UPDATED! Defamation and The Donald: How To CYA When Standing Up To A World-Class Bully

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There’s a difference between a dispassionate telling of the facts, and a heated accusation of wrongdoing. The more your remarks hew towards the latter, the more likely you veer into defamation territory, which robs you of the high road and puts you in danger of getting sued yourself. The last thing you want, as a victim of copyright infringement or breach of contract, is to defend yourself against a defamation claim. And the more prominent they are, the less likely they are to feel bad for suing you. After all, they have a bottom line to maintain, don’t they? 

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When Politicians Use Music Without Permission It’s Not a Copyright Issue, It’s a Trademark Issue (But It Doesn’t Matter Anyway)

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Do you remember the time Donald Trump played “It’s The End of the World as We Know It” at a campaign rally and REM told him not to use their music "for your moronic charade of a campaign?" Or that time John McCain used “Running on Empty” in a TV ad bashing Obama and Jackson Browne sued him? Or that time Rand Paul used “Tom Sawyer” during his Senate run and Rush said that it was obvious Paul “hates women and brown people?"* It seems like every time there’s an election, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a band upset at a politician for using its music. And with a year left before the general election, it’ll happen a few more times at least.

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A Brief Review of Important Matters: Beastie Boys Legal Fees, Amazon vs. the FAA, and Trump vs. Young

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Amazon (among other large companies) is calling on Congress to limit restrictions on commercial drone flights so that it can continue to push forward it's harebrained drone-delivery system. The FAA's current proposed drone rule still carries pretty hefty limitations and would all but decimate Amazon's desire to fill the skies with box-carrying robots.

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