With Virtual Currency, Does Virtually Anything Go?
December 31, 2013
In late 2013, a Subway sandwich franchise in Pennsylvania was making the news for being one of the first small American businesses to accept bitcoin as payment for purchases. According to press reports, that franchise generated a lot of interest among hungry bitcoin enthusiasts, who went out of their way to visit the store. Should this be dismissed as a mere publicity stunt, or is the use of bitcoin something that deserves some thought?
Bit Parts
December 31, 2013
Nashville Federal Court Finds Plausible Copyright Infringement Claim over "Remind Me" Phrase<br>Puerto Rico District Court Rules There Were Implied Licenses for Music Festival Artworks, But Were the Licenses Irrevocable?<br>Songwriting Income and Record Production Activity Don't Support Long-Arm Jurisdiction
Accounting for Obamacare
December 31, 2013
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, created the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), a part of each state's Health Insurance Marketplace, where small businesses with under 50 full-time equivalent employees can purchase group health plans. The small business owner is continually being placed in an untenable position without the ability to do any planning.
A Dangerous Undertaking
December 31, 2013
Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote that "it would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of pictorial illustrations." If Holmes didn't think he could do it, which of us thinks we're up to the task? Nonetheless, this was just the challenge taken up by Judge Block of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in <i>Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P.</i>
Lawsuits over Unpaid Internships Took Root in 2013
December 31, 2013
Eric Glatt was in the library at Georgetown Law Center when he got the call last summer. On the other end of the line was his lawyer, Juno Turner, an associate at New York's Outten & Golden. "We won," she said. With those two words, Glatt, who holds an MBA from Case Western University and is now working toward a law degree, became the unconventional hero for unpaid interns everywhere.
Quarterly State Compliance Review
December 31, 2013
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. It also looks at four recent decisions of interest from the Delaware courts.
Supreme Court Leaves NY Online Sales Tax Law In Place
December 31, 2013
December 2 was an extraordinary day for Amazon.com Inc., the mammoth online retailer: Cyber Monday sales reached new heights, its fanciful plan to use drones to make deliveries was creating buzz ' and then the U.S. Supreme Court spoiled it all by turning down Amazon's challenge to online sales taxes.
How Metadata Changed the Outcome of a Complex Employment Case
December 31, 2013
By definition, metadata is data about data. For computer files, it includes metadata fields that are hidden to typical users. This information can be valuable for a court case, and it goes beyond standard electronic discovery data collection: it must be gathered and analyzed by a digital forensics specialist.
Practice Tip: Predictability and Consistency in Alimony Awards Within States
December 31, 2013
Much like laws concerning marriage and divorce, alimony laws vary among states. However, lack of predictability and consistency in alimony awards within states have put alimony reform in the forefront of political, judicial and social arenas in several states, including New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts.
