News & Media
We Don't Roll That Way
Ellen DeGeneres, aside from being annoying, also hires idiots. She apparently used more than 1,000 copyrighted songs on her show without permission or paying royalties to the artists. Lets set aside whether, as a philosophical matter, she should have to. Per papers filed at a U.S. District Court in Nashville on September 9th, when the labels asked the Ellen show producers how come they never sought to acquire permission to use the songs, the defendants replied that they didn’t “roll that way.” (source) Homey don’t play dat!
The Seventh Rides Again in Support of the First Amendment
The Alameda Books rule boils down to this: If a city wants to ban a First Amendment protected business, it can only do so if it has evidence that its regulations actually might help do something about adverse secondary effects, the evidence can’t be complete bullshit, and the regulation can’t negatively impact the quality and amount of speech as a proxy for regulating the secondary effects. There was a period of time in which courts did not seem to be embracing the Alameda books case. As simple and as light of a rule as it laid down, conservative judges were looking for any unprincipled way they could to give cities and towns a pass. Judge Easterbrook, the hero of American
Sciopero dei Blog
Apparently Italian bloggers are on strike. It even seems like a damn good cause. Arthur Bright at the Citizen Media Law Project made me laugh though: But is a strike really the way to go? Because it seems to me that the bloggers, as a group, are missing the most important element of a strike: economic influence. Bloggers aren’t exactly autoworkers. Industries don’t depend on bloggers showing up to work each day in order to avoid crippling economic losses. Heck, as the BBC article points out, Italians barely use the Internet: “More than half the population has no web access and one source puts average usage at just two hours a week.” That being the case, a bloggers’ strike is
"Getting What She Deserves": Stories of Vengeful Women Expand Cyberlaw Regulations
By Lateigra C. Cahill A few weeks ago, Missouri officials arrested Elizabeth Thrasher (40), for posting a fake No-Strings-Attached-Sex ad on the Craigslist “Casual Encounters” section. The sex ad included the photograph, cell phone number, and place of employment of a 17-year-old girl (Thrasher’s ex-husband’s girlfriend’s daughter). Investigators say that the girl received phone calls, text messages and nude pictures as a result of the ad. Thrasher faces felony charges with up to four years in state prison. This is the first arrest made under Missouri’s expansion of their harassment statute to address “cyberbullying” after the highly publicized Myspace Suicide Case. Shortly after Thrasher’s arrest, Federal Judge George Wu acquitted Lori Drew (the Missouri mom in the Myspace case) on
We're Still Thinking of You….
I got an interesting email today. I have redacted the identifying information just to be nice. Dear Marc, Good afternoon. Just a quick note to let you know that you are still being considered for new opportunities by [REDACTED] in [Florida]. If your contact information or status has changed at all, please feel free to update us. Additionally, please feel free to email an updated copy of your resume at your convenience. Thank you for your continued interest in [REDACTED]. So I wrote back: Dear [REDACTED] I’ve never heard of you And I then got this reply: Marc, Thanks for your note. The resume we have on file is from 2001. We use to be known as REDACTED, but went
"God is not Religion"
The state of Kentucky passed a law requiring the Emergency Operations Center of their Department of Homeland Security to post a plaque stating the following: The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God. Before your “are you shitting me-o-meter” goes to 11, don’t worry. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the “reliance on Almighty God” part of it violated the Establishment Clauses of both the U.S. and the Kentucky Constitutions. “The statute pronounces very plainly that current citizens of the Commonwealth cannot be safe, neither now, nor in the future, without the aid of Almighty God. Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God, by choice,
Coach Baptizes High School Football Players – Superintendent Clueless
When will public school officials learn to do their jobs, and leave superstition to the kids families? The head football coach at Breckinridge County High School in Kentucky loaded up 20 of his players on a school bus, took them to church, and baptized half of them. The mother of one player said her 16-year-old son was baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service — and that the school district’s superintendent was there and did not object. “Nobody should push their faith on anybody else,” said Michelle Ammons, whose son, Robert Coffey, said Coach Scott Mooney told him and other players that the
Online UDRP
I finally took a stab at filing a UDRP proceeding with the Czech Arbitration Court (my previous go-to was WIPO, and I’d never use NAF). What attracted me? Online filing! It is about time that someone recognizes that UDRP proceedings are a 21st century phenomenon, and perhaps they should be handled as such. Accordingly, imagine my joy when I found that the CAC takes its filings electronically! Oh, but you still have to send four copies of the complaint via courier. Well, so much for my delight. It still seems a little easier. There is an online case management platform. I will continue to post reviews of the process.
Obama Poster Flap
I have refrained from writing about this issue, since I am representing NORML in connection with this matter. However, Sam Bayard over at the Citizen Media Law Project Blog has done a great job of it. See Yes We Cannabis: Another Obama Photo Sparks Fair Use Controversy.
