Blawging Difficulties
Both courts and employers are making blogging more difficult for employees, especially when they are lawyers and more so if they are working for the government.
Update: The Curmudgeonly Clerk and stickbugblog weigh in.
Howard Bashman follows-up: "Is it appropriate for a law clerk to an Article III federal judge to have a Web log that discusses the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice?"
Non-IP Blawg of the Week
Michael Fox's Jottings By An Employer's Lawyer. I'm finding lots of interesting cases and case commentary over there.
July 10, 2003
Derek disputes Posner's dicta in Madster
"For now, let's talk about Posner's interesting dicta in Madster. On page 6 of the decision, Posner says that time-shifting a TV program for permanent storage ("librarying") is an infringement and so is commercial skipping, which "amounted to creating an unauthorized derivative work" that would reduce the copyright's holders ability to make money (thus not qualifying for fair use, presumably)." [A Copyfighter's Musing] [see also What Napster Should Have Said (Part 1)]
Text Ad Site Counters
Hey John, did Bravenet tell you they're now advertising on your web site?
update: John responds (see comment) and he's not happy about it.
Shoplifting Argument gets Trashed
I'm pointing more and more to Volokh Conspiracy. I can't help it, Orin Kerr is discussing the napsterization of Kate Spade handbags. I've discussed the two before, just never thought to put them together.
John also has a nice comment in reponse to this post. Check it.
July 9, 2003
Trademarked Keyword Theft
John Mudd, via Blogcritics, has this post about a news item carried on Inman News wherein web-based real estate companies are buying familiar real estate monikers as Internet keywords that trigger paid placement ads on online search engines in other words they are capitalizing on the brand recognition established by their decades-old bricks-and-mortar competitors.
The article discusses the risk, by analogy to recent metatag cases, associated with such a practice as well as Google's policy involving the purchase of trademarks as keywords.
Mudd also indicates that Inman News couldn't find the placement, but see Agent Connect's ad here. My guess is that if you don't see it it's probably because the advertiser has exhausted their budget for the day.
OTBOM: I completely agree with both Rick and Susannah
The Reverse Cowgirl says: "Because blogging is not a fucking conversation. It's a fucking primal scream."
Rick Klau says: "[N]ever, ever blog at a domain that's not owned by you. Don't blog on your employer's site, don't blog on your blogging application's site -- make sure your blog lives (and stays!) on your own domain."
sidenote: For me blogging takes the place of me yelling at the tv, except now I have an audience and my wife doesn't get annoyed.
Hacking the X-Box
the site | Buy the Book | says Dan Gillmor | NYT | NYT | News.com | USATODAY.com
Copyright Concerns over Google's Cache
Furdlog points us to this article which asks this question: "At the heart of Google's caching dilemma lies a thorny legal problem involving a core Web technology: When is it acceptable to copy someone else's Web page, even temporarily?"
Breaking News: RIAA Sues Puretunes.com
A recording industry trade group said on Wednesday it has filed a lawsuit against a Spanish company that operates Puretunes.com, a music download service launched in May. [Reuters]
Also: Net Radio Group Threatens to Sue RIAA
The Las Vegas-based Webcaster Alliance will send a letter today to the RIAA, threatening to sue the group for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act unless the RIAA agrees to reopen negotiations over the royalty rates webcasters must fork over to artists and record labels. [via /.]
July 8, 2003
Lucky 300th
Interesting post by The Trademark Blog noting that Esprit has become Levis's 300th victim for trademark infringement. Having defended against Levi's in a matter before, I could probably tell you based on the placement and color of the tab whether Levi's is looking to add to its collection of settlement or actually litigate the matter. However, it's unclear from the article if Esprit is sewing counterfeit Levi's tabs on its jeans or esprit tabs that infringe upon the Levi's tab design onto esprit jeans.
Law and Cinema
Tyler Cowen of the The Volokh Conspiracy is considering which film to show his class. My pick is Rashomon and here is why -- Orit Kamir in his article "Judgment by Film: Socio-Legal Functions of Rashomon", 12 YALE J.L. & HUMAN. 39 (2000), notes the following:
films offer unique cinematic insight into our understanding of the relationship between law, society, and culture. Furthermore, some films go beyond contributing cinematic-theoretical input and conduct their own cinematic socio-cultural "judging-acts." Engaging in socio-cultural dialogue with legal discourse, a film's underlying structure may evoke its viewer's unconscious, intuitive familiarity with legal notions and conventions, and, relying on "legal intuition" thus evoked, the film may manipulate it and engage the viewer in its own implicit judging process. Such cinematic proceedings are distinct from fictional legal proceedings portrayed on?screen. Judgment by film may use a film's characters, plot, imagery, and structure to represent more general social issues and may result in very real influence on the world?view of audiences, who are also society's jurors, judges, and "reasonable people." In the "law and film" relationship, film may therefore play far more active theoretical as well as "socio-cultural judging" roles than portraying legal issues and courtroom drama, or supplying plots for legal analysis. This "cinematic activism" is particularly interesting, as it may go unnoticed and thus escape critical awareness. Rather than present the concept of cinematic judging-act in a purely theoretical manner, this Article demonstrates its dynamics and significance, its close relationship with cinematic law and society theory, and its elusiveness through analysis of a single feature film...
July 7, 2003
9th Circuit OKs Web Linking
An internet search engine operator's "thumbnailed" reproductions of a copyright plaintiff's pictures amounted to a fair use under the Copyright Act. KELLY v. ARRIBA SOFT CORP. , No. 00-55521 (9th Cir. July 07, 2003) [pdf] [doc] [more] [c-net]
CIPA Discussion
Check out Jay Currie's discussion with MaryLaine Brock of ex libris regarding the SCOTUS decision in the American Library Association's challenge to the Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and potential internet fileting solutions.
P2P Update
File sharing up 10% since RIAA announced that it will start tracking down and suing users of file-sharing programs. Maybe because they said they'll be starting with worst offenders rather than random attacks.
Kevin J. Heller, Esq.
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