Murdoch's Lupa To Acquire New York Magazine, Vox Assets

By Al Barbarino

The media company of James Murdoch, son of industry mogul Rupert Murdoch, said Wednesday it has struck an agreement to purchase New York Magazine and additional assets of Vox Media for a reported price exceeding $300 million.

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9th Circ. Questions Jack Daniel's TM Win Over 'Bad Spaniels'

By Ivan Moreno

A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday questioned whether Jack Daniel's proved that any mark beyond its name was famous enough to support a tarnishment ruling against VIP Products' poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy, while pressing both sides on whether courts should compare the parties' marks alone or also consider the toy's bottle-like design and crude humor.

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Trump-IRS Settlement A 'Corrupt Sham,' Capitol Cops Say

By Jack McLoone

The settlement of President Donald Trump's $10 billion tax leak suit against the Internal Revenue Service — creating a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" — is a "corrupt sham," a pair of police officers present during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot told a D.C. federal court Wednesday.

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Binance Libel Suit Doesn't Show Actual Malice, Dow Jones Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

Dow Jones urged a New York federal judge to toss a defamation suit brought by Binance over a Wall Street Journal article saying the cryptocurrency exchange fired internal investigators who uncovered transactions that purportedly went to sanctioned Iranian-backed entities, arguing that Binance hadn't shown the article was published with actual malice.

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'Peanuts' Music Owner Sues Feds, 3 Cos. For Infringement

By Lauren Berg

The steward of the Peanuts television and film music catalog on Wednesday lobbed four copyright infringement lawsuits against the U.S. Department of the Interior and three companies, alleging the growth of digital platforms has led to a surge in unauthorized commercial use of the well-known tunes.

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Top 4 Most Surprising Moments In Musk-OpenAI Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

The high-profile trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion wrapped Monday with a quick jury verdict in favor of OpenAI and its executives, but the three-week trial drew some surprising moments for those in the courtroom who had front row seats to the fight between billionaires.

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Analysis

NCAA's Maze Of Eligibility Rules Is Athletes' Latest Target

By David Steele

A deluge of litigation targeting the NCAA's eligibility bylaws for allegedly limiting athletes' compensation has resulted in conflicting rulings from different courts, teeing up the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

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Kirkland-Led Shamrock Wraps $813M Media Acquisition Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised media and entertainment-focused investment firm Shamrock Capital on Wednesday revealed that it had closed its fourth content acquisition fund with $813 million in total capital commitments.

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'Shadow Library' Must Pay $19.5M To Publishers In Piracy Suit

By Adam Lidgett

Anna's Archive will have to pay $19.5 million after failing to respond to claims from 13 major book publishers that the alleged "shadow library" illegally distributes pirated books and research papers, a New York federal judge has ruled.

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Armenian Game Maker Won't Give Up Source Code, Suit Says

By Elliot Weld

The parent of video game company Big Fish Games has sued an Armenian game developer in Washington state court, alleging that when it took ownership of Big Fish, it discovered source code missing from materials returned by the Armenian firm that it has not been able to recover.

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FTC Targets AI 'Nudify' Apps Under Revenge Porn Law

By Allison Grande

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sent warning letters to a dozen companies that offer artificial intelligence tools that allow people to "nudify" images, marking some of its first regulatory actions under a revenge porn law that went into force the day prior.

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FTC Urged To Probe Roblox Over Child Safety Claims

By Jonathan Capriel

Two advocacy groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the online gaming platform Roblox, claiming its design features, virtual currency system and chat functions have harmed millions of children through grooming, abuse, unexpected charges totaling thousands of dollars and exposure to sexual references and racial slurs, an announcement Wednesday said.

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States, DC Urge 10th Circ. To OK Colo. Social Media Law

By Mike Curley

A group of 43 states and the District of Columbia are asking the Tenth Circuit to reverse a trial court order blocking enforcement of a new Colorado law requiring warning labels for social media used by minors, saying that even under strict scrutiny, the law is justified to protect minors' mental health.

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Hagens Berman Says Apple Smear Job Can't Stop Withdrawal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP urged a California federal judge to allow one of its named plaintiffs to withdraw from an Apple iCloud antitrust case, saying Apple Inc.'s filed opposition is rife with "misdirection and ad hominem" attacks and not about the merits of the dispute but "smearing opposing counsel."

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Social Media Not Proven To Harm Mental Health, Judge Told

By Cara Salvatore

A statistics expert for Meta sought Wednesday to undermine the claim that social media has driven a rise in mental health conditions among teens, saying the New Mexico attorney general's key witness on the topic didn't consider alternative factors like widening access to mental health care.

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Roblox, Microsoft, Epic Win Arbitration Bid In Addiction Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday sent to arbitration a suit accusing Roblox Corp., Epic Games Inc. and Microsoft Corp. of causing a minor's video game addiction, saying the claims fall within broad arbitration provisions in the companies' user agreements.

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Ballot Group Backs Ark. In 8th Circ. Gaming Permit Dispute

By Crystal Owens

A ballot group at the center of a voter referendum that revoked an Arkansas gaming permit for Cherokee Nation Entertainment is backing the state's right to enforce the ballot measure in the Eighth Circuit, arguing that state and Prohibition-era Supreme Court precedent confirms there's no protectable property interest in the license.

