Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Martin Luther King’s Heirs' Blatant Abuse of IP Claims to Control His Image

by Paul Alan Levy

The current controversy stirred by broad popular revulsion over the Superbowl ad run by Dodge Ram, which included a voice-over excerpted from a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., thus using it to sell a truck, ignores a dirty little secret all-to-well known among those of us who worry about the use of abusive intellectual property claims to quash public discussion of celebrities and corporations alike.

The heirs of Dr. King are notorious for the issuance of cease-and-desist letters  and even bringing suit against those who presume to use the name, words or recordings of Dr. King without their consent, consent that must be purchased through the payment of a licensing fee.  The considerable resources of EMI Music Publishing are used to enforce these bullying demands when a recording is at issue.  The other side of the coin is that, by claiming control over the use of Dr. King's name, image, and words, and consistently turning that control to profiteering ends, the heirs must shoulder the blame for misuse of those "assets."

Ann Fleming's Book (And More) on the History of Fringe Finance

Ann Fleming of Georgetown has written a book, City of Debtors: A Century of Fringe Finance. I'm pasting in a blurb below, but first, for those who want to know more about this subject but don't have time to read the book just now, here are some other options. Last fall, Ann wrote a WaPo op-ed about the CFPB payday rule that drew on her historical research, Federal regulation of payday loans is actually a win for states’ rights. She also gave a radio interview on the topic here.

Here's the blurb on the book:

Since the rise of the small-sum lending industry in the 1890s, people on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder in the United States have been asked to pay the greatest price for credit. Again and again, Americans have asked why the most fragile borrowers face the highest costs for access to the smallest loans. To protect low-wage workers in need of credit, reformers have repeatedly turned to law, only to face the vexing question of where to draw the line between necessary protection and overreaching paternalism.

City of Debtors shows how each generation of Americans has tackled the problem of fringe finance, using law to redefine the meaning of justice within capitalism for those on the economic margins. Anne Fleming tells the story of the small-sum lending industry’s growth and regulation from the ground up, following the people who navigated the market for small loans and those who shaped its development at the state and local level. Fleming’s focus on the city and state of New York, which served as incubators for numerous lending reforms that later spread throughout the nation, differentiates her approach from work that has centered on federal regulation. It also reveals the overlooked challenges of governing a modern financial industry within a federalist framework.

Fleming’s detailed work contributes to the broader and ongoing debate about the meaning of justice within capitalistic societies, by exploring the fault line in the landscape of capitalism where poverty, the welfare state, and consumer credit converge.

Report says Mulvaney has put CFPB probe of Equifax "on ice"

In this article, Reuters reporter Patrick Rucker explains that "Mick Mulvaney, [Trump's interim] head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter." 

Dee Pridgen Article: State and Private Enforcement of UDAP Laws

Dee Pridgen of Wyoming has written The Dynamic Duo of Consumer Protection: State and Private Enforcement of Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Laws, 81 Antitrust L.J. 911 (2017). Here's the abstract:

This article focuses on the critical importance to consumer protection of the “dynamic duo” of state and private enforcement mechanisms provided in state unfair and deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) statutes. The article begins by chronicling the origins of these state laws, rooted in a cooperative effort between the Federal Trade Commission and state governments in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The two goals of the state laws are: (1) expanding consumer protection enforcement out to states and individuals, and (2) providing consumers with more adequate remedies for relatively small individual injuries from marketplace practices. The evolution of more aggressive state attorney general litigation, such as multi-state lawsuits and suits against large companies, led to some federal/state tensions over the years, but mostly the federal and state consumer protection missions have been in harmony. Private enforcement is also evaluated, including the public benefits of individual or class actions as deterrents to future unfair or deceptive practices, as well as the individual benefits to consumers who can obtain meaningful remedies. The article rebuts criticisms of the private right of action for state UDAP laws, but also endorses some limited judicial and legislative reforms that can both leave consumers adequately protected while shielding businesses from unwarranted litigation. The article concludes that both halves of the “dynamic duo,” i.e., state and private enforcement of state UDAP laws, are needed to provide the optimum level of consumer protection.

"Trump administration strips consumer watchdog office of enforcement powers in lending discrimination cases"

The Washington Post reports: "The Trump administration has stripped enforcement powers away from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau office that specializes in pursuing cases against financial firms accused of breaking discrimination laws, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails reviewed by The Washington Post."

The full article is here.