The Observer Scores One …ent | New York Observer
FREE SPEECH
The Observer Scores One for the First Amendment
By Ken Kurson | 05/19/14 10:34am
An important legal victory in support of a free press occurred in a Manhattan court on Thursday, made all the more delicious because the victor was the New York Observer.
Here’s what happened.
On December 11, 2012, the New York Post ran a story...Read More
The public seems to revel at the first hint of a wholesome star-type beginning to go supernova. It means column inches for the journos, renewed copyright opportunities for the paps, repetitive strain injury for the bloggers, declarations of undying love from diehard fans and blunt tweets from Seth Rogen.
The story is trite and hackneyed but like Hollywood, the tried and tested formulas not...Read More
“Pink, it’s my new obsession” sang Steve Tyler and also it seems it is for Victoria’s Secret. So blinded is Lesley Wexner’s VS with desire to own the mark “Pink” that they have forgotten the spanking Thomas Pink doled out last year in Ohio.
This battle has genuinely conflicted me, as a British lawyer, working in the States with a number of clients in...Read More
Over the last few years the dissipation of a person’s image has not only become ubiquitous but it has been embraced by many. The impact on privacy or publicity rights of the Instagram culture will be discussed in a series of articles over the course of the year, which will analyze the law as it currently stands in different jurisdictions to see if the legislatures are lagging behind.
In...Read More
For one of the first times in my life Beyoncé Knowles has shocked me. It has nothing to do with philosophical conundrums over how bootylicious she might or might not be or why her “Put A Ring On It” video gives me nightmares. She has revealed something new to me, something that I have not heard before and it is not buried in the dolphinesque melodies of one of her tracks but front...Read More
As one who firmly believes in the rights of all to espouse their views, the rights of others to ignore crazies and the obligation of everyone to be funny, I am slightly bemused about the public backlash over Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ.
For those who have not yet embraced A&E’s Duck Dynasty, Mr. Robertson and his family were plucked from media obscurity a couple of years...Read More
“Oh no Mr. Garson, that’s the English model!” Exclaims the judge, appalled at my suggestion that the losing party ought pay the legal fees and costs of my winning client. At that point, the ugly reality dawned that for many Americans, suing on baseless claims has only upside, defending spurious suits is not incentivized and the system is geared towards cost-benefit...Read More
News broke this morning that Rabbis Mendel Epstein and Martin Wolmark had been arrested following an FBI sting operation. It is alleged that they have been coercing Jewish divorces from recalcitrant husbands through the medium of violence for a fee.
This is one of those thorny issues that tears at the moral fabric of Judaism and brings into sharp focus the tension between modernity, rabbinic...Read More
England’s Football Association has decreed that those who chant the word “Yid” in any context are at risk of prosecution as the word is “derogatory and offensive,” “inappropriate in a football setting” and “is likely to be considered offensive by the reasonable observer”. As a result, “Use of the term in a public setting could amount to a criminal offence, and leave those fans liable to...Read More
Michael Steinmetz in Federal Court win on the basis Statute of Frauds.
Breach Action Dismissed; Oral Agreements Subject to Statute of Frauds, Unenforceable; U.S. – EDNY | CONTRACTS New York Law Journal July 10, 2013 Wednesday
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The words that precede practically every deposition are:
“Do you solemnly state that the testimony you will give in this deposition proceeding will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
If that statement or oath is to be upheld properly, a deponent (a person being deposed), should feel free to tell the truth without being vilified in the press and for taking the duty to...Read More
I remember it clearly, first night of Chanukah 2007, the major cuts to Very High Cost Cases were announced, and I arrived home in a funk to the welcoming news that my wife was pregnant with our first child. At that moment I knew that being the breadwinner as a criminal defense barrister (the wig wearing ones) at the Bar of England & Wales was going to be tough.
The next day I lamented to...Read More
If you count yourself amongst the one billion-plus monthly active users of social media juggernaut, Facebook, chances are you have seen your newsfeed inundated with a certain “declaration” as of late. For those not privy, this trend consists of users of the online community copying-and-pasting a short passage into their Facebook statuses in an attempt to secure dominion over the content of...Read More
On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law. The Act, which marks the biggest expansion of government power over banking and markets since the Great Depression, sets its aims at remedying the perceived regulatory holes that permitted the financial crisis of the early twenty-first century to have such far reaching and...Read More
Having grown up in a far off land I have always been slightly bemused by the furor and hype that surrounds US college sports. Maybe that’s because when I played rugby at university in the UK the only people that came to watch a match were the odd hopeful girl, two old men and a dog, which may have just been a stray. The culture behind college sports is a shining example of what matters...Read More
Any owner or developer will tell you that they want their project to be completed quickly, cheaply and to the highest quality. While this may sound good in theory, in the real world it is nothing more than fantasy.
Most people are familiar with the game “rock-paper-scissors” and the strategic conundrum it places players in – rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats rock. Owners...Read More
It is not difficult to feel old, from a legal perspective, as one can remember testing the bounds of fingerprinting, skin cell shedding, DNA profiles (and databases, of course) in court. One of the more recent battles has been the use and accuracy of cell site evidence which also has the added benefit of being able to use the word ‘azimuth’ in everyday conversation. However, the...Read More
While on a Sunday cruising down I-87, keeping abreast of developments in modern pop music, I was comparing by the track “We are Young” by Fun featuring Janelle Monáe to that of “What Makes You Beautiful” by the Cowellian outfit One Direction. Both, in their own way, fabulous pop songs, the latter being a decent, catchy summer tune that makes body dysmorphic teenage girls feeel that they have...Read More
Nothing is juicier than the squabbles of the elite. At least that would explain the recent national obsession with Downton Abbey. In keeping with that maxim, a squabble between luxury fashion designer Louis Vuitton (LV) and the University of Pennsylvania caught our eye this week.
It started when the Penn Intellectual Property Group—a student club—began to publicize its March 20, 2012 symposium...Read More
When you think of New York City icons, who pops to mind? Donald Trump. Fran Lebowitz. Jerry Seinfeld. Woody Allen. A whole list of creative, business and media stars are associated with the city.
New York being the legal capital of the world, you can bet that all of these celebrities are heavily invested in protecting their brands. Whether in the form of vigilant copyright enforcement or...Read More
