Copyright Law

A Dark and Stormy Early Afternoon

Posted on August 07, 2008
The 2008 "Winners" of the Bulwer-Lytton Contest have been announced. It's a particularly disappointing set of entries this year... at least in terms of absolute badness. I've been forced to suffer through much worse examples in legal writing recently...

Internet Sausage Jambalaya

Posted on August 03, 2008
A jumbled up Sunday... which shouldn't really surprise anyone. On the war crimes front, former Serbian leader Karadzic arrived at Den Hague for trial, and indicated that he'll defend himself vigorously against the charges. But a conviction of Karadzic is not the most important indicator of the usefulness of war-crimes indictments...

Road to Moscow

Posted on August 03, 2008
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) died earlier today at 89 in Moscow. Most major papers have printed stories with roughly the same slugline: that his writings made the world aware of the "problems" of communism in the Soviet Union. So sayeth the International Herald-Tribune, the Washington Post, The Times (London), even The Guardian, to list just a few English-language dailies...

Pity the Poor Farmers

Posted on July 31, 2008
This entry may be a bit heavy going, as it largely concerns theoretical issues that may seem of dubious application to writers' interests. Trust me, though: It will all seem more important by the time you slog through it. First up is an antitrust case on mergers between organic food chains...

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Our Liberal Media

Posted on July 30, 2008
So this is the result of the liberal media conspiracy: Doesn't look too ideological to me...

We Appreciate Your Patronage

Posted on July 28, 2008
Once upon a time, the US government was so corrupt that it made Chicago hiring practices look honest. That was about two years ago, when Monica Goodling, Esq. was busy trying to simultaneously surpass the Grant, Pendergast, and first Daley administrations at political patronage hiring at the Department of Justice: In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal

Sunday Sausage Sale

Posted on July 27, 2008
I have lots of sausages on offer this morning, but from fewer batches. They're all kosher, USDA-inspected, and guaranteed not less than 50% Earthling. Scalzi (correctly) states the limits of the First Amendment on his blog. I leave to your judgment, though, whether it's Scalzi or the chattering m/classes who is/are out of line...

Ourubouros

Posted on July 26, 2008
Earlier this week, WaPo carried two articles on various aspects of military affairs that really pissed me off, for two entirely different reasons. First up, we have Congressional hearings on gays in the military in which — as usual — the most strident voices opposing gays in the military never, themselves, served — and have agendas for which the military is merely a tool to greater power for

Head-Banging

Posted on July 24, 2008
Banging my head against a brick wall would probably be a relief right now. Literally (and literarily, given the disappointments of the last couple of novels I'd been looking forward to for a while). So we'll just take a jump to the left into that wall, since it's hard to go Left from where I am...

The New "Dr" Death

Posted on July 22, 2008
At least one can be reasonably objective about this particular war criminal (unless, that is, one is a political supporter): Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Serbia who bears ultimate command responsibility for significant "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia, was arrested on Monday and will be turned over to the international war crimes tribunal in Den Hague for trial on

An Incomplete Boob Job

Posted on July 21, 2008
The Third Circuit demonstrated that the FCC's "boob job" over Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" was, well, a case of the emperor's new clothes. (Do you think that's a mixed enough metaphor to start a Monday morning?) It's not nearly as mixed as the FCC's own rationale, as the Third Circuit's opinion reversing the FCC's fine shows...

8720A

Posted on July 20, 2008
Today, my brain is the sausage, after a migraine attack. There isn't a lot of variety in the links for today... Tor Books, the leading publisher of speculative fiction in the US, now has a new, community-oriented website live. Hopefully, it will be kept better updated than the Tor Books "official" site...

Batman Continues

Posted on July 18, 2008
And Robin, always remember to wear your safety belt! Sorry, but I grew up during the Adam West era of live-action Batman, so the goofy safety tips will always seem appropriate... particularly when observing the Lamborghini scene in The Dark Knight. I took both remoras along today...

Negligent Publication

Posted on July 16, 2008
The Ninth Circuit issued an opinion yesterday in an insurance-coverage dispute that has some interesting implications for authors. "Interesting," that is, in the sense of the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times"... because the language being interpreted also appears in many publishers' errors-and-omissions ("E&O") policies...

An Extra Serving of Sausages

Posted on July 15, 2008
There is so much dead animal waiting to be ground into tasty interthingy links this week that I'm celebrating the bounty with an extra peek into the smokehouse. Some of this, though, isn't really ready for consumption yet — it's tough going. Speaking of dead animals, Jaws was really offended by this item on dead sharks and "art"...

Sunday Sausages

Posted on July 13, 2008
I'm moving the weekly roundup of miscellany to Sundays for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with changes in the schedule in the real world (or as close as things get to the "real world" in Chambanana, anyway). Today, I've chosen a somewhat schizophrenic abstract-concern-to-concrete-issue organization...

