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Split Chords: Addressing the Federal Circuit Split in Music Sampling Copyright Infringement Cases
Get PDFThis Note offers a comprehensive analysis of the current circuit split regarding how the de minimis doctrine applies to music sampling in copyright infringement cases. Since the Sixth Circuit\u27s 2005 landmark decision in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, critics, scholars and even judges have dissected the opinion and its bright line rule of “get a license or do not sample.” In May 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in VMG Salsoul v. Ciccione. The Ninth Circuit explicitly declined to follow Bridgeport, holding that analyzing a music sampling copyright infringement case requires a substantial similarity analysis, including applying a de minimis analysis.
The Ninth Circuit’s decision created a circuit split and an unsettled area of intellectual property law. This Note seeks to promote critical analysis of this contested area of law by exploring the underpinnings of the substantial similarity and de minimis doctrines, as well as the holdings of each case and their arguments. The Note offers three proposals regarding how courts should handle the circuit split, and in doing so creates a distinctive way of looking at the music sampling issue to help the federal judiciary frame the problem in a more expansive way
NBA-Age Restrictions: Should the NBA Follow In the Footsteps of Major League Baseball?
Get PDFThis paper will discuss the outlook of current NBA prospects and the development of age restrictions. It will also shed light on several key cases and Collective Bargaining Agreements including: Wood v. National Basketball Association, and Denver Rockets v. All Pro Management, Inc. and the NBA CBA. After that, an analysis of Sherman Antitrust Law and current case law concerning age restrictions in sports, and analyze the possibility for age-restrictions to be argued through the court system. Finally, this paper will look into the NBPA’s duty of representation towards NBA prospects and how the NBPA can take ideas from a comparable professional sport (Major League Baseball), to provide proper representation
The Relation of Bank Financial Strength Ratings to Retail and Commercial Bank Performance
No full textThe research outlined in this paper considers data from Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations relative to the performance of banking institutions. More specifically, the study considers two separate research topics: 1. whether bank financial strength ratings of global financial institutions contain new information for the financial markets; and 2. whether financial data reported by U.S. banks to banking regulators can explain bank financial strength ratings. For the first topic, if the financial markets are efficient and credit rating agencies utilize only publicly available information, security prices should change prior to financial strength rating changes. Prior research has considered the relationship of credit rating agency data and their impact on the credit default swap spreads of sovereigns (Ismailescu and Kazemi, 2010), corporate credit default swap spreads (Nordon and Weber, 2004) and/or both type of entities (Hull, Predescu and White, 2004; Finnerty, Miller and Chen, 2013). The finding that negative rating changes are more anticipated than positive rating events by the credit default swap market is consistent with prior research (Hull, Predescu and White, 2004; Nordon and Weber, 2004), but contradicts more recent research (Finnerty, Miller and Chen, 2013). This research makes a meaningful contribution in that it considers bank financial strength ratings, which are different from credit ratings utilized in previous research. The results of this research are important for investors who consider factors that affect credit default swap spreads. For the second topic, U.S. banking institutions are required to file quarterly financial reports with banking regulators. I consider whether ratios constructed from publicly available regulatory data explain bank financial strength ratings. I examine financial data and selected variables from a data set that included financial statement data on over 6,000 banks. The variables address the topics of bank capital, asset quality, management capacity, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity to market risk. I found that one variable each from the above selected topic areas explain approximately 60% of bank financial strength ratings. Prior research has attempted to explain and predict bank financial strength ratings (Poon, Firth and Fung, 1999; Hammer, Kogan and Lejeune, 2012). Since the 2007–2010 financial crisis, prior research has attempted to predict the financial strength ratings of Turkish banks (Öğüt, Doğanay, Ceylan, Aktas, 2012), the performance of South African banks (Kumbirai and Webb, 2010) and bank performance in Malaysia and China (Said and Tumin, 2011). I utilize variables derived from a bank regulatory model to determine how well they explain financial strength ratings. The research is consistent with previous research as it found that asset quality, capital levels and institution performance are significant explanatory variables. This research adds to the literature by considering nearly the entire population of U.S. banks across time periods not previously studied.Exploring these topics has importance for three separate groups. The first is academic researchers. The existing research has considered the impact of credit rating changes on the financial markets but has not considered the impact of BFSR changes. The second is U.S. bank regulators, who are responsible for maintaining the health of U.S. banks and the banking system. The third and last group is market participants. The CDS spreads and stock prices of banks have been volatile since the beginning of the credit crisis. It would be helpful for market participants to have a broader understanding of the factors that influence security prices
Survivor Funds
Get PDFThis Article explains how to create “survivor funds”—short-term investment funds that would pay more to those investors who live until the end of the fund’s term than to those who die before then. For example, instead of just investing in a ten-year bond and dividing the proceeds among the investors at the end of the bond term, a survivor fund would invest in that ten-year bond but divide the proceeds only among those who survived the full ten years. These survivor funds would be attractive investments because the survivors would get a greater return on their investments, while the decedents, for obvious reasons, would not care. Survivor funds would work like short-term tontines.
