.
The announcement means the vote on whether to confirm Sotomayor will likely stick close to the partisan divide, continuing the trend of polarization on judicial nominations.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Sotomayor's nomination today, and only one Republican member -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C. -- out of the seven on the committee has said he plans to support her. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination next week after as many as four days of debate, and five Republicans have pledged their support. |
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Lawyer Says LexisNexis Charges Sneaky Fees
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/24 16:11
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Courthouse News reports that Reed Elsevier, which owns and operates the LesixNexis legal research site, charges subscribers extra fees for searches without warning them, an attorney claims in a federal class action. Andrew Dieden claims subscribers are not informed they must click the "My Lexis" tab before conducting a search, to avoid the extra charges.
Dieden says he logged on to LexisNexis believing his employment law searches were covered under his monthly subscription. But his credit card statements showed extra fees "that turned out to exceed many times the amount" of his subscription, simply because he did not click on the "My Lexis" tab before he began his searches, he says.
Dieden says a LexisNexis representative told him it might be able to reduce or eliminate the additional charges if he agreed to change from a monthly to an annual subscription. When he declined, he says, the company refused to drop the charges.
He seeks actual, statutory and general damages for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. |
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Student Athletes Sue NCAA For Profits From Their Images
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/23 17:31
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Courthouse News is reporting that the National Collegiate Athletic Association forced thousands of student athletes to sign away rights to their own images and cheated them of a share in the profits from DVD and video game sales, according to an antitrust class action in Federal Court. Led by former UCLA basketball star Edward O'Bannon, the class claims the NCAA forced students to sign the misleading "Form 08-3a" if they wish to play NCAA sports, which "commercially exploits former student athletes" by giving the NCAA the right to profit from their images without compensation, long after the athletes have left school.
The attorney for Edward O'Bannon, Jon King, believes athletes sign under duress and forms are not explained adequately.
"The athletes are herded into a room and given forms to sign. No one explains anything, there are no lawyers and no one has any idea what's going on. But they sign because they just want to play ball," he said.
The NCAA has acknowledged that student athletes possess a right of publicity. In a September 2008 statement on why the NCAA would not sue CBS over its use of college player information, NCAA President Myles Brand wrote, "In the case of intercollegiate athletics, the right of publicity is held by student-athletes, not the NCAA. We would find it difficult to bring suit over the abuse of a right we don't own."
King believes the NCAA did not expect old players to take action against this statement.
The complaint seeks health insurance for players as well as "additional education or vocational training and pension plans to benefit former student athletes." |
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Mexican TV Can't Be Shown On US Internet
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/22 16:08
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According to Courthouse News, two major Spanish-language television networks battling over Internet broadcast rights in the United States ended their dispute when a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the contract between Univision and Televisa prohibited Internet broadcasts of shows aired in Mexico.
The dispute between Televisa and Univision came when Televisa began airing its shows on the Internet. Univision said that violated the licensing agreement.
US District Judge Philip Gutiererez agreed, ruling that Televisa's interpretation of the licensing agreement would render an absurd result because the parties were so careful to spell out what Televisa was and was not permitted to do. |
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One More Week For Sotomayor Vote
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/21 17:10
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The National Law Journal reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee has delayed today's vote on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
The delay was expected as Republicans exercise their right for a one-week delay, commonly used by the minority party when voting on controversial issues. The vote will now take place July 28 where Sotomayor is expected to receive the nomination.
Democrats are anxious to vote, so that Sotomayor will be one step closer to filling her seat. The court has a finance case on Sept. 9 and the sooner she is confirmed, the more time she will have to prepare.
"We all know that Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed," Leahy said. "I hope that, when she is passed out of this committee, that there will be no delay on the floor because she will have a very, very few weeks after confirmation to move to Washington, set up her law clerks, set up her office, and prepare for a major, major case." |
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