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Interview with Sara Archambault, Documentary Film Producer
By Hugh Reynolds Independent nonfiction filmmaking has long played a key role in social justice and cultural education. These films foster public awareness, bring salience to issues, unify constituencies, and ignite mobilization. In this way, documentary filmmaking can be a powerful tool for eliciting policy change from our elected representatives. In this new age of […]
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Breaking the Broadcast Huddle: How College Football Conferences’ Bundling of Broadcast Rights Could Harm Student Athletes
By Edwin A. Farley Download the article here: Breaking the Broadcast Huddle: How College Football Conferences’ Bundling of Broadcast Rights Could Harm Student Athletes. Recent realignment activity between collegiate athletic conferences reveals how the sale of broadcast rights and the treatment of student athletes, including their compensation, are connected. The pursuit of greater revenue from broadcast rights for […]
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Harvard’s Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law Hosts 2024 Sports Law Symposium
Harvard Law School’s Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law (CSEL) hosted its 2024 Harvard Sports Law Symposium over the last two weeks. Read our coverage of the symposium’s notable events and speakers from JSEL’s Hugh Reynolds and Alec Winshel. On Tuesday, April 9th, the 2024 Harvard Sports Law Symposium began with the presentation of the […]
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Interview with Sarah Luppen Fowler, Senior Deputy General Counsel at SAG-AFTRA
Sarah Luppen Fowler is Senior Deputy General Counsel at SAG-AFTRA, the nationwide labor union representing approximately 160,000 members of the film, television, news, music, and radio industries. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School and the University of Georgia School of Law, where she teaches a course about the intersection […]
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Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Team Makes History as First College Team to Vote to Unionize
By Nefertari Elshiekh On March 5th, Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to become the first college sports team to unionize–a historic step toward recognizing college athletes as employees. However, their legal battle is far from over. National Relations Labor Board (“NLRB”) Regional Director Laura A. Sacks found that Dartmouth athletes are employees under the […]
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Interview with Alan Rothenberg, Former President of U.S. Soccer
Mr. Rothenberg is Los Angeles Chairman of 1st Century Bank, a division of MidFirst Bank and Chairman of Premier Partnerships. Rothenberg spearheaded soccer’s rise in the U.S. during the 1990s as Chairman and CEO of the 1994 World Cup; Chairman of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup; President of the U.S. Soccer Federation; Chairman of […]
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What’s Copyright Got to Do, Got to Do With It?
By Shayna Toh The “cockroach of Broadway” seems to keep cashing checks. Despite the sneering term that veteran theatre critic Jesse Green used to describe jukebox musicals, the genre has dominated Broadway in recent years. In an industry that always seems to battle existential threats and huge financial losses—twelve current Broadway productions are slated to […]
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Supreme Court Considers Whether President Trump’s Name May Be Trademarked to Ridicule Him
By Alec Winshel In November 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Vidal v. Elster. Their coming opinion will be the high court’s latest pronouncement on the relationship between trademark law and the First Amendment’s free speech protections. In my view, the Supreme Court should use Vidal v. Elster to clarify that trademarks are […]
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Enabling the Non-Elite: Imagining International Football Tournaments for Mid- and Bottom-Table Teams
By Martin Skladany, Law Professor, Penn State University, Dickinson Law The inequality between the gilded elite football clubs and all other teams is widening. One way to address this concern is to create more European football tournaments for the clubs most people live next to. Specifically, the Union of European Football Associations (“UEFA”) should establish two new tournaments—one for […]
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Interview with Joi Rideout, Senior Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs at Warner Bros. Discovery
By Daijha Morrow Joi Rideout is currently the Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Unscripted Television at Warner Bros. Discovery. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Rideout has had an illustrious career in the entertainment industry. During her career, she has supervised business and legal affairs for numerous unscripted programs and […]
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Free Speech is a Funny Thing: Jack Daniel’s Properties v. VIP Products Narrows First Amendment Protections for Trademark Usage
Image Courtesy of Foodie Factor/Pixabay By Alec Winshel In Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not protect use of another’s trademark as a signifier of one’s own product. Trademarks are words or symbols that identify a seller’s goods and distinguish them from others in […]
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Hollywood Unions Take Different Approaches to AI Protections
Both the DGA and WGA Negotiated AI Guardrails with the AMPTP. Can SAG-AFTRA? By Hugh Reynolds The 148-day writers’ strike ended when the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) ratified their contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on October 9th. This newly secured deal runs from until May 31, 2026, and […]