5th Circ. Won't Hear 'My 600-lb Life' Reality Show Dispute

By Hope Patti

A split Fifth Circuit refused to entertain legal questions about whether "My 600-lb Life" counts as reality television in a dispute over coverage for underlying suits brought by the show's participants, saying in a published opinion Monday that the show's producers forfeited the argument on appeal.

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1st Circ. Says Hearst Info Sharing May Not Trigger VPPA

By Julie Manganis

The First Circuit appeared likely on Monday to affirm a lower court's finding that Hearst Television Inc.'s news and weather apps are not violating a 1980s-era video privacy law by disclosing users' email and geolocation data to marketing partners, suggesting that's not enough information to link individuals to specific viewed material.

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Paramount Says Warner Bros. Deal Is Good For Competition

By Matthew Perlman

Paramount has told a California federal court its planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will be good for competition, arguing that challenges of the deal from state enforcers and the Writers Guild of America are misguided.

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Carlton Fields Pushes To Demand Fees In Miss America Fight

By Madison Arnold

Carlton Fields has urged a Florida federal court to adopt a magistrate judge's recommendation that the firm be allowed to intervene in a dispute involving its charging lien for unpaid legal fees in a $500 million dispute over the ownership of the Miss America competition.

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Kennedy Center Says Only Trump Name Can Avert Bankruptcy

By Vince Sullivan

The board of trustees of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts intends to vote Tuesday on a pair of resolutions that say the facility is facing bankruptcy "within weeks" without fundraising efforts from President Donald J. Trump, which the documents say would probably only come if the center reapplies his name to the building.

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Samsung Seeks Toss Of Dua Lipa Copyright, TM Suit In Calif.

By Adam Lidgett

Samsung has argued that pop singer Dua Lipa's suit over the use of an image of her face on boxes containing Samsung televisions should be thrown out, saying her trademark and copyright claims fall short.

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Senators Draw Battle Lines Over Sweeping College Sports Bill

By Alex Lawson

U.S. senators Monday made public statements on their positions either for or against a bill aimed at comprehensively regulating college sports, forecasting a bitter fight over the bill's passage in the upper chamber.

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Sony, Universal Join Push Against Music Streaming Fraud

By Jamie Lennox

Sony and Universal joined numerous other music companies on Monday in forming a new group aimed at ousting fraudsters who artificially inflate streaming numbers to generate royalty payments.

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Under Armour Can't Duck Suit Alleging Massive Data Breach

By Rae Ann Varona

A Maryland federal judge has denied Under Armour's bid to nix a proposed class action alleging a November data breach leaked the personal information of more than 72 million of its consumers and employees, saying the plaintiffs sufficiently claimed the breach caused them harm such as identity theft.

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Zumba Video Buyers Seek Initial Nod For $2.7M Privacy Deal

By Allison Grande

A certified class of over 4,500 on-demand video purchasers who allege Zumba illegally divulged their personal information to third parties pressed a Florida federal judge to approve a $2.7 million settlement they claim is "in a league of its own" and outpaces prior deals under federal video privacy law.

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Facebook Third-Party Apps Took User Data, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

A technology expert testified Monday in New Mexico's data privacy trial against Meta that Facebook third-party app developers "rampantly" farmed user data and that the social media giant closed investigations of dubious developers without action.

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Renaissance Learning Beats Student Data Privacy Suit

By Corey Rothauser

A California federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action accusing education software company Renaissance Learning Inc. of unlawfully collecting and sharing students' personal information, finding that the families' allegations did not support their privacy, wiretapping or unjust enrichment claims.

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Apple Urges High Court To Nix App Store Contempt Order

By Craig Clough

Apple urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a Ninth Circuit ruling that upheld a civil contempt order stemming from its decision to charge commissions to developers' transactions that steer users to cheaper outside payment methods to make purchases, saying it shouldn't be punished for violating the "spirit" of an injunction.

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SpaceXAI Drops Apple In Antitrust Claims For OpenAI Deal

By Spencer Brewer

SpaceXAI on Monday dropped its claims that Apple breached antitrust laws by signing a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone but kept its claims against OpenAI Foundation intact.

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FINRA Pressed To Tighten 'Finfluencer,' AI Communications

By Jessica Corso

A coalition of state regulators has urged the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to more closely monitor how broker-dealers use social media and artificial intelligence to communicate with the public as FINRA considers providing its members with more leeway on customer outreach.

