Taylor Swift Eras Lawsuit, Tupac Shakur Case, Spotify Ruling: Law News
THE BIG STORY: Congress loves a “backronym” — awkwardly forcing sure phrases into the title of latest laws to create a catchy acronym. Want to name your sweeping new surveillance invoice the USA PATRIOT Act? Easy peasy: simply name it the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. What may go incorrect?
But such artistic branding doesn’t have the drive of legislation — no less than in accordance with a new ruling last week on the federal BOTS (Better Online Ticket Sales) Act and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
The Federal Trade Commission sued ticket dealer Key Investment Group LLC final yr, claiming it had violated the statute by utilizing “illegal means” to buy greater than 379,000 occasion tickets on Ticketmaster, together with 2,280 for Swift’s record-shattering Eras live shows.
The BOTS Act, handed in 2016, was clearly named to riff on “bots” — automated crawlers that purchase up tickets earlier than actual people can achieve this. And in response to the FTC lawsuit, Key Investment argued that it had by no means used any such strategies.
But in his ruling, the choose mentioned bots have been by no means really talked about within the legislation: “The statute unambiguously applies to ‘any person’ and not just to ‘bots,’” the choose mentioned. “Courts have rejected relying on a statute’s name or acronym as evidence of the law’s plain meaning.”
You heard it right here first: BOTS — it isn’t only for bots.
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Other prime tales this week…
–Tupac Shakur’s household filed a wrongful death lawsuit in search of to uncover others concerned in his 1996 homicide — and the title of Sean “Diddy“Combs was talked about 48 instances.
-A London choose ruled against the estates of Jimi Hendrix‘s bandmates of their long-running authorized battle with Sony Music in search of royalties from the rock legend’s catalog.
-Ye (previously Kanye West) kicked off a jury trial in a copyright lawsuit over “Hurricane” and “Moon,” two tracks off his Billboard 200 No. 1 album Donda in 2021.
-Spotify gained a ruling rejecting a class action that claimed Discovery Mode is a “modern form of payola,” with a choose ruling that the dispute have to be resolved through personal arbitration.
-Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni reached a settlement to finish their nasty authorized warfare over the film It Ends With Usavoiding a trial that might likely have touched on Lively’s friendship with Taylor Swift.
–Britney Spears took a plea deal following her March DUI arrest, agreeing to plead guilty in return for a lesser misdemeanor “wet reckless” cost and a one-year probation sentence.
–Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler gained a courtroom ruling dismissing much of a lawsuit from a lady, Julia Misley, who says he sexually assaulted her as a minor.
–Jason Derulo took the witness stand to testify at a jury trial in a lawsuit filed by a session musician who claims he is a co-writer of the 2020 chart-topper “Savage Love.”
–50 Cent es facing a lawsuit from a former government at his firm, who claims she was fired, threatened and harassed after she refused to participate in unlawful conduct.
–Busta Rhymes reached a settlement with an ex-assistant who claimed in a lawsuit that the rapper punched him within the face for utilizing his mobile phone on the job.
-Maverick City Music gained a courtroom order halting a competing Christian music mission launched by estranged co-founder Tony Brown — at least for now.
-An Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State and plotting to assault a Taylor Swift live performance in Vienna practically two years in the past pleaded guilty as his trial started.
-Prosecutors revealed grisly new allegations in opposition to D4vdclaiming the singer stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez a number of instances then dismembered her physique utilizing chainsaws.
–Chris Brown requested a choose to bar any reference to his notorious 2009 home assault of Rihanna throughout an upcoming trial over his housekeeper’s canine chew accidents.
