JLA Beat is a regularly-updated online resource written entirely by the Journal’s editorial staff. Launched in 2015, the Beat features recent legal developments in the topics discussed in our print edition and beyond, including the art, entertainment, sports, intellectual property, and communications industries. JLA Beat publishes at least once weekly.
Published Feb 17, 2019
“Andy Warhol—From A to B And Back Again” opened at The Whitney Museum of American Art on November 12, 2018. The retrospective exhibit includes 350 works that span three floors of the museum. The exhibition, which is considerably larger than the typical feature at The Whitney, has been a rousing success. It’s gotten rave reviews… Read more→
Published Feb 8, 2019
As the rumor mill continues to buzz around Major League Baseball’s off-season deals, one name persistently comes up: Bryce Harper. Even before the Washington Nationals’ 2018 season ended, Harper’s name splashed headlines that speculated on where he would be playing next and for how much. But now it is February and Harper remains unsigned. Whether… Read more→
Published Feb 1, 2019
Taken together, the documentary RBG that came out last summer and the biopic On the Basis of Sex which was released this winter further cemented Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s status as a pop culture icon. In an interview on the podcast Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick, Daniel Stiepleman, the screenwriter of the latter and… Read more→
Published Jan 25, 2019
The 3D reconstruction of the city of Palmyra, a digitized copy of the Brazil national museum, new media art products, Google Cultural Institute’s collection and Object IDs have something in common: they are all “cultural data.” More than 2 billion people in the world create “digital culture” by simply sharing photos, videos, and links or… Read more→
Published Nov 30, 2018
Indulge me, for a moment, in a thought experiment based on a famous thought experiment: You may, through your various literary or philosophical exploits (or perhaps, a dalliance with the work of Douglas Adams), have come across something known as the Infinite Monkey Theorem. There are all sorts of mathematical proofs and statistics and theories of… Read more→
Published Nov 25, 2018
The context may differ, but the joke is always the same: there are too many lawyers, and what are they good for, anyway? After all, lawyers are nothing more than ambulance chasers and sharks and defenders of multi-billion-dollar corporations…right? Well, maybe there’s more to lawyering than that. For eons, humans have told stories to create… Read more→
Published Nov 16, 2018
On November 7, the day after the midterm elections, the President held a press conference. In an average administration, that statement could evince a real snoozer. The press conference could yield a few interesting tidbits, but it would more likely be filled with carefully-calibrated, spin-doctored gobbledygook that would attract the considered attention of self-described “politics… Read more→
Published Nov 12, 2018
It almost doesn’t bear repeating that Fall 2018 has been an exciting yet stressful time for many of us. We’re law students, so this will partly be related to school, as clubs, journals, clinics, and classes fill out much of our schedules. But there’s also that other Thing. The Thing that may not take up… Read more→
Published Oct 31, 2018
Halloween is here, and it’s one of our favorite holidays at JLA. So, in order to celebrate we thought we’d take you back to where it all began, and tell the fascinating story of…The Legal History of Halloween. The Magna Carta Back in 1215, King John of England agreed to the charter of rights known… Read more→
Published Oct 19, 2018
In the current digital age, the way we create and consume content is quickly changing, so much so that the law at times has a hard time keeping up. Recent developments have helped to bring some more balance between the service providers and the artists, but there is still much work to be done. The… Read more→
Published Oct 15, 2018
Stravinsky is perhaps classical music’s most celebrated stylistic chameleon. Whether it be revolutionary modernism in The Rite of Spring, sweeping romanticism in The Firebird, or sparkling neo-classicism in The Rake’s Progress, every genre Stravinsky touched, he mastered. It is in his smaller works, however, where Stravinsky demonstrates a subtler, but equally virtuosic, ability to exploit… Read more→
Published Oct 9, 2018
“Capturing the Flag” is an enlightening and inspiring new documentary from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Anne de Mare that illustrates some of the ways in which voter suppression occurs in America and how the efforts of ordinary citizens can make a difference in ensuring that people are able to vote. In response to the Supreme Court’s… Read more→
Published Sep 28, 2018
“Bonjour! I’m x66x. All you need to know about me is I hate macaroni casserole with a passion. I’m on a new diet that consists of salad and sausage links,” reads my kitten’s profile. Fortunately for “x66x”, it inherited its likeness from one of its androgynous parents “10”, from whom it inherited its love… Read more→
Published Sep 20, 2018
It occurred to me earlier this semester, when a professor put on “Cabinet Battle #1” to school us on the beginnings of the federal tax system, that Hamilton must have been the best thing ever to happen to legal scholars. As an unabashed fan of the musical, I get it — but alongside the seemingly… Read more→
