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December 31, 2005
Closing out 2005
My favorite posts from the past year.
I wasn't nearly as prolific or verbose in 2005 as I've been in year's past, but at least I'm still here.
Also, thanks to all (anyone) still out there subscribed to techlawadvisor and still reading. I appreciate your patience. Here's to a great 2006.
December
Offensive? and Plankton meet Whale
November
Bugmenomore and EFF Student Blogging Guide
October
Google goes to Washington
September
got Brandy?
August
blogs are worth protecting and Is pregnancy a disease?
July
Why You Don't Rank on Search Engines (there's actually a whole bunch this month)
June
Blawg Review #12
May
I was apparently too busy moving this month
April
Economic Analysis of Gripe Site Decisions
Blogging at Work
Blawg Review Launches
March
Belly Up to the IP Bar - Podcast II
February
Is Beer More Important than Marketing?
Looks like there was a lot of good stuff in January and February.
See also: IPTAblog's Looking Back by Andrew Raff ; Althouse ; Grits 2005 Retrospective ; The state of cyberlaw, 2005 ; Law & Religion in 2005 by Marci Hamilton ; Eric Goldman's 2005 Blog Year-in-Review ; etal.
Posted by Kevin Heller
and a Happy New Year to you too
Lat declined comment when contacted by The Star-Ledger of Newark. He simply wished a happy new year and said, "You'll be hearing from me more."Underneath Their Robes is back online. [via Ed.]
Posted by Kevin Heller
Jews for Jesus v. Google
Eric Goldman: "Jews for Jesus has sued Google based on the third-level subdomain chosen by a Blogspot blogger (jewsforjesus.blogspot.com). You can find the complaint.... Can Google claim to be a registrar with respect to the third level subdomain?"
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 29, 2005
Keeping Tabs on the TTABlog
Keeping Tabs on the TTAB(R) is a federally registered trademark of John L. Welch of The TTABlog. John's posted his Q4 index.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Recording Industry vs The People
A blog devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people. [via Techdirt: RIAA Accused Of Coaching 15-Year-Old Witness In File Sharing Suit]
Posted by Kevin Heller
Root Down
Michael Geist on the Sony Rootkit settlement and what it might mean for future DRM abusers.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Predictions Past and Present
J.D.: Top 10 Tech Transformations of 2005
Rex Sorgatz: 2006 Predictions
Compare and or Contrast.
Posted by Kevin Heller
never gets old
More on advertising on legal blogs.
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 28, 2005
On Fair Use
The Free Expression Policy Project at NYU Law School issued a report, "Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control." [pdf]
Posted by Kevin Heller
you can call me a Libertarian
The Pennsylvania Independent: "We aim to make sure the next generations of Americans value liberty, and we hope to be the first in what is to be a nationwide shift toward libertarian principles and property values."
With three articles on beer in the first issue, you know this is going to be good.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Lawyer Humor
Nice collection of jokes to impress your colleagues with from Marc Galanter at The American Lawyer: Did You Hear the One About ...
Posted by Kevin Heller
Do No Harm
Google does some good for non-profits, USA Today reports. Which is why I don't have an (ethics/ethical) problem helping them make money.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Good use of RSS
the Brooklawtalk Aggregator [found via technorati]
Posted by Kevin Heller
AUteurs Rights
Australia gives film director's copyrights in films they direct, reports David Jacobson.
Posted by Kevin Heller
A-Hole Bill proposed in Congress
IPCentral alerts me to the fact that a new Analog Hole Bill, H.R. 4569, the Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005, has been introduced in Congress.
More: Declan | Conyers | EFFector 18.45: A Lump of Coal for Consumers: Analog Hole Bill Introduced | BNA | Google News
1/12 update: The A-Hole bill will make "it harder for amateurs to create and distribute video content — and just at the moment when technology seems to be enabling high-quality amateur video distribution." from The Professional Device Hole by Ed Felten
Posted by Kevin Heller
Like a box of chocolates
Anonymous Lawyer offers this wonderful assortment of reader ideas for torturing associates.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Registering Blog Names
PHOSITA(R) is now a registered trademark of Dunlap Codding & Rogers, P.C.
update: Promote the Progress(R) is now a registered trademark of J. Matthew Buchanan, Esq.
via Juris Nipper who was bored enough to provide a link to 27 (almost 30) separate USPTO FAQs.
aside: these rethink(ers) are certainly busy.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Avoiding Malpractice Claims
Day on Torts has a good post on how to stay off your carrier's naughty list: Reject Letters And Things That Go Bump In The Night. [via]
Posted by Kevin Heller
Top Internet Cases of 2005
as compiled by Evan Brown.
Posted by Kevin Heller
use Google as a free proxy
O'Reilly has posted instructions for using Google as a free proxy [via]
However, my tech guy says that there are two problems with it:
1. Most companies block sites based on words in the URL, and google adds the url you're translating to it's own as part of the querystring.
