In February, after strong public opposition to the proposed Stop Online Piracy and PROTECT IP Acts, Paramount Pictures sent letters to schools throughout the country seeking an exchange of ideas with students about content theft and possible ways to address it. Brooklyn Law School took them up on the offer hosting Movies, the Internet, and Copyright on Tuesday, April 10. The featured speaker was Paramount Pictures Vice President Alfred Perry presenting the movie industry's perspective on the problems of online copyright infringement, the recent debates over the proposed laws, and the future of regulation of IP on the internet. BLS Prof. Derek Bambauer in a post entitled Hollywood Comes to Brooklyn on INFO/LAW wrote an excellent summary of the event where Mr. Perry faced a skeptical audience as he focused on enforcement and the risk which the industry sees in infringement.
Perry argued that Hollywood faces "content theft" and that something must be done. BLS Professor Jason Mazzone, author of Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law (Call # KF2994 .M399 2011), responded to Perry’s position, saying that he was being disingenuous using the word "theft" which unfairly biases the discussion and ignores both the realities of copyright which is not absolute. Students were skeptical of the claims of Mr. Perry who seemed unable to grasp their perspective. Prof. Bambauer observed:
The discussion was impressively thoughtful and civil. The students evinced skepticism about the movie industry’s good faith and bona fides, particularly given the drafting of SOPA / PROTECT IP, and also given the recording industry’s history of suing its users. Perry pointed out that Paramount is trying hard to make content available widely, cheaply, and easily, and that the only other way of altering the reward calculus to users is to engage in enforcement against end consumers, which no one likes. He was repeatedly puzzled by the attitude of law students that infringement isn’t a big deal (since it’s unlawful), particularly when this attitude is justified by reference to movie industry profits. He kindly stuck around afterwards to talk with students individually.
In this podcast, Shawna MacLeod, Brooklyn Law School Class of 2012 and Editor-in-Chief of the Brooklyn Law Review, talks about her experience at the Law Review which published four issues of Volume 76 last year and the first two issues of Volume 77 this year. Shawna discusses her own student note One Man, Six Votes, and Many Unanswered Questions: Cumulative Voting as a Remedial Measure for Section 2 Violations in Port Chester and Beyond, 76 Brook. L. Rev. 1669 (Summer 2011), where she provided an overview of the relevant Voting Rights Act provisions and the system of cumulative voting in the case of United States v. Village of Port Chester, 704 F.Supp.2d 411 (2010). Shawna also offers suggestions for 1Ls considering joining one of the law journals at Brooklyn Law School.
In Brooklyn’s US District Court for the Eastern District of New York this week, Immigration Equality filed a complaint on behalf of several married gay couples, including New York residents Heather Morgan and Maria del Mar Verdugo, who were married last year. The suit alleges a violation of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights by preventing them from sponsoring their spouses for green cards. The five couples named as plaintiffs are seeking to obtain US citizenship for a foreign-born spouse. At issue is the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and denies federal benefits to married gay couples. The US federal government does not recognize lesbian and gay couples for immigration purposes. The plaintiffs were married in states permitting gay marriage. For heterosexual married couples, the US government would recognize the foreign spouse as an immediate relative of the American citizen and allow for citizenship. The named defendants are Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and the Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and others. The complaint alleges that DOMA violates the constitutional right to equal protection.
The 2012 commencement season is coming up and this list shows the names of those announced so far to deliver addresses to the graduates of New York area law schools.
This conversation with Brooklyn Law School Prof. Jonathan Askin, Founder and Director of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy ("BLIP") Clinic, and three of his students, Philip Weiss, Class of 2012, John Randall, Class of 2012 and Warren Allen, Class of 2012, discusses the Legal Hack-a-thon scheduled to begin on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
Prof. Askin outlines the goals in the first of what he hopes will be an annual event that will allow law students to take an active part in drafting legislative proposals. Phil Weiss discusses the focus of this year's event, an experiment in collaboration and crowdsourcing which grew out of the public response to the SOPA and PIPA bills and builds on the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (or OPEN Act) now pending in Congress. John Randall talks about one of the workshops, Creative Rights for Creative Children: IP Education in the Digital Age, scheduled to take place during the event. Finally, Warren Allen addresses how the event offers an opportunity to law students and policy makers to have an impact on a wide range of legal issues involving intellectual property. Sponsors of the Legal Hack-a-thon include BarBri, Panera Bread and Docracy, a web site that hosts legal documents freely available to the public. Docracy is the platform that those who register for the Legal Hack-a-thon will use for finding proposed language, editing proposals, and uploading the final product.
