by Paul Alan Levy In a decision issued this morning, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the dismissal of the trademark claims brought by Massachusetts software company Jenzabar against documentary filmmaker Long Bow Group, claiming that the use of the name “Jenzabar” in the keyword meta tag and the title tag for a web page about […]
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by Paul Alan Levy The recent response by PhoenixNAP to a takedown demand from Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta Georgia, showed its Internet customers that it cannot be counted on to stand up for their rights. Reed was unhappy that Lipstick Alley, a gossip site with particular traction among African-American women, carried an exchange […]
The contraception coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act is important to many consumers. Some of the mandate's opponents claim that it violates the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. This article by Brigham Young University law professor Frederick Gedicks concludes that the mandate is constitutional.
This short piece in the British Medical Journal, focusing on a fatty-food tax in Denmark, says that the evidence is equivocal. One problem is that consumers may respond to a fatty-food tax by substituting cheaper (but still fatty) foods for more expensive fatty foods. Another problem, believe it or not, is that consumers may buy […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan ombudsman, Rohit Chopra, has issued his first annual report required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post says that the report may portend a finanical crisis. The report's executive summary appears after the jump.
A coalition of business groups and labor unions sued in New York state court on Friday to stop New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Read the complaint and this press account. The complaint claims, among other things, that the regulations are arbitrary and irrational under New […]
That's Steven Pearlstein's characterization of the judiciary's attitude toward federal health and safety regulation in a column published today. Here's an excerpt discussing what Pearlstein views as a recent example: Their latest salvo came just before Labor Day, when a divided three-judge panel threw out rules requiring states to control the air pollution that wafts […]
As this article by Sheri Qualters explains, "Netflix Inc. has agreed to put closed captions on 100 percent of its streaming content within two years to settle a lawsuit filed by the National Association of the Deaf last year" under the Americans With Disabilities Act. This settlement could encourage other on-line video providers to follow […]