Uneventful
1/17/13
By Caitlin Tremblay
The Sundance Film Festival opens today in Park City, Utah,
and the event is already full of drama. And we're not talking
about the indie films being launched.
Hype Creative Agency, a promotion company, is suing Sundance
Partners for breach of contract, breach of covenant of good
faith and fair dealing and interference with contractual
relations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hype says it had a three-year contract to use Park City
restaurant Zoom, which is owned by actor and founder of Sundance
Robert Redford, to host festival-related promotional events. The
agreement allowed Hype to use Redford's "interest in Zoom as
part of Hype Creative's promotional materials," according to the
agency.
Hype expected to make $500,000 from events held at the
restaurant, it says. But when the company used a photo of
Redford in its promo materials, Sundance said it wanted to
renegotiate the contract to less favorable terms. When Hype
refused, Sundance terminated the agreement. Hype claims other
clients now have jumped ship and that it lost opportunities to
stage events at Coachella Music Festival, Cannes Film Festival
and the Grammys. It is seeking $1.5 million in lost profits.
Sundance hasn't commented on the suit.
Sketchy business
1/17/13
By Dan Brillman
As more and more cameras operate inside U.S. courtrooms,
cases that allow only sketch illustrations bring an increasing
air of distinction and exclusivity to the proceedings.
But who draws those compelling court sketch scenes? The web
site ArchetypeMe (hat tip: ABA Journal) interviewed Art Lien,
who has been hired by many media organizations to draw the
proceedings of high-profile cases, including Jerry Sandusky, Tim
McVeigh, Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid. For NBC News, he's often at
the U.S. Supreme Court and even caught the rare moment earlier
this week when Clarence Thomas broke his 7-year-long bench
silence.
When Lien started in the pre-C-SPAN 1970s, he worked the
U.S. Senate as well. These days, Lien says he is part of a dying
breed and advises young artists not to break into the niche
business because of a lack of opportunities.
One beef: SCOTUS work can be boring, Lien tells ArchetypeMe.
"I'm drawing the same scene over and over -- the same Justices,
even the same lawyers," he says. To combat the monotony of
drawing people sitting in leather seats all day, Lien says he
sometimes gets a little creative. For example, as Justice
Antonin Scalia commented during Freeman v. Quicken Loans that
Aesop should have written the term as "lion's portion" and not
"lion's share," Lien drew a mane on the justice. In another
drawing he gave Scalia whiskers and a cat's paw. And when Chief
Justice John Roberts distinguished between the meanings of the
words "corn" and "corny," Lien put an ear of said vegetable in
the jurist's hand.
Snoop dodge
1/17/13
By Suhrith Parthasarathy
The Justice Department is sticking to its guns when it comes
to the Obama administration's surveillance strategy, reports
Wired. In short: The government's practices remain "privileged
and confidential," according to two memos obtained by the
American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information
request.
The ACLU filed its request following last year's Supreme
Court decision in United States v. Jones, where the court ruled
that a GPS tracker cannot be placed on a suspect's car without a
warrant. In the wake of that ruling, the ACLU wanted to know how
the Federal Bureau of Investigation was implementing Jones,
since police sometimes use techniques such as trap and trace and
license plate surveillance to keep tabs on suspects, without
obtaining a probable cause warrant, according to Ars Technica.
Through the FOIA request the ACLU obtained two Justice
Department memos, dated Feb. 27 and July 5, 2012, that were
nearly completely redacted, according to ACLU staff attorney
Catherine Crump. She writes that the memos leave Americans with
no clear understanding of when they will be subjected to
tracking and under what circumstances, with or without a
warrant. "The purpose of the FOIA is to make sure the government
doesn't operate under secret law -- and right now that's exactly
what these memos are," Crump says.
Summary Judgments for January 16
Summary Judgments for January 15
Summary Judgments for January 14
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