On August 17, 2018, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied class action certification for the retired National Football League (NFL) players suing Electronic Arts for using their likelihood in their Madden NFL series videogames, and dismissed Electronic Arts’ summary judgement motion in the case Davis v. Electronic Arts, Inc. This decision follows a Ninth… read more
Spotify (SPOT), the music streaming service, is expected to begin trading on April 3. This IPO is one to watch by all fans of music, technology, and finance. What is Spotify? Spotify is a music, podcast and video streaming service from Stockholm, Sweden. It came to the United States in 2010 and has been booming ever since. Spotify… read more
Background Information In 1992, Congress passed PASPA amid concerns that the legalization of sports gambling at the State level would spread. This legislation prohibited most States from licensing sports gambling. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 3704 (1993). In 2012, the New Jersey State legislature enacted New Jersey’s Sports Wagering Law, permitting State authorities to license… read more
The fight for widespread legalization of sports betting in this country received a huge boost this past June when the Supreme Court, to the surprise of many and over the objection of the Solicitor General, agreed to hear New Jersey’s lawsuit. Murphy v. NCAA, formerly Christie v. NCAA, is set to be decided in the near future. The judges’ decision… read more
President Trump’s remarks that NFL owners should fire players who chose to kneel during the national anthem and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ statement that Jemele Hill’s tweets disparaging Trump were a “fireable offense” pose an important question: can a private-sector employee be fired based on his or her political speech? The simple answer is yes; an employer… read more
Fair use doctrine has been challenged and stretched by the technological leaps and bounds of recent years. In the recent Second Circuit case, Author’s Guild v. Google, the court grappled with the issue of whether Google Books snippets were fair uses of the copyrighted works. These determinations are far beyond the scope of what is contemplated by the Section 107… read more
The video game industry is a rapidly growing market. The rising prize pools of video game tournaments and the popularity of streaming personalities are just a couple of the signs of this growth. Game revenues are expected to hit $108.9 billion in 2017, an increase of nearly $8 billion from 2016. That is a near eight percent increase, with smartphone… read more
In August 2017, the District Court for the Southern District of New York enjoined Cleopatra Films from producing and distributing Street Survivor: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash. The film was going to tell the story of the 1977 airplane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines – two members of the iconic band… read more
Earlier this year, the Atlanta Braves opened SunTrust Park. The development was more than just a new baseball stadium, but also sparked the creation of a 60-acre complex called The Battery Atlanta. The Battery is a mixed-use facility which, when completed, will include a 50,000-square foot entertainment venue, a 16-floor Omni Hotel, a nine-story office tower, as well as numerous… read more
Over the past 27 years, the American taxpayer has paid more than two-thirds of the $21.7 billion spent towards financing stadiums and arenas of the four major professional sports. These contributions from state and local governments were not always the norm for stadium financing. Prior to 1953, the only stadiums that garnered public funding were those being used to attract… read more