Happy Birthday to Us!
Five years ago this week, we published the first edition of Advertising Law News and Analysis. For more than 210 more-or-less weekly editions, we've shared the best advertising law-related news and analysis from Venable attorneys. Over the years, our readership has grown, and today we're proud that more than 10,000 readers receive the newsletter each week. As we enter our sixth year, we want to make the newsletter more useful to you. Please take a moment and tell us what you like, or don't like, about the newsletter and how we can better meet your needs.
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News:
Florida AG Asks SCOTUS to Hear Credit Card Surcharge Case
Earlier this month, the Florida attorney general asked the United States Supreme Court to hear a case concerning the constitutionality of a long-standing Florida law that prohibits merchants from charging consumers a surcharge for credit card purchases. The request for the Court to hear the case follows an 11th Circuit decision last year finding the law violates the First Amendment. Florida, however, has long maintained that the law regulates a "pricing practice" and is not a free-speech issue.
Read this Daily Commerce story to learn more about Bondi's request.
Analysis:
On the CFPB's Fifth Anniversary, a Refresher
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) celebrates its fifth anniversary. Since opening for business on July 21, 2011, the agency has provided more than $11.7 billion in consumer redress to more than 27 million consumers. Billed as the "new sheriff in town," the agency took over powers from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and federal banking agencies, and covers nearly the entire range of consumer financial products and services, including mortgages and debt collection.
In a client alert published today, Venable's CFPB task force looks back over the agency's first five years and provides a sample of the most interesting and useful articles, presentations, and recorded webinars it has published over the past five years to help consumer financial services providers tackle the challenging and evolving legal issues they face.
Read the client alert to learn more about the CFPB's first five years and to access the content.
Don't. Stop. Thinking about Copyright Law
What do the campaigns of Sarah Palin, John McCain, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul, Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney all have in common, write Venable attorneys Ronald M. Jacobs, Joshua J. Kaufman, Larry H. Norton, and Margaret C. Rohlfing in a recent post to Venable's political law blog.
The answer? Their campaigns have faced claims of copyright infringement for their use of music or other works of art. That is because candidates—and outside groups supporting or opposing them—often pay little attention to the copyright laws that apply to their activities, and sometimes use other people's copyrighted works without obtaining the necessary licenses. In the post, the authors provide a primer on copyright law useful for political campaigns, as well as any business.
Read the post to learn what every organization should consider when licensing music or visual content and ensuring compliance with those licenses.