Overlawyered » movies film and videos

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:03 +0000

On party-line vote, Sacramento Dems turn down bill to curb ADA access shakedown suits [ATRF, KABC, Sacramento Bee (auto-plays video ad)]
Illinois sues local schools for not developing standards for disabled athletic competition [Chicago Tribune]
Open secret: criminals exploit federally mandated IP Relay disabled-phone system [Henderson]
Judge certifies nationwide ADA accessibility suit against Hollister over stepped entrances to its stores [Law Week Colorado via Disability Law]
In settlement, AMC movie chain agrees to install captioning, audio-description at Illinois theaters [ABC Chicago]
“Has the Expanded Definition of Disability under the ADAA Gone Too Far?” [Russell Cawyer]
“Fake handicaps a growing problem for disabled sports” [Der Spiegel]

Tags: ADA filing mills, disability & schools, disabled rights, Illinois, movies film and videos, sports, telecommunications

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:05:17 +0000

“MPAA: you can infringe copyright just by embedding a video” [Timothy Lee, Ars Technica]
NYC: fee for court-appointed fire department race-bias monitor is rather steep [Reuters]
Larry Schonbron on VW class action [Washington Times] Watch out, world: “U.S. class action lawyers look abroad” [Reuters] Deborah LaFetra, “Non-injury class actions don’t belong in federal court” [PLF]
Will animal rights groups have to pay hefty legal bill after losing Ringling Bros. suit? [BLT]
You shouldn’t need a lobbyist to build a house [Mead, Yglesias]
“Astorino and Westchester Win Against Obama’s HUD” [Brennan, NRO] My two cents [City Journal] Why not abolish HUD? [Kaus]
“Community organized breaking and entering,” Chicago style [Kevin Funnell; earlier, NYC]

Tags: animal rights, bloggers and the law, Chicago, class action settlements, class actions, fair housing, land use and zoning, loser pays, mortgages, movies film and videos, NYC, real estate

April 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:11:54 +0000

D.C. Circuit’s Janice Rogers Brown: three-decade-long case over Iran dairy expropriation raises “harshest caricature of the American litigation system” [BLT]
Legal blogger Mark Bennett runs for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as Libertarian [Defending People, Scott Greenfield] And Prof. Bill Childs, often linked in this space, is departing TortsProf (and legal academia) to join a private law practice in Texas;
Ambitious damage claims, more modest settlements abound in Louisiana oil-rig cleanup suits [ATLA's Judicial Hellholes, more, more, earlier]
Better no family at all: Lawprof Banzhaf jubilant over courts’ denial of adoption to smokers [his press release]
“The worst discovery request I’ve ever gotten” [Patrick at Popehat] And yours?
Concession to reality? Class action against theater over high cost of movie snacks seen as dud [Detroit Free Press]
FCPA is for pikers, K Street shows how real corruption gets done [Bill Frezza, Forbes] Dems threatening tax-bill retribution against clients whose lobbyists who back GOP candidates [Politico]

Tags: adoption, D.C. Circuit, discovery, environment, legal blogs, lobbyists, Louisiana, movies film and videos, oil industry, smoking bans, Texas

March 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Claim: “defamation by omission”

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:43:30 +0000

“Once profiled in The New York Times as a former Harvard student who had his own claim as being the true genius behind Facebook, [Aaron] Greenspan is now involved in a dispute with Columbia Pictures that alleges [among other counts] he was defamed by being left out of the award-winning film about Facebook’s origins ['The Social Network'].” [Hollywood Reporter]

Tags: Facebook, libel slander and defamation, movies film and videos

Claim: “defamation by omission” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Redbox sued over access for visually impaired”

Walter Olson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:08:42 +0000

“[T]he kiosks of the video rental giant Redbox are difficult, if not impossible, to use for those who are blind and visually impaired. The lawsuit says Redbox needs to change the technology in their kiosks so the visually impaired can rent movies too.” [KTRK]

Tags: disabled rights, movies film and videos

“Redbox sued over access for visually impaired” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Ron Paul campaign sues John Does over anti-Huntsman video

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:32:22 +0000

“Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s campaign committee sued the unidentified makers of a video attacking ex-Republican rival Jon Huntsman claiming it falsely implies it was made or endorsed by the Texas congressman.” [Bloomberg] Paul Alan Levy contends that Rep. Paul, a longtime civil liberties advocate, should know better than to advance arguments that would if accepted narrow the legal protections afforded to anonymous political speech.

Tags: campaign regulation, movies film and videos, online speech, Ron Paul

Ron Paul campaign sues John Does over anti-Huntsman video is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000

A federal fishing raid, the Pew Charitable Trusts and a biased Business Week account [Nils Stolpe on Gloucester, Mass. fisheries, via Stoll]
Intimidating the judiciary? “Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest” Jan. 20 [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] Mob rallies at Michigan governor’s private home [Meegan Holland, MLive] “Occupy” forces Gingrich to cancel event [Daily Caller] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Paper Airplane? Late for School? Shouting Too Loud? You’re Under Arrest!” [Free-Range Kids, Texas]
Spielberg in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” paid homage to earlier movie sequences without sweating permissions. Oh, for those days [Joho] “Cultural gems that should be in the public domain today” [Atlantic Wire, Tabarrok]
UPS settlement exaggerates benefits to class members [Ted Frank; related, CCAF] “Federal Judges Have Harsh Words, Rulings for Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [Lammi/WLF]
“Justice Breyer Calls Recusal Controversy a ‘Non-Issue’” [ABA Journal]
“Add Plaintiff-Lawyer Fees To The Cost Of Most Mergers” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes on Cornerstone Research report]

Tags: class action settlements, environment, Massachusetts, movies film and videos, police, recusals, schools, securities litigation, Texas

January 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:21:44 +0000

Debate on medical malpractice between Ted Frank (Manhattan Institute) and Shirley Svorny (Cato Institute) [PoL]
Lawyers, accountants have done well from litigation-ridden Pearlman Ponzi aftermath [Orlando Sentinel]
Book drop “inherently dangerous”, says rape victim’s family suing library designers [Florida, LISNews]
“The iTunes Class Action Lawsuit You’ll Never Hear About”[NJLRA] “Jackson v. Unocal – Class Actions Find a Welcome Home in Colorado” [Karlsgodt]
Another tot accused of sexual harassment, this time a first grader [Boston Herald, earlier (six year old's "assault")]
Profile of lawyer who defends fair use of clips for documentary makers [ABA Journal]

Tags: Apple, bankruptcy, Florida, harassment law, medical malpractice, movies film and videos

December 7 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Judge declines to dismiss ADA suit over streaming Netflix

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:07:18 +0000

A Massachusetts federal judge has declined to throw out an ADA suit against Netflix demanding captioning of its streaming movie service, but “stayed the case pending rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission.” [Qualters, NLJ] Relatedly, Arizona’s largest movie chain will install closed captioning and headset systems in all its outlets following an adverse ruling by the Ninth Circuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). [East Valley Tribune, earlier] Meanwhile, following an audit negotiated in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, “The city of Tucson may have to find an estimated $17 million to bring many of its facilities into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” [Star]

Tags: Arizona, disabled rights, movies film and videos, web accessibility

Judge declines to dismiss ADA suit over streaming Netflix is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site”

Walter Olson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:15:45 +0000

“An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database. The unnamed actress says the website misused her legal date of birth after she signed up to the IMDbPro service in 2008.” [BBC]

Tags: movies film and videos, privacy

“Actress sues Amazon over her age on its IMDb site” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system