Tuesday, October 8, 2013, by Matthew Spangler Abstract On August 9, 2013, the President signed into law the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013, intended by the House to “facilitate[] the development of new hydropower resources in the United States by streamlining the federal licensing requirements for small hydropower projects and qualifying conduit hydropower facilities.” …
Thursday, October 3, 2013, by Benjamin Szany If you follow @Queen_UK, @notzuckerberg, or @FauxJohnMadden on the popular social media website Twitter, take comfort in a ruling from the Oregon District Court which protected users of those parody accounts from litigation under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 USC § 1030). In an opinion …
Thursday, October 3, 2013, by Nicholas Turza That the President frequently employs drone strikes against national security threats – mainly Al-Qaeda and their ilk in hiding spots such as Pakistan and Yemen – is certainly no secret. But the legal authority under which those operations is, literally, the code of secrets. Rather than operating under …
Thursday, October 3, 2013, by Catherine Perez The O’Bannon vs NCAA, EA Sports, and CLC lawsuit has been the hot topic of NCAA advocacy for months. Although originally filed in 2009, the suit took a significant turn in July when the District Court of Northern California rejected EA Sports’ proposed First Amendment defense. This left …
Tuesday, October 1, 2013, by Amelia Serrat On August 28, 2013, the Sixth Circuit affirmed that a Tennessee hotel’s claim against TripAdvisor for placing the hotel at the top of the site’s annual “Dirtiest Hotels” list is not actionable. Grand Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee brought suit against TripAdvisor for defamation …
Tuesday, October 1, 2013, by Daniel Parisi A tornado of patent reform proposals are currently being considered in Congress which pose risks of premature action and dangerous infringement on traditional judicial authority. Congress should take its time and not get swept away. In a keynote speech on September 17, 2013, Honorable Federal Circuit Judge O’Malley …
Thursday, September 26, 2013, by Kelly Morris Last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals announced that “liking” a page on Facebook constitutes an expression of free speech and is entitled to constitutional protection. The case, Bland v. Roberts, arose out of an employment dispute. In 2009, Sheriff B.J. Roberts was up for reelection in …
Thursday, September 26, 2013, by Ryan Niland Regulators in New York announced a settlement this week with more than a dozen companies it accuses of posting false and misleading customer reviews online. The settlement, reported to be worth over $350,000, is the culmination of a yearlong investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office called …
Thursday, September 26, 2013, by Britton Lewis In recent months, Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware have legalized and begun regulating online gambling, although any attempt at reaching a federal consensus has stalled among the legislature. The legality and credibility of online gambling has been, at best, ambiguous since 2011 when the Department of Justice indicted …
Tuesday, September 24, 2013, by Timothy McKeever In March, a post on this blog reported on the story of Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed, who, at that time, had created a fully functional lower receiver for an AR-15 assault rifle using a 3-D printer. That article discussed the possible need for new regulation to address …
