Music Giants Say Cox Case Isn't About Grandma Losing Wi-Fi

By Ivan Moreno

Leading music publishers have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that internet service providers can be contributorily liable for their customers' piracy if they fail to take action, saying a jury verdict against Cox Communications that led to a $1 billion award showed that the company "made a deliberate and egregious decision" to put profits first.

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7th Circ. Affirms French Montana's Win In Copyright Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Seventh Circuit on Thursday backed French Montana's win in a copyright case brought by a musician who alleged the rapper sampled his instrumental song to make the hit single "Ain't Worried About Nothin'," saying there wasn't evidence to show Montana duplicated the work "as opposed to merely imitating it."

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Netflix Keeps Win In Documentary IP Suit From Atty's Film Co.

By Jake Maher

A New Jersey federal judge this week declined to reconsider his order throwing out an attorney's copyright infringement suit against Netflix Inc. over his documentary about sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America.

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Songwriters Claim Udio AI Was Trained On Copyrighted Music

By Elliot Weld

A group of songwriters is suing artificial intelligence company Udio AI, claiming its music-generating AI models were trained using copyrighted music scraped from the internet.

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Authors Say Salesforce Used Pirated Books To Train Its AI

By Theresa Schliep

A pair of authors accused Salesforce of improperly training its artificial intelligence models on copyrighted works, telling a California federal court Wednesday that the cloud-based software company used their pirated books in "its acts of massive copyright infringement."

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Privacy Compliance Needs 'Kindergarten Rules,' Atty Says

By Craig Clough

Panelists at a Los Angeles conference on the intersection of technology and entertainment tackled the issue of privacy and data laws Thursday, with one participant telling the crowd that helping clients avoid legal entanglements in those areas involves applying "kindergarten rules."

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'GirlDad' TM Fight Expands To 'GirlMom,' 'BoyDad,' 'BoyMom'

By Elliot Weld

A trademark battle over the "GirlDad" trademark expanded to the marks "GirlMom," "BoyDad" and "BoyMom" as an apparel company accused a rival of infringing all four in Ohio federal court.

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NetChoice Fights Colo. 'Cigarette-Style' Social Media Law

By Rachel Konieczny

A lawyer for an internet trade association urged a federal judge Thursday to block a Colorado law set to take effect next year, comparing its requirement for social media platforms to display warnings for minors to the mandated warning labels on tobacco products.

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Consumer Group Seeks Role In Nationals' Hidden Fees Suit

By Elaine Briseño

A national consumers group asked a Washington, D.C., federal court for permission to intervene as a plaintiff in what it called a "copycat" proposed class action against the MLB's Washington Nationals over hidden ticket fees so it can request a stay and protect the progress it has made in its own state court lawsuit.

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Tech Group Aims To Ax Texas' App Store Age Verification Law

By Allison Grande

A new Texas law that requires app store owners to verify users' ages and block minors from downloading apps or making in-app purchases without parental consent unconstitutionally imposes a "broad censorship regime" on the entire mobile app ecosystem, a tech industry trade group argued in a lawsuit Thursday seeking to strike down the measure.

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Fed. Judge Keeps X's Suit Against Apple, OpenAI In Texas

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge told X Corp, Apple and OpenAI that they ought to move their headquarters to Fort Worth if they like litigating in Cowtown so much, opting Thursday to keep X and xAI's sweeping antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI in the Lone Star State.

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Library Services Co. Accused Of Layoff Without Proper Notice

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia company that identifies as the largest supplier of library content, software and services to public and academic libraries in the U.S., terminated at least 300 employees without proper notice as part of a mass layoff without meeting a federal 60-day notice requirement, according to a proposed class action.

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Smartmatic Faces FCPA Indictment In Philippine Bribery Case

By Hailey Konnath

A Florida federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment that adds charges against Smartmatic, which wasn't previously a party to prosecutors' case accusing former executives at the voting machine company of bribing an elections official in the Philippines to secure contracts.

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Musk, Twitter Investors Denied Early Wins In Fraud Suit

By Katryna Perera

Elon Musk and investors of X, formerly known as Twitter, are headed toward trial in a class action suit accusing the billionaire of intentionally tanking the social media platform's stock price, after a California federal judge denied the parties' cross-motions for an early win in the case.

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Gabelli, Entwistle Make Lone Paramount Suit Pitch In Del.

