Everyone’s seen them. With the massive success of Epic Games’ Fortnite, the free-to-play battle royale video game, many of the in-game dances have gained mainstream notoriety among the younger generations. In the game, players can unlock different dances, or “emotes,” for their characters either by completing various objectives within the game or by paying a fee ranging from $5 to… read more
The success and mass cultural appeal of Netflix’s Stranger Things is in part due to the way in which it incorporates familiar story tropes and cinematic techniques to create a show that feels simultaneously fresh and nostalgic. While the influence of cultural giants like Steven Spielberg and Stephen King is obvious, at least one man feels that the show’s creators,… read more
The Preamble: The WGA on Possessive Credits The Writers Guild of America’s 2017 Theatrical and Television Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) begins with a preamble focusing on an oddly specific topic: “Possessive Credits.” The agreement as a whole is sprawling and broad, and clocks in at nearly 700 pages. This places it somewhere between Crime and Punishment and War and Peace… read more
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