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A Breakdown of Fair Use

Is your small business trying to spruce up your website by adding some new pictures? Want to raise money for your nonprofit by hosting a community movie night? Trying to update your marketing materials with a brand-new promotional video with cool background music? If so, you could be opening yourself up to potential copyright lawsuits and should read up on the doctrine of fair use! An important aspect of starting a small business or nonprofit is exposure, and as organizations work to market themselves and increase awareness of their goals and activities in the communities they serve, they could open themselves up to legal danger. Litigation is expensive, and the cost can be especially devastating to small businesses and nonprofits. In all promotional or informational materials (including brochures, flyers, websites, etc.), organizations need to be sure that they are legally protected from copyright infringement claims.   What is Fair Use? Fair use is a legal doctrine that per...
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BIPOC Executive Leadership Representation in Nonprofits

  Halloween has already passed, but as a lowly law student with arithmophobia, I feel compelled to provide you all with some spooky statistics in November. It is no secret that the upper ranks of America’s professional workforce have a diversity problem, and in particular, a racial diversity problem. Unfortunately, this remains true in the nonprofit sector: -           Studies have shown that just 20% of nonprofit executive directors and CEOs are people of color, and 66% of nonprofit Board members are white. [1] -           Another study reported that between July 2019 and January 2024, “ 47% of all staff… 70% of CEOs/Executive Directors (EDs)... as well as 66% of Board members identify as white.” [2] Compare these figures with the general population per USAFacts: over 40% of the U.S. population identified as non-white in 2023, a figure that has grown over 17% since 1990. [3] ...
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Updates on Detroit’s Cannabis Industry: How to Obtain a License, and What New State and Federal Rules May Mean for D-Town’s Dispensaries

Two years ago, in a post titled “The Detroit Cannabis Industry – A Pathway to Social Equity?”, this blog examined the historical context and legislative hurdles which had, up to that point, prevented the opening of recreational cannabis dispensaries in Detroit. Two years later, we examine how the industry has since bloomed in the Motor City, the practical steps to obtaining a recreational cannabis license in Detroit as well as lingering obstacles for newcomers, and the potential implications of both the Cannabis Regulatory Agency’s proposed new administrative rules and the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (the “ DEA’s [TD1]   ”) proposed rescheduling of cannabis to a Schedule III controlled substance.   A Budding Business In August 2022, the City of Detroit announced its plan to award recreational marijuana licenses in three phases, reserving half of the available licenses in each phase for social equity applicants. A “social equity applicant” is defined under the law as a “quali...
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