2012

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Is Super Bowl Protected by Trademark or Copyright Law? Try Both.

Broadcast Law Blog

One of the questions we commonly get from broadcasters and others around this time of year is whether and/or how they can use the term SUPER BOWL. Some refer to it as a trademark while others call it a copyright. Who is right.and how can it be used? The term SUPER BOWL is a registered trademark owned by the National Football League. We previously discussed this issue in 2009 , 2010 and 2011.

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What Paralegals Should Know

The Paralegal Resource

What is defined as a paralegal? Are they legal secretaries or something more? There are many community colleges that offer degrees to someone as a paralegal. Typically, it can be an associate's degree or a post-bachelor degree. That said, what more is important for such a person to excel?

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RGGI Program Review Should Lower Carbon Cap, According to Panel

ClimateChange-ClimateLaw

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has benefited the economy of participating states but achieved only modest reductions in greenhouse gas reductions, according to a panel of energy experts convened at Columbia Law School last night. To achieve greater reductions, RGGI should adopt a stricter carbon cap at its three-year program review. “By just about any measure, RGGI has been a success,” said Jared Snyder, Assistant Commissioner for Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy, New Yor

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Family Law Attorneys Reap Benefits With The Family Law Assistant

LexBlog

Modern technology continues to improve the life of attorneys, paralegals and legal secretaries throughout the United States. The Legal Assistant is one of the companies participating in this technological change. The Legal Assistant has added recently their newest product, The Family Law Assistant (TFLA). TFLA provides to family attorneys a simple and yet profound case management system to improve law office management, efficiency, quality of work, and help provide peace of mind to the family la

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Transforming eDiscovery: Document Summarization, Sentiment Analysis, And Chatbots Take Center Stage

A Synergistic Approach to eDiscovery In the space of eDiscovery, the convergence of document summarization, sentiment analysis, and chatbots represents a significant change in how legal professionals navigate and manage electronic information. These technologies not only expedite the review process but also empower legal teams with deeper insights into the emotional context and key information within electronic documents.

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DOJ Lays Down the Law on Criminal E-Discovery Protocols

ABC's of E-Discovery

Criminal e-discovery? I've never thought about that! Here's a good place to start, with great thanks to www.law.

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Details of the ASCAP Settlement with the Radio Industry - What Will Your Station Pay?

Broadcast Law Blog

ASCAP and the Radio Music Licensing Committee have reached a settlement on the amount that radio stations will pay to ASCAP for the use of music for the period through the end of 2016. The agreement was approved last week by the US District Court in the Southern District of New York acting as a “rate court” to consider those fees. We reported that a settlement had been reached in early December, and now we’ve seen the actual documents and can provide some details of this agreem

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April Fools Gags on Air? Play It Safe, and Remember the FCC's Hoax Rule

Broadcast Law Blog

With April Fool's Day only a few days away, we need to repeat our annual reminder that broadcasters need to be careful with any on-air pranks, jokes or other jokes prepared especially for the day. While a little fun is OK, remember that the FCC does have a rule against on-air hoaxes - and, of any day in the year, April 1 is the day that the broadcaster is most at risk.

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Constitutionality of Copyright Royalty Board Argued Before the US Court of Appeals - How Will It Affect Future Music Royalty Rate-Setting?

Broadcast Law Blog

The Copyright Royalty Board makes many important decisions, yet for the last several years, there has been a cloud over its operations, as there have been questions as to whether its members were constitutionally appointed (see our articles here , here and here ). Well, the question is before the Courts again – this time squarely in front of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia – a Court one step below the Supreme Court.

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Court of Appeals Strikes Down Communications Act Ban on Political and Issue Advertising on Noncommercial Broadcasting Stations - Analyzing the Issues

Broadcast Law Blog

The Communications Act's ban on noncommercial broadcast stations running political and issue advertising was struck down as unconstitutional by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While the Court upheld the prohibition on commercial advertising for products and services, the majority of the Court felt that the ban on political advertising could not be justified.

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Recipe for a Failed CLM Implementation

Selecting and implementing CLM technology can be daunting, leading to underutilization or abandonment. Factors like provider differentiation, inadequate planning, and lack of user training contribute to these failures. Recognizing these pitfalls is crucial for successful adoption, ensuring organizations harness the full potential of CLM for streamlined contract management.