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NBA-Linked Poker Dragnet Nets 3 Guilty Pleas

By Stewart Bishop

Three men charged alongside NBA players and coaches admitted Wednesday to their roles in what prosecutors say was a scheme to use Mafia-backed, rigged poker games to cheat unsuspecting players out of millions of dollars.

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Adobe Worker's Spouse Traded On Semrush Buy, SEC Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

A Silicon Valley project manager will pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $2 million after self-reporting that he traded on his spouse's insider knowledge that software giant Adobe Inc. was preparing to acquire a digital marketing platform.

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Pinterest Hit With Derivative Suit Over Tariff Impacts

By Sydney Price

Executives and directors of social media platform Pinterest Inc. have been hit with an investor's derivative suit in California federal court accusing them of damaging the company by concealing the impact the U.S. tariffs were having on Pinterest's advertising partners.

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FCC Revamps How Broadband Maps Can Be Challenged

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission overhauled broadband data collection rules on Wednesday, with an aim of making its map of national broadband deployment more accurate while also cutting unnecessary regulatory burdens.

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DC Circ. Orders FCC Response In News Distortion Dispute

By Christopher Cole

The D.C. Circuit ordered the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday to respond to a call from several former agency leaders for court action that would compel the FCC into rethinking its controversial policy against "news distortion."

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DOJ Looks To Nix Dish's Requirement To Operate 5G Network

By Nadia Dreid

Now that it's sold off all its spectrum, Dish isn't going to be able to build the nationwide 5G network that it promised the U.S. Department of Justice it would as part of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, so the DOJ is asking a D.C. federal court to nix that part of their agreement.

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Brief

FCC Clears Nokia Routers After DOD Security Review

By Nadia Dreid

Nokia will still be able to import some of its foreign made routers after receiving the Federal Communications Commission's blessing and conditional approval and exemption from the agency's covered list of equipment the agency has deemed a national security risk.

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SpinX Says Social Casino Suit Belongs In Arbitration

By Joyce Hanson

A Hong Kong company that publishes free "social casino games" has asked a California federal court to send to arbitration a proposed class action accusing it of violating state gambling laws, saying the lead plaintiff agreed to arbitrate when he first opened the apps.

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Live Nation Can't Split Festival Shooting Trial Into 2 Phases

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state judge denied Live Nation's effort to split an upcoming trial over a 2023 music festival shooting into separate liability and damages phases, siding with victims' family members who argue they would be unfairly prejudiced by bifurcating the case.

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Submitting Ideas To AI Platforms May Affect Patent Rights

Recent judicial developments suggest that disclosing an invention to a consumer artificial intelligence platform constitutes public disclosure, making disciplined use of such tools and early filing strategies essential to preserving patent rights, say attorneys at Day Pitney.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

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OpenAI Says ChatGPT Misuse Is Users' Responsibility

By Emily Sawicki

OpenAI has asked a federal judge in Chicago to end an insurance company's suit alleging it practices law without a license, arguing the complaint should be directed toward individuals who misuse the company's ChatGPT bot to file faulty motions, and not the generative AI platform itself.

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2nd Circ. Pick Questioned At Hearing On Role As Trump Lawyer

By Courtney Bublé

Matthew Schwartz, a nominee for the Second Circuit, was questioned by Democratic senators Wednesday about whether his current job as the president's personal attorney while his nomination process is underway poses a conflict of interest.

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Bad AI Citation Sanction Slashed Amid 7th Circ. Guidance

By Hailey Konnath

An Indiana federal judge Wednesday rejected a magistrate judge's recommendation that an attorney be sanctioned $7,500 for including faulty, artificial intelligence-generated legal citations in a discovery brief, pointing to recent Seventh Circuit guidance and sanctioning him $2,000 instead.

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2 Fla. County Courts Requiring AI Disclosure In Court Filings

By Sarah Martinson

Two Florida circuit courts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are requiring attorneys and self-represented litigants to disclose when they use generative text tools to prepare their court filings and to certify they checked the generated content for accuracy.

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Atty Withdrawals Not Limited To Fee Conflicts, ABA Says

By Emily Sawicki

Lawyers whose clients fail to hold up their end of valid engagement agreements are clear to cease their representation, so long as certain criteria are met, according to the American Bar Association's ethics committee's latest guidance, published Wednesday.

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Comey Wants Arraignment Pushed For Dismissal Bid

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI Director James Comey asked a North Carolina federal court Wednesday to postpone his arraignment on charges alleging he threatened President Donald Trump, telling a judge that he is preparing to seek to have the case thrown out on constitutional grounds.

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Mich. Supreme Court Mulls Remote Court Access Rules

By Susan Smiley

The Michigan Supreme Court held administrative hearings on Wednesday concerning several proposed amendments to Michigan court rules, including adding more specific guidelines for remote hearings, making language services free for civil cases, and allowing law students and recent law graduates to appear on behalf of indigent people in all Michigan courts.

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