Media & Entertainment Law

Are pirate nicknames OK? (Half-serious)

Posted on May 12, 2009
The ongoing story of the Somali pirates has brought the serious legal issue of piracy to the fore, with commentators repeatedly noting the heinousness and seriousness of piracy as a crime, which is lost in the mythos of eye patches and bottles of rum and parrots...

Roger Clemens' Interview on ESPN Radio

Posted on May 12, 2009
I have a new SI.com column on the legal implications of Roger Clemens' interview this morning on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning. An excerpt of the column is below.* * *Clemens' decision to appear on Tuesday's radio program probably did not please his attorneys...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on May 11, 2009
Recently published scholarship includes:Steven B. Berneman, Note, One strike and you?re out: alcohol in the Major League Baseball clubhouse, 11 VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT & TECHNOLOGY LAW 399 (2009)Paul T. DeRousselle II, Comment, Personal foul! How the Supreme Court allowed the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association to violate Brentwood Academy?s First Amendment rights, 36 SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 173 (2008) Nathaniel Grow, Reevaluating the Curt Flood Act of 1998, 87 NEBRASKA LAW REVIEW 747 (2009)Michael Halper, The tax ramifications of catching home run baseballs, 59 CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW 191 (2008)Casey A...

Release of New Journal on NCAA Compliance

Posted on May 11, 2009
On behalf of the Center for Law and Sports at Florida Coastal School of Law, I am pleased to announce our new publication, the Journal of NCAA Compliance. The Journal will be comprised of essays written by Coastal Law students containing detailed summaries of the latest NCAA compliance rulings as well as short articles on contemporary issues in NCAA compliance...

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On Being Manny, Part II (the sequel): Can the Dodgers Terminate Ramirez?

Posted on May 09, 2009
There have been a lot of questions raised (including in the comments of the previous post) about the possibility of the Dodgers suspending or terminating Manny Ramirez for his use of human chorionic gonadotrophin (?hCG?). I think it?s fairly clear, however, that the Dodgers cannot punish or terminate Ramirez for his use of the banned performance enhancing substance...

On Being Manny.

Posted on May 07, 2009
As some of you may have noticed, Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games today for violating Major League Baseball?s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program (the ?MLB Program?). According to reports, Ramirez does not plan to appeal the suspension, but I will go out on a bit of a limb here and suggest that we may be hearing a bit more about this story in the next several days...

Who's Responsible for Collapse of Cowboys' Practice Facility?

Posted on May 07, 2009
Earlier this week, I wrote a column on SI.com on questions of responsibility for the tragic collapse of the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility. Below is an excerpt.* * *The second and more worrisome area for the Cowboys is tort law and specifically Texas law on negligence...

Indictments in Toledo Point Shaving Scheme

Posted on May 06, 2009
The U.S. Attorney in Detroit has announced the indictment of two Detroit-area businessmen and six former University of Toledo athletes in connection with point shaving between 2004 and 2006. Howard blogged about the story in March, 2007. Coverage from the Free Press here...

Can the NBA and NFL Place Teams in Europe? Exploring the EC Antitrust and 'Free Movement' Risk

Posted on May 06, 2009
With talk of the NFL hosting a Super Bowl in London, some sports fans are beginning to wonder if we will soon see U.S. sports leagues place teams in Europe. In a recent law review article, Brian Doyle and I argue that before either the NBA or NFL could expand into Europe, these leagues would need to first abandon their age/education requirements and alter their reserve rules...

Sanctioned Offenses

Posted on May 05, 2009
An Attempt to Unravel How Yuriorkis Gamboa Became the ?Interim WBA Ordinary World Featherweight Champion of the World? Boxing fans, meet your ?Interim World Boxing Association Ordinary World Featherweight Champion of the World,? Yuriorkis (El Ciclon de Guantanamo) Gamboa, 15-0 (13 KOs)...

Has NCAA's Investigation in Reggie Bush/O.J. Mayo Changed USC's Recruiting?

Posted on May 05, 2009
Ramona Shelburne of the LA Daily News has an in-depth article on the University of Southern California apparently rejecting a verbal commitment by basketball phenom Renardo Sidney to play there. It is possible that the NCAA's investigation into the Reggie Bush and O...

CBS Scores Big Win in Fantasy Case

Posted on May 04, 2009
Times are not good for the intellectual property rights of athletes whose names are used for fantasy sports websites. In the wake of the Eighth Circuit's ruling in CBC Distribution v. MLBAM, 505 F.3d 818 (2007) [discussed here], the district court in Minnesota, concluded that CBS Interactive may use NFL players' names and statistics for its fantasy games, without any license agreement from the NFL or NFLPA...

President Obama's First Supreme Court Appointment

Posted on May 02, 2009
With yesterday's announcement by Justice David Souter that he will be retiring at the conclusion of this current United States Supreme Court term, speculation has begun by those feverishly anticipating who President Barack Obama will appoint to replace the retiring Souter...

National Sports Law Student Writing Competition

Posted on April 30, 2009
Marquette University Law School has announced a new writing competition open to students from any law school. Winners get published in the Marquette Sports Law Review and get to attend the National Sports Law Institute fall conference for free. The deadline for submission is July 17, 2009...

