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Taylor Swift’s Battle with a Fantasy Theme Park over her new album "Evermore"

By Cynthia Ahmed – Edited by Nathan Truong
Evermore Park, a fantasy theme park built to immerse its customers in a “European hamlet of imagination”, opened its operations in Utah in 2018. Subsequently, in December 2020, Taylor Swift released an album titled Evermore. Although Swift’s album brought the artist success with sales of over 1 million copies during its first week of release and further established Swift as...
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Reports
Waiving IP Rights to Address Global Vaccine Inequality

By Justin Cho - Edited by William Locke
In light of the glaring disparity in COVID-19 vaccine supply between rich and poor countries, India and South Africa introduced a controversial proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October 2020. Backed by many developing countries with few or no vaccine doses, the proposal asks the WTO to allow member countries to waive intellectual property rights related to COVID-1...
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Reports
Eighth Circuit: State Law Forbidding Government Contractors from Boycotting Israel is Unconstitutional

By Amre Metwally — Edited by Aris Hadjipanteli
Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, No. 19-1378 (8th Cir. Feb. 12, 2021), opinion hosted by USCourts.gov. Anti-boycott laws are nothing new in the United States—roughly 27 states have already enacted restrictions that seek to minimize activities that boycott Israel. The content of the legislation varies by state, though the measures can include requiring government contractors to “certify” that they will...
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Reports First Amendment
Microsoft email hack affecting 30,000 still an active threat

By Mary Rhauline Torres — Edited by Savely Zakharenko
A hack of Microsoft (MS) Exchange email servers, used by government and business customers worldwide, is considered to still be an ongoing threat despite already affecting 250,000 organizations worldwide, including 30,000 in the U.S. alone. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center believes that Hafnium, a hacking group based out of China and purportedly sponsored by the Chinese government, is responsible for the...
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Cybersecurity Reports
Virginia’s New Consumer Data Protection Act: Will Others Follow?

By Lars Lindgren — Edited By Jessica I. Valenzuela Ramirez
Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act of 2021 (“VCDPA”) Va. Code Ann. § 52 The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) was signed into law on March 2, 2021 and will go into effect on January 1, 2023. With California passing the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) in 2018, Virginia became the second state to enact comprehensive privacy legislation. State Senator...
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Reports Privacy
FTC v. Facebook: Social Media Giant Sued for Anticompetitive Conduct

By Brent Mobbs — Edited by Alex Maged
FTC v. Facebook, Inc., File No. 1910134 (FTC Dec. 9, 2020). [Complaint] FTC Sues Facebook The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has sued Facebook for anticompetitive conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits improper monopolization of a market. In support of this claim, the FTC cites Facebook’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram, its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp, its API...
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Antitrust Reports
Covid-19 and the Online Courtroom: Benefits and Drawbacks

By Carolina Rabinowicz – Edited by Pablo A. Lozano
Less than a year ago, the prospect of widespread online trials seemed eons away. However, after nine months of a pandemic-induced global shutdown, it seems that the sci-fi scenario of online courtrooms has become today’s brave new reality: Many countries have moved courtrooms online to avoid fully abridging access to justice during the pandemic. After the first Zoom-only criminal jury...
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Reports
Woodring v. Jackson County, Indiana: Seventh Circuit Permits Nativity Scene on Government Property

By Mariah Bellamoroso – Edited by Caleb Kim
Woodring v. Jackson County, Indiana, No. 4:18-cv-00243 (7th Cir. Feb. 2, 2021), opinion hosted by USCourts.gov. Earlier this month, a divided Seventh Circuit panel held that a county courthouse’s annual nativity display did not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, rejecting the Supreme Court’s three-part test from Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) in favor of the “historical practices” rule the Supreme...
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Reports First Amendment
Hartford Courant Company v. Carroll: The Second Circuit Finds Categorical Sealing of all Juvenile Criminal Cases Unconstitutional

By Anne Lonowski — Edited by Pablo A. Lozano
Hartford Courant Company v. Carroll, No. 20 2744-cv (February 1, 2021) On February 1st, in Hartford Courant Company v. Carroll, the Second Circuit struck down a Connecticut law regarding access to juvenile prosecution records for infringing upon First Amendment rights. Connecticut enacted Public Act Number 19-187 (the “Act”) in 2019, which significantly reduced public and press access to information surrounding...
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Reports First Amendment
Bad Blood© with Taylor Swift’s Album Re-recording

By Anthony Pericolo — Edited by Helen He
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that someone other than Taylor Swift owns Taylor Swift’s songs. But it’s true and poses a hurdle as Swift commits to re-recording her own songs. This delicate situation has led to some bad blood between Swift and Scooter Braun, who owns the rights to the master recordings of Swift’s older music...
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Copyright Reports