Posts Tagged ‘Wcl’
A Mid-Air Balancing Act: To Under-Regulate or Over-Regulate?
By: Leo Garonski Under the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, Congress significantly subsidized airlines and created the Civil Aeronautics Board to prevent restraints of trade, designate airlines routes, and control seat prices.[1] The Act also required that U.S. citizens own at least three-quarters of each U.S.-based airline.[2] The U.S. airline industry inflected on cost and…
Read MoreHow Courts Are Navigating the Constitutional Debate Around FINRA’s Enforcement Authority
By: Hannah Lief Alpine Securities Corporation (“Alpine”), a broker-dealer, is challenging the delegation of authority by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) in Alpine Securities Corp. v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.[1] The lawsuit arises out of Alpine’s constitutional challenge to FINRA’s enforcement of securities regulations.[2] During district court…
Read MoreWhat the Shell? Understanding the SEC’s Latest Rule for SPACs
By: Liam Sullivan Last month, SEC Commissioners adopted new rules regarding special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), concluding a years-long effort to increase transparency and protections around investments in SPACs and the acquisition (de-SPAC) and initial public offering (IPO) of existing companies using this investment vehicle. The SEC turned a critical eye towards SPACs during a…
Read MoreYour Privacy: Wrapped
By: Miguel E. Serrano How does the sudden prevalence of “Wrapped” compilations fit into U.S. privacy law? On January 17, 2024, the D.C. Metro (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority or “WMATA”) followed companies like Spotify, Duolingo, and the Washington Post in posting a 2023 “year-end review.”[1] When Spotify launched its Wrapped feature in 2015, the…
Read MoreHow Brita’s Alleged Patent Ambush Can Wash Away Competition in the Water Filter Field
By: Gustav Gulmert According to the Environmental Working Group, over fifty percent of Americans consider their tap water as unsafe.[1]Instead, people turn to water pitcher filters for their drinking water at home, the gym, and work.[2] Zero Technologies, LLC (“Zero”) and Brita sell high-performance gravity-fed water pitcher filters approved by the NSF Foundation, a standards-setting…
Read MoreUniversal Music Suit: The Future of Generative AI Software in the Music Industry
By: Vincent Alfieri Universal Music Group has recently filed a lawsuit against Anthropic PBC, an Amazon backed startup, alleging that the company’s Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) chatbot infringes on the lyrics from multiple copyrighted songs.[1] Universal’s complaint contains numerous side-by-side comparisons of the chatbot’s generated lyrics and the lyrics from copyrighted works.[2] When directed by a…
Read MoreThe FTC’s Plan to Throw Away “Junk Fees” in New Proposed Rule
By: Kevin Quintanilla A big win may come soon to consumers due to the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) new proposed rule to ban junk fees.[1] Junk fees refer to hidden costs or extra charges that a consumer must pay, oftentimes substantially increasing the total price of a product or service.[2] These fees are frequently not…
Read MoreCareful How You Use Your AI: How the NO FAKES ACT Can Alter the Digital Landscape for Celebrities
By: Hannah Lief The Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2023, also known as the NO FAKES ACT, is a bipartisan proposal that is designed to create a uniform right to publicity, protecting a celebrity’s voice, image, and visual likeliness.[1] It was introduced by four U.S. senators in a draft federal…
Read MoreTexas’s Online-Age Check and What It Could Mean for Businesses
By: Sophie Ossip On August 31, 2023, U.S. District Judge David Ezra declared a Texas online-age requirement bill unconstitutional in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Colmenero.[1] The Texas Attorney General’s Office appealed to the Fifth Circuit and a three-judge panel took up the case on October 4, 2023.[2] The bill required businesses that host adult…
Read MoreGrappling with the Implementation of the SEC’s New Cybersecurity Disclosure Requirements
By: Olivia Woodmansee In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to adopt a final rule on cybersecurity disclosure for public companies.[1] The rule is predicted to fundamentally alter most, if not all, public companies’ incident response processes.[2] The SEC now requires companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents via Form 8-K within four…
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