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Librarian of Congress Appoints New Chief Judge of Copyright Royalty Board

Broadcast Law Blog

The Librarian of Congress today announced the appointment of a new Chief Judge for the Copyright Royalty Board. The new Chief Judge will be Suzanne Barnett, a superior court judge of King County in Seattle, Washington. This is the first new judge on the three-judge CRB since the judges were first appointed in January 2006, soon after Congress first created the CRB.

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Monitor Required Tower Lighting - FCC Proposes $17,000 Fine for Violations

Broadcast Law Blog

Communications towers that are not lit as required often bring big fines from the FCC. In two decisions released today, the Commission followed that precedent. In one case, the FCC proposed a fine of $17,000 to a tower owner after repeated promises to fix lights that were out did not result in any resolution of the issue after 2 years (problems which, according to the FCC decision, were first brought to the tower owner's attention by the FCC).

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FCC and Public Interest Groups Demand Copies of TV Stations' Public Inspection Files, As FCC Nears Decision About Requiring That The Complete File Be Posted Online

Broadcast Law Blog

While rumors are flying that the FCC is rushing to adopt its proposals to require that TV stations put their public inspection files online (see our summary of the proposals here ), both the FCC and public interest groups are targeting the public files of television stations - looking to copy some or all of those files. Rumors are that the FCC inspected the public files of all television stations in Baltimore - and asked for copies of the complete files to be produced at the FCC within a day or

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Sirius XM Brings Law Suit Against SoundExchange Alleging Collusion to Stop Direct Licensing of Music - Impact on Royalties?

Broadcast Law Blog

SiriusXM announced that is has filed a legal action, including antitrust claims, against SoundExchange and A2IM (the American Association of Independent Music - the association of independent record labels), charging, according to a press release, these two organizations "with unlawfully interfering in SiriusXM's efforts to secure, through a competitive market, copyrights critical to its business.

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Contract Lifecycle Management: A Business Enabler Exploring On-Ground Challenges

CLM tools have always strived to push contract management into the digital age for almost 30 years. But the complexities of digitising a legal document are numerous. The current scenarios in business development have shown that having a fully automated CLM has become a mandate for every law firm and in-house legal department. To determine if you need a CLM system, it's essential to clearly identify the on-ground business challenges you aim to solve.

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Comment Deadline of March 5 Established on FCC Proposals for Reform of Multiple Ownership Rules

Broadcast Law Blog

The FCC' Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in its Quadrennial Review of the Multiple Ownership Rules was published in the Federal Register today , setting the deadline of March 5 for initial comments in that proceeding. Reply comments are due on April 3. We summarized the FCC's tentative conclusions on changes to the ownership rules when the Commission first released its NPRM in late December.

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Does $10,000 Fine Make Sense for Small College Radio Station Missing Public File Documents?

Broadcast Law Blog

The FCC has once again proposed a $10,000 fine against a college radio station missing quarterly issues/program lists in the public inpsection file. This time, the culprit is Rollins College , a small liberal arts college in Florida with 1700 students. We know that $10,000 is the "base forfeiture" for failure to maintain a complete public inspection file, and this is not the first time the FCC has proposed this fine for a college radio station.

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Pirates, Pirates Everywhere - Fines Up to $25,000 for Unlicensed Radio Stations

Broadcast Law Blog

For an industry that some say is about to be made obsolete because of its digital competition, there are still many people who want a piece of the FM spectrum. We've written much about the contest between LPFM and translator proponents seeking their piece of FM spectrum - a contest that we should see resolved by the FCC in the very near future. One topic that we have not written much about is " pirate radio ," stations that operate illegally - without FCC authority.

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It's Official: Online Posting of TV Public File Required Beginning August 2nd; FCC Schedules More Demos of System

Broadcast Law Blog

On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit followed the FCC's lead in denying the NAB's request for stay of the requirement for TV stations to post their public inspection files online. Accordingly, that rule goes into effect on Thursday, August 2, 2012. Effective that date, TV stations should post all new public file documents online in the FCC database created for this purpose.

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California Civil Discovery Act Undergoes Significant Overhaul

Short article looking at the new CCP 2016.