"But We're Just An Innocent Web Host" Ain't Gonna Cut It
Akanoc Solutions Inc., Managed Solutions Group Inc., and Steven Chen, the owner of the two companies learned the hard way that being a web host doesn’t make you automatically free from liability for copyright and trademark infringement committed by your customers. The ISPs involved hosted websites that sold knock-off Louis Vuitton goods, and they were made aware of that fact. A jury found that they knew, or should have known, that their customers were using their services for this purpose, and tagged the web hosting company for a $32 million verdict. Chen’s lawyers argued that he and his companies were protected from being assessed damages under the DMCA, which generally does protect online service providers from these kinds of suits.
Success is like a Girlfriend…
“Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.” (source) An interesting quote from an interesting guy…
"Stupid" Definied
MONICA NOVOTNY: John, what about this controversy over opposition to Obama’s speech to school children? JOHN HARWOOD: I gotta’ tell you Monica, I’ve been watching politics for a long time, and this one is really over-the-top. What is shows you is there are a lot of cynical people who try to fan controversy, and let’s face it, in a country of 300 million people, there are a lot of stupid people too, because if you believe that it’s somehow unhealthy for kids, for the president to say “work hard and stay in school,” you’re stupid. In fact, I’m worried for some of those kids of those parents who are upset — I’m not sure they are smart enough to raise
Holy Shit, I Can Not Wait for October 16!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–N9klJXbjQ]
Yawn, More idiocy in Polk County, Flori-duh
Honestly, do my readers need any more evidence that there really wouldn’t be anything wrong with putting a wall around Polk County, Flori-duh, and just filling the entire place with liquified pig shit? I mean, not much would change. Latest evidence, a kid tried to take photographs of a traffic light in a school zone, and a dumb as fuck peckerwood Polk County cop (no, there isn’t any other kind there) tried to stop him because of… you guessed it, fears of terrorism. See Carlos Miller’s blog for the whole story.
Freedom From Religion Foundation Wins Victory in Colorado
FFRF had a good victory this week: The national Freedom From Religion Foundation has settled a federal lawsuit against the Cherry Creek School District in Denver, Colo., over a policy that urged children to spend an hour a week at a religious institution. The District and the Foundation agreed upon wording to include encouragement to children to spend an hour a week in various civic or educational pursuits, including not only religious but irreligious. Filed on behalf of parents with children in the District, the lawsuit challenged a program known as “40 Developmental Assets.” The disputed Asset 19 stated: “Religious Community – Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution.” The asset was
Cash4Gold Files SLAPP Suit Against the Consumerist
Facts: Cash4Gold is a company that buys gold from consumers and it is based in Florida. They have filed a SLAPP suit against a consumer review site for publishing facts about another lawsuit involving a former employee. Complaint here. A really long, but informative post by the Consumerist is here.
Indianapolis Adult Entertainment Ordinance Struck Down – Annex Books v. City of Indianapolis
The City of Indianapolis has a long and shameful history of treading on the Constitution in its own little private war on sexual free expression. Back in the 1980s, religious fundamentalists on the Indianapolis City Council teamed up with Catharine MacKinnon and passed a ludicrous anti-pornography ordinance designed to creatively outlaw adult entertainment altogether. Under that law, not only was it illegal to “traffic” in pornography, but if a woman felt injured or discriminated against and she could show that the bad guy had seen porn, she could sue the seller or the maker of the porn for damages. The theory being that if a man reads porn and then beats up a girl, the porn did it. Incredibly, the
Tiffany Shepherd, From Bikini-Claid Bait Girl to Porn to Cybersquatting Victim
Tiffany Shepherd, the Port Saint Lucie schoolteacher who was fired from her job because she worked on a fishing charter boat in a bikini has decided to make the jump into adult entertainment. Unfortunately, after being the victim of puritanical flori-duh social conservatives, she is now the victim of scumbag cybersquatters. It looks like one person registered TiffanyShepherd.com, and is using the site to refer traffic to a UK dating site. A domain name corresponding to Tiffany’s stage name, Leah Lust, has also been registered by what seems to be another opportunist. Although the site is not currently displaying any content, it is registered to a privacy service. I bet you a dozen donuts that Ms. Shepherd isn’t the one
Burning Man to Photographers: ALL YOUR PHOTOS ARE BELONG TO US!
The organizers of the annual Burning Man festival have instituted a controversial new policy regarding photography at the annual festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. According to XBiz, the organizers of the festival were concerned that porn websites were publishing photos taken at the event. For those of you who don’t know, Burning Man is a pretty “live free or die” type festival out in the desert, where plenty of people find the opportunity to walk around naked. That’s not what it is *all* about, but that is part of it. As a predictable reaction to the nudity, people have started showing up to Burning Man, cameras in hand, to sell images of nude “burners” to adult entertainment websites. Burning
Glenn Be( )k
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0OUXkZO8vE] Not only does he not know how to spell “oligarchy,” he doesn’t have a clue what the word means.