Basically, a tontine is a financial product that combines features of an annuity and a lottery. In a simple tontine, a group of investors pools their money together to buy a portfolio of investments, and, as investors die, their shares are forfeited, often with the entire fund going to the last survivor. For example, imagine that ten 65-year-old men each contribute 10,000 and that the men agree that the last “survivor will get the diamond. Accordingly, after the ninth man dies, the tenth man gets the diamond, and he can keep it or sell it. Of course, the survivor principle—that the share of each, at death, is enjoyed by the survivors—can be used to design financial products that would benefit multiple survivors, not just the last survivor. For example, elsewhere, we showed how tontines could be used to create so-called “tontine annuities” and “tontine pensions” that would benefit lots of retirees. In this Article, we show how the survivor principle can be used to create survivor funds that would only make payments to those who survive for a specified number of years
Regarding Oaths of Office
Get PDFThis discussion starts with an analysis of oaths of office at the Federal level, considering both whether oaths function as barriers to service and whether they are appropriate in symbolic terms. We then turn to the same questions with reference to the oaths of office of the various states. Finally, we consider the purpose behind oaths of office and determine whether any changes should be made to oaths of office at either the Federal or state level
Upholding Citizens’ Privacy in the Use of Stingray Technology: Is New York Behind?
Get PDFThis Comment will argue that New York should follow the federal agencies’ and states’ leads by imposing a warrant requirement supported by probable cause on local and state agencies that wish to use Stingray technology in their investigations. The first section will explore Stingray technology and how it works. The second section will frame the issue and describe New York’s current standard. The third section will discuss the judicial response to the issue and how New York courts seem to place the burden of upholding privacy on the citizen, instead of the government. The third section will also discuss a possible shift in New York courts’ stance on privacy, examining a recent dispute in Erie County that involved unauthorized Stingray use. The fourth section will discuss the legislative response to the issue, which consists of two state bills and a federal bill that could change New York’s policy. The fifth and final section will argue why New York should adopt a warrant requirement supported by probable cause
Escape from the List: Courage, Sacrifice, Survival
Get PDFAnne Frank has been described as Hitler’s most famous victim. By virtue of her diary, which was in fact a heavily revised memoir that today might be considered to belong to the genre of creative non-fiction, Anne Frank has attained a kind of immortality that the art form of writing frequently provides. This should not, of course, trivialize her fate, nor the suffering of the multitudes of other victims of the Nazi regime, a group comprised of Jews, as well as non-Jews. Some of these stories have been told in great detail, while many others have not. What follows is the story of Elisabeth Rodrigues Lopes de la Peña, a Jewish girl whose family had fled the Spanish Inquisition to settle in the Netherlands. During the German occupation of Amsterdam during the Second World War, this family faced yet another existential threat, one that some of them did not survive. Elisabeth may well have ended up as yet one more entry in the long list of the Nazi’s victims, if not for the intervention and courageous efforts of her non-Jewish neighbors—efforts that were based in large part on their own deeply held religious beliefs and sense of morals. Elisabeth’s rescuers are known to Holocaust historians, and their names are enshrined in the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Museum in Israel, as well as in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Along with my Research Assistant Angelica Roman, I have conducted personal meetings and interviews with Elisabeth’s daughter, Carolyn Stewart. Ms. Stewart has graciously shared many heretofore unknown details of her mother’s story of rescue, as well as photographs and documents, including some that have been unseen by anyone in over sixty years. What follows is new insight into Elisabeth Rodrigues’ escape from the list: a true story of courage, sacrifice, and survival.