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Ex-Funko Exec To Pay SEC $1M In Insider Trading Case

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $1 million insider trading settlement Monday with a former Funko Inc. executive who allegedly sold his shares after learning that the toymaker's CEO was planning to step down.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week saw disputes over allegedly fabricated board approvals at a telecom infrastructure startup, insider trading and child safety at Roblox Corp. and ownership of artificial intelligence technology used in legal proceedings.

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FCC Crafts Spectrum Plan For Drone 'Dominance'

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's staff has agreed to waive agency rules for a federal testing program it says will give a boost to the "dominance" of the U.S. drone industry.

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Certifying Body Lied About Being US-Based, FCC Says

By Nadia Dreid

Derycom Certification Services lied about its ties to China in order to receive the Federal Communications Commission's authorization to serve as a telecommunication certification body, which requires an organization to be based in the United States, the agency said.

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Verizon Backs AT&T Transition Plan For IP Networks

By Nadia Dreid

Verizon says it approves of AT&T's plan for the Federal Communications Commission to establish an "interim, conditional pathway" to encourage local phone companies to switch away from legacy networks to internet-based ones.

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Cumulus Tells 2nd Circ. Even Brief Stay Of Nielsen Order Is Bad

By Nadia Dreid

Cumulus Media says it's going to be irreparably harmed if the Second Circuit doesn't lift the administrative stay it put in place stopping a preliminary injunction that Nielsen is challenging for the second time from going into effect while the appellate court looks at the matter.

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DOJ Derides Anti-Weaponization Fund Discovery

By Jared Foretek

The Justice Department is asking a Virginia federal judge to reverse a magistrate judge's order compelling discovery in a suit challenging the Trump administration's "anti-weaponization fund," claiming the plaintiffs lack standing and are merely attempting to set out on a fishing expedition that would intrude on executive privilege.

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Lawsuits Challenge New Ill. Taxes On Digital Ads, Social Media

By Sanjay Talwani

Newly enacted taxes in Illinois on digital advertising and social media platforms violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution and should be struck down, an industry group charged in a pair of lawsuits in state court.

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Disney Taps Warner Bros. Atty As Corp. Transactions Lead

By Christine DeRosa

Disney has expanded its corporate transactions legal team with the addition of Warner Bros. Discovery's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, according to an internal memo.

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Former DOJ Antitrust Leader Rejoins Winston Taylor

By Christine DeRosa

The former deputy director of litigation for the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, who was lead counsel for antitrust trials involving Live Nation-Ticketmaster and Google, has returned to Winston Taylor, the firm said Monday.

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Big Biz Coalition Backs Litigation Funding Disclosure Rule

By Ryan Boysen

Big U.S. businesses and insurers like Amazon, Anthropic, Chubb and Walmart asked the federal judiciary on Monday to tighten disclosure requirements for litigation finance, claiming the lack of guardrails allows funders to operate "in the shadows."

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Indiana Atty Hit With $10K Sanction Over False Citations

By Andrea Keckley

An Indiana federal judge on Friday adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation to sanction a local attorney $10,000 after finding that five briefs in a consumer credit case included citations to nonexistent cases.

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Jackson Lewis Removes Ex-Atty's Bias Suit To Federal Court

By Patrick Hoff

Jackson Lewis PC has moved a former associate's suit accusing the firm of refusing to accommodate her temporary work restrictions following her medical leave to California federal court, saying state court wasn't the right venue for dispute.

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Bove Rejects Recusal Bid Tied To DOJ Whistleblower Claims

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove declined Monday to recuse himself in a Third Circuit immigration case, saying the attorneys for the petitioner are "recycling a failed pre-confirmation political smear" on him.

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State Farm Attorney Sanctioned $999.99 For AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

An attorney for State Farm who filed several motions citing nonexistent cases and fabricated quotes generated by AI software must pay a $999.99 sanction, a Los Angeles judge ruled, an amount one cent below the threshold that would have triggered a mandatory notice to the State Bar of California under state law.

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Brief

Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Gets 10 Months For Tax Crimes

By Craig Clough

A Connecticut federal judge Monday sentenced a former Moses & Singer LLP partner to 10 months of imprisonment and ordered him to pay more than $3.1 million for failing to file personal income tax returns, the U.S. attorney's office announced.

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