Lassie Rights Come Home!

Posted on July 11, 2008
It appears that Timmy has fallen down the well again. But Lassie's copyrights and related literary rights have come home... sort of. The Ninth Circuit issued a ruling today in Classic Media, Inc. v. Mewborn, No. 06–55385 (9th Cir. 11 Jul 2008) that bears some careful consideration by literary heir...

Right Result, Wrong Reason

Posted on July 10, 2008
Professor Patry thinks I will disagree with his praise for a copyright decision imposing attorney's fees on a losing plaintiff. In a sense, I do. My disagreement is not with the result, but with the reasoning... and the basic rationale. The problem here is that Judge Posner's decision rather misleadingly seems to concern only copyright law, and will thus be twisted all out of recognition by both

Throw Another Sausage on (the) Barbie

Posted on July 08, 2008
Yet again, tasty bits of tasty animals ground into sausages for your enjoyment. Don't look too closely at how they're made, though... especially this week. I offer no guarantees as to species! The National Law Journal has a series of articles proposing various versions of "legal education reform" this week...

Denver Police Brace for Convention

Posted on July 06, 2008
... so says the headline. However, they mean the unruly Democratic National Convention, not the World Science Fiction Convention (which is this weekend in Denver). The police aren't worried by Imperial Stormtroopers, Klingons, and Spartan Marines — just longwinded tales tolds by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing...

The REAL "Mission Accomplished"

Posted on July 04, 2008
Today's gluttony will consist of a vegetarian barbecue, unless the vegetarian crawls out of the damned marinade again (cows are vegetarians). But before that, a few thoughts on the difference between a declaration and a victory. The relatively recent criticism of George III — our George III, that is — for his declaration of "Mission Accomplished" should be some food for thought on this day that

Summer Sausage

Posted on July 01, 2008
Another overload of miscellaneous animal parts ground into a tasty summer sausage this week, in anticipation of this Friday's forthcoming celebration of declaring "mission accomplished" some 230ish years ago via a festival of gluttony, drunkenness, charcoal-starter accidents, and explosives...

New Copyright Registration System Live

Posted on July 01, 2008
It's alive... or, at least, it's on teh interthingy. The US Copyright Office's new eCO system for online and online-assisted registration is now live. Highlights: No matter what certain sites say, this does not change any of the legal rules concerning registration...

Long Knives

Posted on June 30, 2008
A song for today: Al Stewart — "The Last Day of June 1934" In other news, the Eleventh Circuit has apparently decided that a "revision" means "whatever the publisher decides, as long as it doesn't mix stuff with another publisher." In a 7–5 en banc decision, that court has just decided that the National Geographic CD-ROM set is a mere "revision" of the print magazine, and that therefore

Dr Fielding — Code Sand

Posted on June 29, 2008
Twenty-seven years and a few days ago, the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers — a supposedly top secret collection of historical documents discussing the entry of the US into Vietnam. The Pentagon did learn one thing: Historical documents of this nature will find their way out...

Real Football

Posted on June 28, 2008
I'll be glued to the screen tomorrow from 11am Central, watching a football double-header: DC United v. LA Galaxy, followed by Germany v. Spain. No sissy helmets; no tea-breaks every ten seconds; no waves of substitutes. And there should be plenty of goals, or at least chances on goal, as the only one of the four teams in question with much defensive prowess is Germany...

Selling Art-House Films to Eskimos

Posted on June 27, 2008
In the last few days, articles have appeared (in places where almost no one will read them) rationalizing why nobody's going to art-house movies or making any money on them. There's a much simpler explanation: Going to an art-house theater is a horrible experience that a film's excellence has a great deal of difficulty overcoming...

You'll Know We're Americans By Our Guns

Posted on June 26, 2008
I'm not going to say a lot about the substance of Heller. (For what it's worth, I don't object all that much to long arms that might, at least in theory, be useful for hunting and hunting only; it's bad military practice to have militia store their own weapons...

Copyright Office Upgrading to 1980s Technology!

Posted on June 25, 2008
It's not quite that bad, but it sure seems that way. As of 01 July, the Copyright Office will deploy a new online system for registering copyright in most textual works. The description of the system does sound very 1982ish to me: Almost identical to the initial entry of personnel information in the military...

Jockey Shorts

Posted on June 25, 2008
The "sexier" version of legal briefs. Believe me, you don't want to see middle-aged lawyers wearing thongs... The Supreme Court appears to plan on ending its term tomorrow (Thursday), issuing opinions in both Heller (the DC gun-control case) and the latest iteration of the election finance cases (which would be much easier if it would just overrule Buckley v...

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