I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance and support of the following people: Jennifer Crespo, Student Success Coordinator at Pace University in New York City, who generously provided funding for this project as part of the Pace Undergraduate Student – Faculty Research Program; Bonnie and Howard J. Price, without whose help this project would never have seen the light of day; my colleague at Pace University Dr. Maria Plochocki, for reviewing the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions; Gertjan Broek and Karolien Stocking Korzen at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam; Beth Slepian at The Anne Frank Center NYC, and my superbly talented Research Assistant, Angelica E. Roman ‘19, who tirelessly conducted research, helped revise early drafts, and patiently fielded a multitude of my requests while putting up with my numerous anxieties. Special thanks go to Carolyn Stewart, who traveled from Maryland to New York City for interviews, and who spent many hours communicating with Angelica and me over the course of several months. Carolyn shared many details and primary historical artifacts with us, and she relates her mother’s fascinating tale in a captivating and compelling manner. Our hope is that we can do this wonderful, inspiring story justice in the pages that follow
Defining and Closing the Hydraulic Fracturing Governance Gap
Get PDFAs recent examples in Texas and Colorado have shown, if local governments ban fracking, they risk pushback from state governments. This pushback, in turn, can result in preemption making an outright local ban on fracking self-defeating because it could ultimately result in less local control over the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Given this potentially self-defeating nature of local fracking bans, local governments should address the impacts of fracking through more traditional local governance mechanisms that do not pose as great a risk to local authority.
On this premise, this Article seeks to make the case for the importance of, and authority for, local leadership of fracking governance. We present an overview of the federal and state laws that address fracking and describe the traditional scope of local land use authority. We next present a list of the most salient local impacts of hydraulic fracturing, including a description of the methods we employed to catalogue these local impacts. Finally, this Article concludes with a series of case studies that demonstrate different local governance mechanisms.
Because of significant gaps in the state and federal regulatory apparatus, opportunity exists for local governments to craft regulatory and non-regulatory structures that meet their communities’ needs. We believe that with more comprehensive information about the impacts of fracking, as well as regulatory and non-regulatory tools that local governments can employ, municipalities will be better able to enact policies that withstand legal scrutiny and reflect local interests
A Fine-Grained Data Access Permission Authorization Framework for Mobile Systems
No full textSmartphones play irreplaceable role in our daily life. When users enjoy the functions, convenience, and efficiency offered by mobile apps, their sensitive and private data are facing potential privacy hazard to be leaked. These data could be shared be among various apps installed on the same smartphone, or even be sent to third-parties without any notification. Furthermore, the permission authorization provided by current mobile operating systems is just coarse-grained. First, the permission authority process is an one-time operation. After authorized of accessing to some data, one app can hold this permission forever theoretically. Then, this process only works on the whole data, not any specific portion of data. In other words, users only can authorize one app to access all data or none.This study focuses on a new framework to provide fine-grained data access permission authorization for mobile systems. The study consist of three main layers: a) Separating mobile data with different privacy level and applying a finer-grained data request in local mobile system; b) Mobile data request and access management framework as the middle layer; c) high performance and efficient cloud storage strategy. We also design and implement a benchmark with some candidate apps to prove the feasibility and performance of our proposed framework
