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Can’t I get a witness? Can’t I get a witness? Capitol Records could have hoped so. The company lost at trial and then appeal over lip-dubbed music recordings, so now its lawyers are are going to the highest court in the land. Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA In this case, Vimeo users have been making karaoke-YouTube-like recordings with music from 1972 and earlier. The video-sharing website allows users to upload, share, and view videos....

“Yo-yo” car sale scams can be a big problem – so car buyers with poor credit beware. You’re prey for shady car dealers. Scams can apply to new car sales, used car sales, or trade-in deals. Auto fraud can come from unlikely places, such as dealerships and lenders that seem legit. Basics of Yo-Yo Financing Scams The scam works by dealers extending financing to credit-challenged buyers for their vehicle purchases....

Get ready for a Supreme Court DNA case in the 2012 Term. Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order on Monday indicating that it’s likely the Court will grant certiorari to review a DNA collection law. The Maryland DNA Collection Act authorizes law enforcement officials to collect DNA samples from individuals charged with but not yet convicted of certain crimes, mainly violent crimes and first-degree burglary. In 2009, police arrested Alonzo Jay King, Jr....

Asylum Petition Granted In Clairmont v. Sound Mental Health, No. 09-35856, a petition for review of the BIA’s order affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of petitioner’s claims for asylum and withholding of removal, the court granted the petition where petitioner’s delay in filing her asylum application was due to the “extraordinary circumstance” of fraudulent deceit by an immigration consultant, and this circumstance directly related to her failure to file the application within the one-year deadline....

The breach of sensitive customer data is a nightmare scenario keeping an ever-greater number of CEOs awake at night. It’s no wonder why, as vulnerabilities in cyber defense are constantly being revealed. The public became aware of the newest massive data breach on July 29, after a U.S.-based software engineer released the application information of more than 100 million Capital One cardholders on GitHub. Capital One now faces the prospect of litigation and massive costs arising from the breach....

Lee v. Javitch, Block & Rathbone LLP, No. 08-4485 involved a plaintiff’s suit against a law firm alleging violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, claiming that the firm filed a false affidavit in its application for a non-wage garnishment of plaintiff’s bank account. In reversing the district court’s judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the court concluded that plaintiff failed to establish that a reasonable attorney would have conducted additional investigation as the evidence does not support a conclusion that reasonable attorneys would have subpoenaed plaintiff’s bank records regarding whether plaintiff’s account may have contained nonexempt funds....

If you’ve ever wondered how seriously Congress and the courts take debt collection regulation, this case, involving a combination of a misaligned clear plastic window on an envelope and poorly formatted letter, that merely let a QR Code (barcode) and a bare account number show, is quite telling. Convergent Outsourcing is a debt collector. The company sent a letter to Courtney Douglass which, due to the misaligned window, also displayed her account number and the barcode (which could be scanned to show how much she owed)....

Harold Hall, who spent 19 years in prison for two murders that he didn’t commit, can sue the Los Angeles Police Department for his wrongful conviction. Procedurally, Hall’s case was shaky, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the “exceptional circumstances” in his case persuaded the court to allow Hall to amend his complaint in order to “avoid manifest injustice.” Hall became the target of the double murder investigation after being arrested for a robbery in August 1985....

In a capital habeas matter, the denial of petitioner’s petition is affirmed, where: 1) the results of new DNA testing could not exclude petitioner from the crime scene; 2) Kentucky’s determination that petitioner failed to properly plead his claim that his counsel refused to allow him to testify precluded review; and 3) petitioner failed to overcome the presumption that the challenged questioning by his counsel might be considered sound trial strategy....

Gilbert Mendez pleaded guilty to drug crimes, but challenged his conviction later when he found out the prosecutor for his case was not licensed to practice law. The Assistant U.S. Attorney had fallen behind in continuing legal education requirements, and the North Carolina State Bar suspended his license. After failing at lower courts, Mendez petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in Mendez v. United States of America. The Department of Justice opposed, saying it did not matter that the AUSA was unlicensed because the court still had jurisdiction....

