News & Media
Journalism Licensing Sounds Like a Good Idea… but….
By Marc Randazza. South Carolina’s house bill 4702 seeks to create “The South Carolina Responsible Journalism Registry.” The bill sounds like a pretty good idea. Lets face it, there are a lot of terrible journalists out there. A lot of hacks who don’t deserve the name. When Sabrina Erdely made up the Rolling Stone story about gang rapes at a
Beware of Good Intentions When it Comes to Censorship
By Marc Randazza. Censorship often comes along with a side order of good intentions — or at least that is in the marketing materials for the proposed censorship. You want a world without racism? Lets ban racist speech! But, the problem is that censorship almost always turns into a tool to seize or maintain a grip on power. (What We
MLK’s First Amendment Legacy
If I were to write about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s contribution to civil rights, I think I would be wasting my time. Far more qualified views are out there, especially today. However, I feel like it is worth mentioning that he had a part in a profound change in favor of Civil Liberties as well. I speak of nothing less
What’s got “The Slants” case, CUMFIESTA, Fuckingmachines, Nutsacks, and Japanese porn?
My latest law review article does! Randazza, Marc J., Freedom of Expression and Morality Based Impediments to the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (January 16, 2016). Nevada Law Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2016. When I did my LLM in International Intellectual Property in Italy, I had to write a thesis. What else would I write but a study of
MLK’s First Amendment Legacy
By Marc Randazza. If I were to write about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s contribution to civil rights, I think I would be wasting my time. Far more qualified views are out there, especially today. However, I feel like it is worth mentioning that he had a part in a profound change in favor of Civil Liberties as well. I speak
What’s got “The Slants” case, CUMFIESTA, Fuckingmachines, Nutsacks, and Japanese porn?
My latest law review article does! Randazza, Marc J., Freedom of Expression and Morality Based Impediments to the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (January 16, 2016). Nevada Law Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2016. When I did my LLM in International Intellectual Property in Italy, I had to write a thesis. What else would I write but a study of
Randazza on Morality and Intellectual Property Rights
If the title doesn’t grip you, it discusses “The Slants” case, CUMFIESTA, Fuckingmachines, SCREW YOU, Nutsacks, and Japanese porn. Marc J. Randazza, Freedom of Expression and Morality Based Impediments to the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, 16 NEV. L.J. 107. Use the link here to go to the paper on SSRN and please download it!
Netflix, Voi Siete Stronzi
Netflix announced that it is going to take action to prevent people from logging in through proxy servers. “In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are,” David Fullagar, Netflix’s VP of content delivery architecture, wrote in a blog post. “We are confident this change won’t
Netflix, Voi Siete Stronzi
Netflix announced that it is going to take action to prevent people from logging in through proxy servers. “In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are,” David Fullagar, Netflix’s VP of content delivery architecture, wrote in a blog post. “We are confident this change won’t
Charlie Hebdo, One Year On
It’s been just over a year since the Charlie Hebdo murders, and I thought it was time to do a little more than simply defy, although I do love that that was Ken’s way of commemorating the date. On January 7, 2015, a group of lowlives attacked the offices of a satirical magazine for no other reason than they disliked
Twitter Takes a Side in the Culture Wars – Lies About It
Twitter announced that in order to combat abuse and harassment on its increasingly unpopular online platform, that it would enact new rules and regulations that would hopefully get control of things. The stated mission was to cut down on loosely-defined “harassment.” But, what it seems to really be is yet another example of someone with a little bit of power
Charlie Hebdo, One Year On
It’s been just over a year since the Charlie Hebdo murders, and I thought it was time to do a little more than simply defy, although I do love that that was Ken’s way of commemorating the date. On January 7, 2015, a group of lowlives attacked the offices of a satirical magazine for no other reason than they disliked
Twitter Takes a Side in the Culture Wars – Lies About It
Twitter announced that in order to combat abuse and harassment on its increasingly unpopular online platform, that it would enact new rules and regulations that would hopefully get control of things. The stated mission was to cut down on loosely-defined “harassment.” But, what it seems to really be is yet another example of someone with a little bit of power
The Establishment Claus
by Jay Marshall Wolman Five years ago, Josh Blackman asked whether the NORAD tracking of St. Nick violated the Establishment Clause. After all, he is sort of a religious icon. I would suggest it doesn’t. This year, the Consumerist delved a bit more into the history. It seems that a kid was concerned about that right jolly old elf, and he asked CONAD
Free Speech and Discrimination Redux
by Jay Marshall Wolman Last week, I wrote about a potential implication from In re: Tam, based upon the hypothetical from a dissenting judge about a business calling itself “Spics Not Welcome”. There is a significant tension in the law between freedom of speech, which includes the right to offend, and anti-discrimination laws. The fine folks at the New York City
Lawyer Mind Tricks
by Jay Marshall Wolman, CIPP/US Like many of you, I saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. I’m a lawyer and had law-oriented thoughts. This post contains spoilers, so scroll past this image: and this one: OK, that should be far enough. Cyber Security. Star Wars exists in a galaxy where they have some form of holographic Skype/Facetime/etc. The
Randazza: In These Parts, Claiming that a Republican Supports Harry Reid is Defamation
As readers may know, I have a bit of a soft spot (or a hard on, depending on how you look at it) for the Nevada Anti-SLAPP statute. See The Silver State Sets the Gold Standard. We don’t get many cases interpreting it out here in Nevada, so we generally interpret it the way that the California courts would look
Gag Clause Act Passes Senate
The U.S. Senate recently passed their version of the “Consumer Review Freedom Act” (CRFA), which would bar companies from trying to enforce “gag clauses” in contracts with consumers. It’s a good law that is long overdue, since clauses like these have been showing up much more often lately and serving as the basis of breach of contract claims bundled with
Spics Not Welcome
by Jay Marshall Wolman By now, you have probably heard that Simon Tam won his case before the Federal Circuit regarding his attempt to register a trademark for his band “The Slants”. (Disclosure: Randazza Legal Group represented the First Amendment Lawyers’ Association as amicus curiae in that case and was recently co-counsel with Mr. Tam’s lawyers, Ron Coleman and Joel MacMull,
Gag Clause Act Passes Senate
The U.S. Senate recently passed their version of the “Consumer Review Freedom Act” (CRFA), which would bar companies from trying to enforce “gag clauses” in contracts with consumers. It’s a good law that is long overdue, since clauses like these have been showing up much more often lately and serving as the basis of breach of contract claims bundled with
