News & Blog

Former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro says his signature move “The Carlton Dance“— was copied in Epic Games’ Fortnite Battle Royale. Epic Games sold The Dance as an in-game purchase under the name “Fresh,” allowing players to customize their game avatars. In the same lawsuit Ribeiro also sues Take Two Interactive, the publisher of NBA 2K, a popular basketball video game that also uses......
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The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals certainly thinks so! Fior Pichardo de Veloz is a lawyer and elected official from the Dominican Republic. In 2013, when she was 50 years old, she flew to Miami to be present for the birth of a grandson, but was arrested at the airport on an outstanding warrant (rumored to be a cocaine-possession charge dating back to 1988) and......
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What Are Federal Sentencing Memos? Sentencing memos often focus on who the convicted defendant is, and not the crime committed. A sentencing memorandum should be detailed and tell the client’s story and highlight the factors, called Section 3553 factors, that a judge must consider in imposing a sentence. These “sentencing factors” include the following: The nature and circumstances of the offense The history and characteristics of......
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The first gene to be linked to antisocial behavior was identified in 1993 in a large Dutch family that was notorious for violence.  Fifteen years of painstaking research revealed that they all lacked the same gene. This gene produces an enzyme called MAOA, which regulates the levels of neurotransmitters involved in impulse control. If you lack the MAOA gene or have the low-activity variant you are......
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According to one federal judge, this is a fact! This past week U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Congress had no authority to ban female genital mutilation. The judge stated that “as despicable as this practice may be,” Congress did not have the authority to pass the 22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and that FGM is for the states to regulate.......
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In 2014, Kesha (Kesha Rose Serbert) filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing music producer “Dr. Luke” Gottwald of sexually, physically, and emotionally abusing her during their professional relationship. Kesha’s lawsuit alleged: “Ms. Sebert took the pills and woke up the following afternoon, naked in Dr. Luke’s bed, sore and sick, with no memory of how she got there.  Ms. Sebert immediately called......
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Dutch TV personality and positivity guru Emile Ratelband thinks age is just a number. He’s 69 years old but has petitioned a court in the central city of Arnhem, Netherlands to permit to legally change his age to 49. Doctors told him he has the body of a younger man. Ratelband said he wants to avoid age discrimination in society — especially on dating websites.......
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This is fact! The European Court of Human Rights, Europe’s highest human rights court, just upheld a 2011 verdict by an Austrian court that fined an unnamed woman who gave seminars in which she described the marriage between the Prophet Muhammed and a six-year-old named Aisha as “pedophilia”. It is reported that during the seminars the woman said, “Muhammad liked to do it with children.” “A......
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This is a fact! In order to avoid the statute of limitations prosecutors have brought indictments against anonymous DNA profiles! Recently prosecutors in Wisconsin filed a felony charge against the DNA profile of an unidentified man believed to have sent a threatening letter to a judge. The DNA was obtained from a 9-cent stamp (these were last sold in 1975!) used to send  the threatening......
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This is fact! Even if an artist or author signed agreements that transferred all rights to their music label or publisher, a federal law allows the artist to reclaim the copyright after a certain number of years. See 17 U.S.C. § 203. The Copyright Act of 1976 allows recording artists and songwriters the right to claw back rights to copyrighted work 35 years after creation? This so-called “termination......
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