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Supreme Court Declines Review of Janet Jackson "Wardrobe Malfunction" and Multiple Ownership Rules

Broadcast Law Blog

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari (i.e. declined review) in two important FCC-related cases pending before it. First, following the Court's recent decision in the Fox indecency case, which we described here , the Court not surprisingly refused to review the Third Circuit's decision vacating the $550,000 FCC fine for the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" in the 2004 Super Bowl shown on CBS.

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FCC Moving Toward the Auction of TV Spectrum for Wireless - More Class A Stations To Lose Protection and No Full Power Move-Ins to Major Markets

Broadcast Law Blog

While the FCC has not yet started a proceeding to set rules for the auction of television spectrum for broadband purposes, the Commission is taking steps to clear the spectrum in other ways. Two weeks ago, we wrote about the FCC's actions proposing to remove the Class A designation from certain LPTV stations that had not met their children's television obligations.

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Effective Dates for FCC Rules Requiring Captioning of Online Video Announced

Broadcast Law Blog

We recently wrote about the FCC's new rules requiring the captioning of television video retransmitted on the Internet. Those rules have now been published in the Federal Register, which sets the effective dates for the implementation of those rules. The rules become effective on April 30, which means that any video that is broadcast on TV on or after that date, that has captions when broadcast, must also have such captions when transmitted online at any time after September 30 (giving parties s

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New FCC Rules Regarding Broadcast and Communications Towers; Further Steps Taken to Protect Migratory Birds

Broadcast Law Blog

With the recent publication in the Federal Register, several new Commission rules and policies regarding communications towers and migratory birds are now on the books, however, they are not yet effective as the collection of information still requires OMB approval. The Commission's new rules are an outgrowth of a decision from the Court of Appeals in 2008 in which the court found the FCC's tower registration procedures to be inadequate.

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Dangers of Digital "Reporting": Legal Risks and Unreliable Transcripts

In the world of legal proceedings, the choice between a certified stenographer and digital "reporting" holds significant implications. Certified stenographers go through rigorous training and testing and stand as the gold standard for accuracy in capturing every word. Their expertise ensures a reliable record, a crucial foundation for legal cases.

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$22,000 FCC Fine for Failure to Broadcast All Material Rules for a Station Online Contest

Broadcast Law Blog

The FCC released a Notice of Apparent Liability proposing a $22,000 fine for a contest to win a car conducted by a cluster of five stations. The contest (the award of a car to the entrant who produced the best commercial for the car, as voted on by website users) was conducted principally through the stations' websites. But the stations did promote the fact that the contest was being conducted on the air.

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FCC Releases Final Rules on Closed Captioning for IP-Delivered Video Programming

Broadcast Law Blog

This afternoon, the FCC released its long-anticipated Report and Order (R&O) setting forth the Commission’s new closed captioning rules for IP-delivered video programming, pursuant to the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). As we explained when the rules were first proposed in September, the CVAA directed the FCC to establish how and when certain IP-delivered video programming must be captioned, as well as the closed captioning capabilities for devices used

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Copyright Royalty Board Starts Proceeding to Set Royalty Rates for Background Music Services - Reminder to Webcasters To Start Thinking of the Next Royalty Case

Broadcast Law Blog

The Copyright Royalty Board has just announced that it is accepting petitions to participate in the next proceeding to set the royalty rates to be paid for the ephemeral copies made by " business establishment services " in connection with any digital transmission of sound recordings. Business establishment services are essentially background music services who provide music to businesses to be played in stores, restaurants, elevators, and other establishments.

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What is the RMLC, And Why Should a Radio Station Pay Their Bill?

Broadcast Law Blog

Radio broadcasters have been receiving invoices from the Radio Music License Committee (“RMLC”), and many are asking whether the invoice is “real.” Some stations seem concerned that they are being asked to pay some fee that they really don’t owe. The truth is that this is one bill that most commercial stations in fact do owe, and it is a bill that they should actually be happy to pay.

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Optimizing Contract Management and Enhancing Team Collaboration: Insights from a Legal Operations Perspective

Speaker: Adina Marta Newman

Learn about a world of effective contract management and seamless teamwork across departments in this upcoming webinar from Cobblestone Software. You'll discover practical strategies and tips that legal professionals can use to streamline contract processes and enhance collaboration, making significant impact across legal and corporate departments. Join us as we show how you can supercharge contract processes, improve team communication, and take your contributions to the next level.