See the video below for the conversation with the BLIP Hack-a-thon team and for details about registering for the event and using the Docracy website.
Dennis Block, Brooklyn Law School Class of 1967, and Jeffrey Feil , BLS Class of 1973, have each donated $1 million to Brookly Law School to support student scholarships and public service programs. Block's donation will establish the Block Judicial Intern Fellows program, which will support students who spend the summer interning with federal judges. "One of the best experiences a law student can have is to intern for a federal judge," Block said. "It gives a student an opportunity to study the judicial decision-making process and to build writing and analytical skills." He supported the founding of the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law and teaches mergers and acquisitions as an adjunct professor. Block has previously contributed to student scholarships. Feil made his gift through the Charitable Lead Annuity Trust of Louis Feil, named for his father. The money will supplement $1.25 million that the Feil family donated last year to create the Gertrude and Louis Feil Scholarship Fund. The law school already has a 22-story residential building named after Feil. "I am grateful for the training I received at Brooklyn Law School," Feil said. "Every day I use the skills I acquired there to analyze complex real estate transactions. I want to help students take advantage of the opportunities the law school offers, just as I did."
The Alumni Directory, which is on Reserve at the BLS Library Circulation Desk, states that Block is a Senior Partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and that Feil is President of the Feil Organization. For more information, see the BLS announcement here.
Among the titles in the Brooklyn Law School Library most recent New Books List is The Little Book of Foodie Law by Cecil C. Kuhne III (Call # KF3869 .K84 2012), the. The word "foodie" commonly refers to one who is unabashedly and unreservedly excited about food, its ingredients, and its preparation. This latest in the ABA “little books of” series examines the legal world of the foodie and is a fascinating read for anyone anxious to learn more about the legal issues that have taken place in the world of food.
The books 18 chapters cover cases with a wide range of legal issues dealing with food such as Litigating Restaurant Reviews in Mr. Chow of New York v. Ste. Jour Azur SA, 759 F. 2d 219 (2d Cir. 1985); Caspian Caviar: Spoilage from Poor Refrigeration in Fidelis Fisheries v. Thorden, 142 F. Supp. 798 (S.D.N.Y. 1956); Cooking Schools: Using the Name "Cordon Bleu" in Le Cordon Bleu v. Littlefield, 518 F. Supp. 823 (S.D.N.Y. 1981); Jewish Weddings: Failure to Serve Kosher Food in Siegel v. Ridgewells, Inc., 511 F. Supp. 2d 188 (D.D.C. 2007); Competitive Recipes: Trade Secret Ramifications in Buffets, Inc. v. Klinke, 73 F. 3d 965 (9th Cir. 1996); and Wine Sales: Shipment Across State Lines in Siesta Village Market LLC v. Steen, 595 F. 3d 249 (5th Cir. 2010). Each chapter features recipes based on the content allowing the reader to experience the material in the book first hand. The book has a fold-out "Timeline of Food" which tracks when certain food arrived in America. Both lawyers and foodies will find interesting the legal disputes over food related in this book.
Perry argued that Hollywood faces "content theft" and that something must be done. BLS Professor Jason Mazzone, author of Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law (Call # KF2994 .M399 2011), responded to Perry’s position, saying that he was being disingenuous using the word "theft" which unfairly biases the discussion and ignores both the realities of copyright which is not absolute. Students were skeptical of the claims of Mr. Perry who seemed unable to grasp their perspective. Prof. Bambauer observed: 
SARA, the Brooklyn Law School Library catalog, has an item in electronic format 