By Jeff Montgomery

A fund of Paramount Global Inc. investor Mario Gabelli notified Delaware's Court of Chancery on Thursday that no other stockholders have sought to lead a suit challenging Paramount Global's $8.4 billion acquisition by David Ellison's Skydance Media, with the fund seeking lead plaintiff status and Entwistle & Cappucci and Farnan LLP to be lead counsel.

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Ga. Tax Worker Seeks Interest On Chrisley Slander Award

By Asha Glover

A Georgia Department of Revenue employee who was awarded $755,000 in her slander case against former reality star and convicted fraudster Todd Chrisley asked a federal judge to grant her post-judgment interest, which she said was mandatory but not spelled out in her judgment.

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FCC Republican Calls Upper C-Band Rework Critical To 6G

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission is wasting no time gearing up for a potential spectrum overhaul in the upper C-Band, with the approach of 6G wireless being a big motivator, according to an agency Republican.

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High Court's FCC Broadcast Rulings Criticized As 'Outdated'

By Christopher Cole

A think tank called for overturning two U.S. Supreme Court rulings from decades ago that gave the Federal Communications Commission authority to regulate broadcast speech, saying the decisions don't match the realities of today's economy.

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FTC's Consumer Finance Pivot Brings Industry Pros And Cons

An active Federal Trade Commission against the backdrop of a leashed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be welcomed by most in the consumer finance industry, but the incremental expansion of the FTC's authority via enforcement actions remains a risk, say attorneys at Hudson Cook.

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Series

Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

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Loan Forgiveness Overhaul May Chill Legal Aid Work

By Alison Knezevich

Civil legal services groups and public defenders say the Trump administration's proposed change to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would politicize the initiative and make it harder to recruit attorneys to jobs that pay less than the private sector.

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Atty Quits Ga. Bar's 'Facade' Committee On Client Solicitation

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia attorney resigned Friday as head of the state bar's committee on attorney-client solicitation, accusing the bar of not even "reaching for a garden hose" while unlawful solicitation of accident victims has spread "like wildfire" across the Peach State.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Johnson & Johnson hit with a £1 billion ($1.34 billion) claim for allegedly selling contaminated baby powder, Carter-Ruck bring a claim against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and Hewlett Packard file a probate claim against the estate of Mike Lynch.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Exxon was hit with a proposed class action alleging its new program to enable automated proxy voting for retail investors is intended to stifle shareholder dissent. Meanwhile, a new survey found that nearly two-thirds of in-house legal departments think they will rely less on outside legal service providers because of generative artificial intelligence. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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NY Court Orders Hearing On Counsel Conflict In Drug Case

By Elizabeth Daley

A man who pled guilty to gun and drug charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison can argue for a new trial due to ineffective counsel after a similarly culpable co-defendant got a light sentence allegedly due to cooperation between their attorneys, a New York state appeals court said in a reversal.

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Utah Fires Motley Rice From Opioid Case

By Jack Karp

The state of Utah has fired Motley Rice LLC from representing it in long-running litigation over the opioid crisis, a spokesperson for the Utah attorney general's office confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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Ga. Judge Resigns After DUI Arrest Outside Fla. Strip Club

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia Superior Court jurist who led the state's Council of Superior Court Judges stepped down from the bench Thursday after his driving under the influence arrest last week outside a Jacksonville, Florida, strip club.

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UC Law School Can Drop Hastings Name, Appeals Court Says

By Andrea Keckley

California is allowed to drop Serranus Clinton Hastings' name from the University of California's San Francisco-based law school, a state appeals court has ruled, backing a trial judge's decision to toss a lawsuit filed by the former chief state Supreme Court justice's descendants and various school alumni.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Caldwell Cassady & Curry PC and Miller Fair Henry PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury found Samsung must pay nearly $445.5 million for infringing four wireless communication patents.

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Liberty Mutual Attys Face Sanctions Bid Over Citation Errors

By Emily Sawicki

A St. Louis federal court is weighing whether to sanction Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Company's lawyers after they submitted a motion containing citation errors and then, after a warning, "somehow" submitted a second motion with the same types of mistakes.

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Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

By Ryan Boysen

The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

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Robbins Geller To Steer REIT Investors' Suit Over $787M Deal

By Sydney Price

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP will lead a proposed class of investors in real estate investment trust Broadmark Realty Capital Inc. who claim they were misled by executives from the REIT ahead of a $787 million merger with Ready Capital Corp. in 2023.

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