Published Sep 19, 2018
At age 85, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is ready for her closeup. It’s probably safe to say that never in history has a sitting member of the Supreme Court become so ingrained in the popular zeitgeist. “It’s completely ludicrous!” says Betsy West. West co-directed and co-produced the documentary RBG, which tells the story of Justice… Read more→
Published Apr 28, 2018
[Note: This review contains heavy spoilers for the Netflix original film Candy Jar.] I’ve often mused that Columbia Law School feels more like high school than college. We have lockers; there’s an annual basketball game in a gym with a pep band; we go to Law Prom each March; there are few enough people that there… Read more→
Published Apr 16, 2018
On April 5, a New York State Supreme Court judge dismissed an art dealer’s lawsuit against authenticators of the works of the abstract painter Agnes Martin, rejecting claims that the defendants’ authentication decisions intentionally sought to cause the dealer harm. Agnes Martin, who died in 2004, was an American abstract painter known for spare canvases… Read more→
Published Apr 16, 2018
It’s fair to say that Steven Spielberg’s The Post, starring Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham alongside an all-star cast, was well-received this awards season. The movie received a string of nominations for various awards including the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Set in the early 1970s, the film tells the true story of… Read more→
Published Apr 16, 2018
On April 3, United States District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York denied summary judgment moved for by the creators of the Broadway musical Anastasia. This is the most recent step toward trial in this copyright dispute over the musical, which is based on the rumored life of Anastasia, daughter… Read more→
Published Apr 4, 2018
Fireworks, barbecue, red, white, blue, stars, stripes – many things have long been emblematic of the Fourth of July; for basketball fans everywhere, however, Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Golden State Warriors in free agency, penned in a now infamous article for The Players’ Tribune entitled My Next Chapter on July 4, 2016, is perhaps equally… Read more→
Published Apr 4, 2018
In the immensely successful 2018 documentary film, Black Panther, the world received a surprisingly candid and close look at the country of Wakanda. The film follows the newly-crowned king, T’Challa, as he rises to power and struggles to solidify his hold on the throne. Soon after T’Challa’s coronation, a U.S. citizen named Erik Stevens arrives… Read more→
Published Apr 2, 2018
On my first night home for spring break I was hanging out with my siblings and one of them brought out a game I hadn’t played before called, “What Do You Meme?” Seeking to combine the gameplay of the popular party game “Card’s Against Humanity,” with the Internet sensation of memes, “What Do You Meme?”… Read more→
Published Apr 2, 2018
In the aftermath of at least 80 sexual harassment claims against its co-founder and former co-Chairman, the Weinstein Co. (“TWC”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 19 and intends to sell the assets of its production studio. On March 18, the Board of TWC approved an agreement with Lantern Capital, whereby the private equity… Read more→
Published Apr 2, 2018
On March 21, a split panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a jury verdict finding that 2013 chart-topper “Blurred Lines” infringed the copyright in Marvin Gaye’s 1977 classic song “Got to Give It Up.” The panel decided the case, Williams v. Gaye, on relatively narrow procedural grounds, but Judge… Read more→
Published Mar 25, 2018
Much to the disappointment of many in the sports and wagering industries, the Supreme Court failed to issue a decision regarding New Jersey’s appeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) this month. Passed in 1992, PASPA bans sports gambling in the United States by prohibiting state governmental entities from sponsoring, advertising, operating,… Read more→
Published Mar 6, 2018
Through seven seasons of flirting with and often crossing the line when it comes to office antics, Michael Scott is remembered by many as one of the most complex, flawed and in the end lovable characters in television history. His 152 episodes as Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton brought us not only some of… Read more→
Published Mar 6, 2018
The Oscar nominated film that has critics buzzing, The Shape of Water, made headlines last month for another reason. On February 21, the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District against Fox Searchlight, Guillermo del Toro, and others associated with… Read more→
Published Mar 5, 2018
Published Feb 25, 2018
On February 15, 2018, the Southern District of New York handed down a ruling in Goldman v. Breitbart finding that a webpage publisher who embeds a tweet containing a copyrighted photo is “displaying” the photo within the meaning of the Copyright Act and, in the absence of authorization, is violating the owner’s exclusive display rights. … Read more→
Published Feb 12, 2018
In The Square, winner of 2017’s Palme D’or at Cannes, director Ruben Östlund skewers the contemporary art world in a sprawling satire that assaults the conscience (or lack thereof) of the cultural elite. This elite naturally includes much of the film’s audience, from those who cheered the film on at the Cannes Film Festival where… Read more→