Infamous pornographer Larry Flynt may be allowed to intervene in two Missouri death penalty cases and access previously sealed records following a ruling by the Eight Circuit today. The cases challenged the constitutionality of Missouri’s execution methods. Flynt, who gained notoriety as the outspoken founder of Hustler magazine, sought to intervene in the lawsuits as a publisher and death penalty opponent. Intervention could give him access to documents previously sealed by the court, including the identities of participants in the states’ executions....

June is Pride Month, so every Monday this month FindLaw will be looking at the unique legal issues faced by LGBT members of our community – what the laws are currently, and what they may be in the near future. We’ll be rounding up our coverage of family law and employment rights, and looking at upcoming legislation and court decisions. This week? It’s services and accommodation discrimination. Just as in the employment context, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in access to businesses, public accommodations, and federal services....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action arising from the faulty imprisonment of now-exonerated plaintiff for almost fourteen years, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) there was insufficient evidence that defendants acted in bad faith or without probable cause in apprehending plaintiff; and 2) no municipal liability could exist where no underlying constitutional violation occurred. (Superseding opinion) Read McSherry v. Long Beach, No. 06-55837 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted February 14, 2008...

Elon Musk seems like a smart guy. Except when it comes to tweets. Musk’s ill-advised tweets have cost him tens of millions of dollars and even more in his reputation. Investors especially remembered the $20 million fine he incurred for saying he might take Tesla private. Now Musk must answer for calling a cave rescuer a “pedo guy” and a “child rapist.” It would be a head-scratcher – except that’s Musk....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals usually makes headlines for the cases that are decided inside the walls of the Beaux Arts building on Mission Street in San Francisco. Now, the building itself is making headlines. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declared the James R. Browning United States Courthouse a national historic landmark last week, describing it as a “superlative Beaux-Arts public building exhibiting a complex merger of a number of artistic disciplines: architecture, sculpture, painting, stained-glass and decorative arts,” SFAppeal reports....

The Ninth Circuit published a laundry list of announcements this week to prepare the masses for next week’s Perry v. Brown Prop 8 hearing on Dec. 8. The proceedings will be videotaped for broadcast by C-SPAN and NBC-7 San Diego. If watching the coverage on television isn’t enough to satisfy your legal curiosity, here’s what you need to know about going to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to view all the action in person....

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a lengthy opinion on Tuesday criticizing a federal district judge’s numerous procedural errors in sentencing power-drunk, former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Fumo for using state and non-profit funds to clean his mansion, charter yachts, and spy on ex-girlfriends and political enemies. The court ordered a new sentencing hearing in the case. How outrageous was Fumo’s 55-month sentence? So bad that even then-Governor Ed Rendell, who wrote a letter asking for leniency in Fumo’s case, recommended that prosecutors pursue a sentence appeal....

In a Title VII action claiming that Defendant-Union failed to provide a reasonable accommodation for Plaintiff’s religious objection to financially supporting the union, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed where Plaintiff did not show that he suffered any material adverse employment action for making his objection. Read Reed v. International Union, No. 07-2505 Appellate Information Argued: September 17, 2008 Decided and Filed: June 23, 2009 Judges Judge Batchelder delivered the opinion of the Court....

In Michigan Bell Tel. Co. v. Covad Communications Co., No. 07-2469, the Sixth Circuit was asked to overturn district court’s decision vacating the commission’s order requiring that incumbent local exchange carrier provide certain entrance facilities at wholesale prices. In its fourth order, the Triennial Review Remand Order, the FCC stated that unbundled access was not necessary because the competitors were not impaired by paying competitive rates for the use of entrance facilities....

Oregon Sheriff Mike Winters, like the Winklevoss twins, is not one to give up on a losing case. Winters, of Jackson County, has been arguing since 2008 that the Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits the state from issuing concealed handgun permits to drug addicts, which he says includes medical marijuana card holders. Jackson County and Washington County, which lost a similar case, are appealing to the Supreme Court for clarity in resolving conflicting state and federal laws, claiming that “the mounting constitutional and political tension between the states and the federal government over medical marijuana has expanded into the intersection of federal and state firearms regulation,” The Washington Post reports....