This article continues a series which explains when securities laws impact business transactions. The focus of this article is on promissory notes and the jurisprudence which has been developed to determine when such a note qualifies as a...
This article continues analysis of a magistrate's opinion in a BitTorrent case where an adult film company sued a number of anonymous defendants alleging violations of trademark rights. The article quotes several amusing excerpts from the...
The rise of torrents and wireless internet has made it much easier for individuals to download unauthorized copies of copyrighted works while making it much more difficult to identify those who have done so. This article reviews one response by...
This article provides a further update to regulation of private funds by the various states' securities regulators. The state in question in this article is Missouri, and the article details both what private funds were relying on to...
If you are an angel investor (or anyone else looking to invest in a startup venture), how can you maximize your chances of making a good investment? From the entrepreneur's perspective, what types of questions do sophisticated investors...
This article updates a prior article about regulations on private fund managers which had been proposed in Massachusetts. As this article details, these proposals were largely adopted by the Massachusetts Securities Division; the article...
When is an investment in an LLC or a partnership covered by the federal securities laws? This article, which continues a series on the scope of securities regulation, analyzes that question; it explains how innovations in business forms have...
This article continues an analysis (see Part One) of the Second Circuit's recent opinion in Viacom v YouTube. This part of the analysis focuses on the appellate court's reasoning on the (many) various issues on which they had to decide; it...
This article continues something of an unplanned series reviewing recent pending cases and jurisprudence on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's safe harbor from copyright infringement for content providers. The impetus for this article is the...
This article continues a series which examines when a transaction involves the federal securities laws by reviewing SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. (aka, "Howey"). Howey is a famous case to students of securities regulation; it involved sales of tiny...