2. Most good sites require log-ins.
Posted by Kevin Heller | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Congress Tech Agenda for 2006
Tackling a broad range of technology-related issues, including communications law reform, data-privacy issues, spyware and fair use to name a few. [pcworld]
Posted by Kevin Heller
WSJ offers free articles daily
at the wsj.com/free url. Today's is entitled: What You Should Know About Web Searches: Doing a search in Google or Yahoo seems as easy as falling off a log, but too often the search results aren't exactly what you'd like. Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret offer simple tips and tricks for getting more out of a Web search.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Speaking of strangeness
I know where Blackface Jesus lives, but I'm not allowed to tell until my friend moves out of the building.
Posted by Kevin Heller
In defense of
Christopher King reports that things are heating up in New Hampshire.
Posted by Kevin Heller
and sometimes for lunch
Grits for Breakfast has put together a Texas-style Holiday blog roundup.
Posted by Kevin Heller
with apologies to all those I've missed
Congratulations to The 463 and The Wired GC on one year in the blogosphere.
Posted by Kevin Heller
Cato Unbound
Cato Unbound launches its inaugaural issue by asking (Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan, Yale Law’s Akhil Reed Amar, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, and Cato Institute chairman William A. Niskanen) the question: “If you could add any three amendments to the Constitution, what would they be?”
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 27, 2005
Two Timer
Congrats to Blawger Bowl Champion (for the second year in a row) Bizz Bang Buzz who beat regular season champ IPTAblog.
Posted by Kevin Heller
New Kinja
Posted by Kevin Heller
Marketplace of Ideas and Smut
Julie Hilden suggests the FCC is right to support a la carte cable and TiVo.
Columbia law professor Michael Dorf explains the legal background that informed Stern's move to Sirius Satellite.
[via Writ]
Posted by Kevin Heller
Blawg Review Awards 2005
The prestigious Blawg Review Awards 2005 are up. Congrats to all the winnners -- all are very deserving.
Also, a congrats and good luck to RU (Rutgers), my college alma mater, in its bid to win its first bowl game since they invented the sport back in 1869.
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 19, 2005
What if...?
What If Copyright Law Were Strongly Enforced in the Blogosphere? by Daniel J. Solove. [via #37]
Bloggers would then need to hire someone to tell the enforcers to go to hell.
The line between fair use and copyright is fuzzy; but the line between fair use and copytheft is not.
More on rss hijacking here.
Posted by Kevin Heller
How much do you hate the RIAA?
Do you hate it as much as FactoryJoe aka Chris Messina? [Warning: Explicit Lyrics]
Posted by Kevin Heller
Wired GC hosts Blawg Review #37
"Our host for Blawg Review #37, The Wired GC, is a lawyer who blogs anonymously to express himself candidly without having to temper his thoughts out of concern for his employment as the General Counsel for a company located somewhere in the Midwest..."
Ed. sat down recently and had an email interview with this anonymous host to provide our readers with a bit more insight into The Wired GC.
Posted by Kevin Heller | TrackBack
December 16, 2005
Offensive?
Can anyone think of any offensive terms that might be trademarked? Apparently, Damon Wayans has. [via INTA Tm Listserv] I understand that Dave Chappelle may file opposition papers.
Word from my source on the inside is that the mark has not yet been assigned to an examiner and that he'll definitely get a 2a refusal.
Here is one of the responses I received to my question: "Carlos Mencia is seeking to trademark 'wetback'."
Related: DYKES ON BIKES was approved for publication by the USPTO.
Posted by Kevin Heller
BMG Music v. Gonzales
Summary judgment and award for copyright proprietors on claims of infringement of music copyrights via defendant's use of a file-sharing network is affirmed over defendant's claim of fair use. [pdf]
Bottom line -- downloading as well as uploading is now prohibited.
* Denise Howell: Whack-A-Grokster
* William Patry: BMG v. Cecilia Gonzalez
* More...
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 12, 2005
2257
Jason Schultz and Joe Gratz on 2257.
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 07, 2005
Plankton meet Whale
I may sometimes leave the impression that I am an advocate for the abolition of Intellectual Property laws (I even had a tagline at one point that said setting IP free one work at a time), but I do have corporate clients with such assets and I know how to protect their rights. However, I am definitely a consumer advocate and that may have something to do with why I chose blogging as my forum for airing such grievances. As Justin at the blogbook has quipped: "Blogs, by their very nature, are a vehicle for information hyper-consumerism. There are tens of thousands of individuals posting regularly, and they in turn have consumed thousands of items from other sources each day. It is as if every plankton is also a baleen whale."
On that note, stay tuned to The Consumerist, which hopes to channel the collective rage of consumers poisoned by every shoddy product, inhumane customer support, or half-assed service out there in the marketplace.
If we're lucky.
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 05, 2005
Blawg Review #35
You can read a very non-inconsequential Blawg Review #35 at Colin Samuels' Infamy or Praise.
Posted by Kevin Heller
December 01, 2005
Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way
NYT article on internet addiction in the Fashion & Style section.
"Dr. Cash and other professionals say that people who abuse the Internet are typically struggling with other problems, like depression and anxiety."
Posted by Kevin Heller
