A federal judge last week ordered two law firms that represent the Mississippi Public Employees' Retirement System (MissPERS) in a securities class action lawsuit against Diamond Foods to provide details of their political contributions.

A federal appeals court in New York last week ruled that an artist who incorporates the copyrighted works of another artist without permission does not necessarily have to comment on the copyrighted work to be entitled to the protections of the “fair use” defense to copyright infringement claims.

A federal court judge in Florida chided the government for pursuing the conviction of a 79-year-old widow who pleaded guilty to—and paid a $21.6 million penalty in connection with—one of the largest individual offshore tax evasion cases in U.S. history, according to Bloomberg.

Photo of Bank of America ATM Machine by Brian Katt, Framingham Rest Stop, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bank of America last week agreed to pay investors who claim they were misled into buying risky mortgage debt $500 million—the most ever paid to settle a federal class action over mortgage-backed securities, Reuters reports.