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EU court: Web sites need not check for IP breaches
Legal Focuses |
2012/02/16 17:58
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A European Union court ruled Thursday that social networking sites cannot be compelled to install general filters to prevent the illegal trading of music and other copyrighted material.
The decision is a victory for operators of social networking sites in the EU, but a setback for those who seek to protect copyrighted material from being distributed without payment or permission.
It also comes as protests are growing in Europe against ACTA, the proposed international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is meant to protect intellectual property rights.
In Thursday's decision, the EU Court of Justice, which is based in Luxembourg, ruled that requiring general filters that would cover all the site's users would not sufficiently protect personal data or the freedom to receive and impart information.
SABAM, a Belgian company that represents authors, composers and music publishers, filed the lawsuit leading to Thursday's ruling. In it, the company objected to the practices of Netlog NV, a social networking site, saying users' profiles allowed protected works to be shared illegally.
Michael Gardner, head of the intellectual property practice at London law firm Wedlake Bell, called the ruling a further blow to copyright owners because it appears to rule out forcing operators of social network sites and Internet service providers — at their own expense — to impose blanket monitoring and filtering aimed at stopping infringements. |
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Federal court rules for Ohio festival free speech
Legal Focuses |
2012/02/13 18:21
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A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of two Christians who say their free speech rights were violated at a southwest Ohio corn festival.
A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel ruled unanimously Monday that a policy against solicitation at the annual Sweet Corn Festival was too broad, and unconstitutional. The panel reversed a federal judge's ruling.
The case stemmed from the summer 2009 festival in the Dayton suburb of Fairborn, Ohio. Plaintiffs Tracy Bays and Kerrigan Skelly planned to convey their religious beliefs among festival-goers, and Bays began walking through the park with a sandwich board sign with Christian messages. After encountering opposition from a festival worker and officials, they left.
They sued in 2010. The Christian legal aid group Alliance Defense Fund argued their appeal. |
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Student bra search case goes to NC Supreme Court
Legal Focuses |
2012/02/13 18:21
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The North Carolina Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether school officials should be allowed to search students' bras for drugs.
A student at an alternative school sued after students had to untuck their shirts and pull out their bras with their thumbs in front of two men in 2008. The searches were done after the principal at Brunswick County Academy received a tip that pills were being brought into the school.
An appeals court ruled last year the searches were "degrading, demeaning and highly intrusive."
The attorney general's office is representing the school. The office says no skin was shown during the search, and students who are assigned to an alternative school because of disciplinary problems have a lesser expectation of privacy than other students. |
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Experts: Marriage ban's path to high court unclear
Legal Focuses |
2012/02/08 17:43
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Conservative critics like to point out that the federal appeals court that just declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional has its decisions overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court more often than other judicial circuits, a record that could prove predictive if the high court agrees to review the gay marriage case on appeal.
Yet legal experts seemed to think the panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals struck down the voter-approved ban on Tuesday purposefully served up its 2-1 opinion in a narrow way and seasoned it with established holdings so the Supreme Court would be less tempted to bite.
The appeals court not only limited the scope of its decision to California, even though the 9th Circuit also has jurisdiction in eight other western states, but relied on the Supreme Court's own 1996 decision overturning a Colorado measure that outlawed discrimination protections for gay people to argue that the voter-approved Proposition 8 violated the civil rights of gay and lesbian Californians.
That approach makes it much less likely the high court would find it necessary to step in, as it might have if the 9th Circuit panel had concluded that any state laws or amendments limiting marriage to a man and a woman run afoul of the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal treatment, several analysts said. |
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Utah high court to hear posthumous benefits case
Legal Focuses |
2012/02/07 18:09
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Utah's Supreme Court is deciding whether a sperm donor contract is proof that a man wanted to be a father, even after his death.
The question stems from a dispute between Gayle Burns and the Social Security Administration, which denied survivor benefits to the son Burns conceived after her husband died from cancer.
Oral arguments are set Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
Michael Burns had contracted with medical providers to preserve his sperm before he died of cancer in 2001. Gayle Burns became pregnant in 2003.
Social Security denied a 2005 benefits petition, saying federal law doesn't allow for payments to posthumously-conceived children.
Gayle Burns challenged the ruling in Utah's federal court.
A federal judge asked Utah's Supreme Court to address the issue first. |
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