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
This blog generally covers issues of intellectual property—one of the strengths of Garson, Segal, Steinmetz, Fladgate. But this week, we take a slight detour as the Supreme Court hears arguments in a really interesting question at the intersection of First Amendment and information law: Can Congress criminalize a lie?
In United States vs. Alvarez, the Court is considering the constitutionality...Read More
A battle is brewing in the media world. The protagonist is an established news organization, and the antagonist is an ambitious young Internet company. Oh wait, you’ve heard this one before?
As even casual observers of the media industry know, this is not exactly a novel type of conflict. Ever since the rise of the Internet, traditional television and newspaper outlets have scrambled to adapt....Read More
If you’re in the business of software creation and distribution, a current California case is worth paying attention to. In Adobe Systems Inc. v. Hoops Enterprise LLC, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held on February 1, 2012 that Adobe’s distribution of certain software to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) was a license, not a sale of the software. The...Read More
This Supreme Court term is filled with blockbuster cases. What is a “blockbuster” case, you might ask? It’s a case of such significance, where the conflicting interests are so clearly articulated and the outcome so uncertain, that the general public actually begins to pay attention. Sure, every case the High Court touches really matters. But certain cases really become part of the national...Read More