"Tort Law and Journalism Ethics"

Posted on April 29, 2009
That's the title of my new law review article that will be published in Loyola University Chicago Law Journal. It can be downloaded from SSRN. You'll appreciate this paper if you're tired of a 21st Century press that disregards individual privacy, infiltrates the news with sensationalized stories, and blames their inaccurate reporting on "getting the story out there first" (in particular with respect to participants in the sports and entertainment industries)...

Jeremy Tyler: High School Junior Basketball Phenom to Play Professionally in Europe

Posted on April 22, 2009
The NBA's one-and-done rule requires that a player be 19 years of age plus one year removed from high school (either by graduation or by one's class graduating) in order to be eligible for the NBA draft. It's presumed that a player will attend college in that "one year removed" and save for Brandon Jennings, it's held true...

Catching Up with Links

Posted on April 21, 2009
* Joshua Knipp and Michael Miller -- two students at Wake Forest University School of Law -- have posted on SSRN a draft of their interesting paper Finding a Balance: Advocating a Long-Term Solution to the NCAA's Battle with Technology in Recruiting. * The annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference is coming up on May 14 in Chicago...

Local News "Seeks the Truth"

Posted on April 20, 2009
I want to commend the Louisville Fox affiliate, WDRB-41, for its decision not to air, or even report on, its interview with Karen Sypher, the woman Louisville coach Rick Pitino asserts has attempted to extort him. According to an ESPN report late last night:Karen Sypher recently did a lengthy interview with the Louisville Fox affiliate, WDRB-41, but the station reported Saturday night that it "has decided not to relate details of her claims at this time...

State action and the Yankees Lawsuit

Posted on April 20, 2009
In writing and speaking about fans' speech rights, the speech part always has seemed, to me, easy--of course someone can wear a t-shirt reading "Yankees Suck" and of course someone can jeer a player for making an error. And of course someone cannot be compelled to participate in a patriotic ritual such as singing "God Bless America...

Reaction to Thomas among FIU factulty

Posted on April 18, 2009
Not surprised this is happening: The director of women's studies at FIU is organizing protests against the hiring of Isiah Thomas as men's basketball coach, relating to Thomas having been found liable (along with the Knicks and the team owner) for the sexual harassment of a Knicks employee...

Hip Hop Law Blog

Posted on April 16, 2009
The West Virginia University College of Law Sports and Entertainment Law Society is proud to announce the launch of a new blog that will add texture and content to the entertainment law and interconnected sports law space: HipHopLaw.com. Go to:http://hiphoplaw...

Finally! Fan challenges speech restrictions at publicly owned ballpark

Posted on April 16, 2009
A lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York yesterday by a baseball fan named Bradford Campeau-Laurion, who alleges that he was kicked out of Yankee Stadium last summer by two uniformed NYPD officers for trying to go the men's room during the Seventh Inning Stretch and the playing of God Bless America...

Two Sports Law Talks at Mississippi College School of Law

Posted on April 16, 2009
If any of you are in the Jackson area, I'lll be giving a talk today at Mississippi College School of Law from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on recent sports law issues and careers in sports law. It will be in Room 251 and directions to the law school can be found here...

Isiah Thomas, FIU Basketball Coach?

Posted on April 15, 2009
Beginning when I was around 16, I wanted to be a college basketball coach. I was a student manager in college, worked as a coach at summer basketball camps throughout college, and my first job after college was as assistant coach at a D-III school in Chicago...

Michigan's Contractual Liability if Paulus "Transfers" to Play QB

Posted on April 15, 2009
It certainly has been a rough year for Michigan football. The team was simply handled by a then-underrated Utah, embarrassed by mid-major Toledo, all the while beset by its coach's messy divorce from his former school. The latest news from Ann Arbor is that, in spite of its recruitment of heralded quarterback Tate Forcier, the team may be led next year by Greg Paulus...

Edwin Valero: Would an Exception Knock Out the Rule?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Whether it Would be Smart for New York State to Lift Its Medical Suspension of Lightweight Champion & Knockout Artist Edwin Valero In 2004, undefeated Venezuelan junior lightweight prospect Edwin (El Inca) Valero applied for a license to box in New York State after scoring 12 first round knockouts in his first 12 professional fights...

A Few Good Links

Posted on April 14, 2009
* Darren Heitner at Sports Agent Blog has a good breakdown of how sports bloggers might be impacted by the Associated Press' new strategy to crack down on lengthy excerpts of AP stories on blogs.* William Rothstein of National Sports and Entertainment Blog has a good write-up on Professor Erin Buzuvis' recent talk at Vermont Law School on Title IX...

Florida Coastal Symposium

Posted on April 13, 2009
This Friday, we are hosting our annual sports law symposium titled, ?NCAA Coaches? Contracts: Diversity and Negotiating Value in the 21st Century?:FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 200910:30 am - 2:30 pmRoom 405Opening Remarks: Stuart Herman, President of Sports Law Society at Florida Coastal School of Law10:30 a...

2009 Scholarly Conference on College Sport

Posted on April 12, 2009
Robert Hayden and Che Mock of the University of North Carolina pass along the following message. We wish Richard Southall and everyone else at the College Sports Research Institute the best for this year's conference, which looks to be a great event...

Colts Redux? Can the Preakness be Seized?

Posted on April 09, 2009
Many remember the ill-fated attempt in the mid-1980s by the city of Baltimore to utilize eminent domain to seize the Colts under a law passed by the Maryland Legislature. Colts' then-owner Robert Irsay moved the team in the dead of night to take a deal offered by Indianapolis...

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