News & Media
NYT on Law School Economics
By J. DeVoy Just weeks before the bar exam, the New York Times craps all over the nonsensical economics of legal education. Based on the Times’ research, US News rankings play a surprisingly large role – and one much larger than the relevance such rankings actually have in practice. (“Oh, you went to Vanderbilt instead of Boalt? I’m not even going to bother replying to your opposition. Guffaw!” /sarcasm.) While the anti-law school undercurrent has been building for years (see Randazza’s post from 2009), this represents one of its deeper treatments. Moreover, it’s one of the few inquiries into the law school market failure made by a news outlet of national predominance.
Why filming porn in Las Vegas should make sense (or: unsolicited response to Bobbi Starr)
In Nevada, prostitution – defined in NRS 201.295 – operates in a manner very similar to the California statute at issue in Freeman. Overburdened though Nevada’s courts are, the state lacks an intermediate appeals court and could settle the question of porn production’s legality fairly quickly, with a fairly libertarian Nevada Supreme Court to render the final decision. Then again, why tempt fate a second before it’s necessary? In many counties, Nevada has legalized – albeit fairly stringently regulated – prostitution. The status of prostitution within the state is practically a precursor for porn. If anything, porn production is the next logical step. And though the regulations concerning prostitution may be wielded like an axe at porn, they are easily
Data Encryption and the Fifth Amendment
By J. DeVoy If you have encrypted data that is seized during an investigation, and law enforcement officers are incapable of decrypting it, can you refuse to provide the codes to remove encryption? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”) believes so, and recently submitted an amicus brief to that effect in U.S. v. Fricosu, Case No. 2:10-cr-00509-01-REB (D. Colo.) (hey, cool, I’m admitted there! – Ed.). Here’s a summary of the case from EFF’s press release: Ramona Fricosu[] is accused of fraudulent real estate transactions. During the investigation, the government seized an encrypted laptop from the home she shares with her family, and then asked the court to compel Fricosu to type the password into the computer or turn over a
Barack Obama lies about his dead mother
By J. DeVoy Ann Althouse has the story. In short, the moving tale Obama regularly recounts about his mother’s tragic battle with insurance companies – which was relied on heavily by the White House in pushing health care reform – is false. The story begins in May, but is just breaking now because the New York Times has had such a hard time getting the executive branch to comment on it. But can you blame them?
Goddamned Illegal 'mmgrnts
Last week, in Phoenix (home to Sheriff Joe Arapaio), my taxi driver seemed to think that he would gain points with me by bitching about “all the damn illegal Mexicans we have to pay for here.” “We gotta pay to educate ’em,” he said. “Pay to hospitalize ’em, and pay to put ’em in our jails. I informed him of my position that any guy who wants to crawl through a river, over a wall, under a fence, and past a half dozen insane rednecks just to come and put a roof on my house is welcome here as far as I am concerned. That kind of work ethic is what built this country, and I don’t know many natural
USS Righthaven hits another iceberg
By J. DeVoy Today, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt held a hearing regarding the Order to Show Cause he previously issued in Righthaven LLC v. Democratic Underground LLC et al, Case No. 2:10-cv-01356 (D. Nev.). Righthaven, represented by Las Vegas attorney Shawn Mangano and national law firm Kirkland & Ellis in this matter (though only Mangano was at the hearing on behalf of Righthaven LLC), received the following sanctions: • $5,000.00 in sanctions, payable within 2 weeks. This is in addition to Righthaven’s $3,815.00 due in Righthaven LLC v. Leon et al, Due July 25th. (Order available here.) To date, thats $8,815.00 worth of water taken on, with approximately $34,000 and $119,000 sought in other cases. (source.) • Righthaven
Can we subpoena the photographer monkey?
By J. DeVoy Subpoenaing the monkey would resolve some of these issues. But we cannot. Per Peter Gabriel, you can shock the monkey – but you cannot subpoena him. Those are for people. Plus, monkeys can be extraordinarily violent. There’s nothing alpha about serving a subpoena on a creature that’s prone to ripping off your face: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9fOZ-Y74I&w=560&h=349] H/T: Techdirt, for posing the question.
Gonorrhea approaches superbug status
By J. DeVoy For as long as most readers of this blog have been alive, effective and quick treatment of the sexually transmitted disease Gonorrhea has been a given. That may be changing. As has been reported with many types of bacteria, a strain of Gonorrhea has developed that is resistant to most antibiotics currently available. As a result, untested and novel treatments – including use of the world’s most powerful antibiotics – may be needed to treat what was once a mere inconvenience in one’s sex life. The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease — called H041 — cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines
Ken thinks that Jack Thompson is still a deluded ass
I wholeheartedly agree. (source) According to Jack Thompson, the disbarred and fucktarded former crusader against rock music, porn, and video games, lawyers can’t flip the bird to anyone, ever, apparently.
Dispatches from the front in the primate intellectual property war
By J. DeVoy Monkeys and copyrights have become a topic of fierce debate, and are at the leading edge of the great ongoing war between apes and humanity. Crime and Federalism shows us why we should respect primate claims to intellectual property. Please, someone amend the Copyright Act so that we may know peace in our time.
"Sometimes you have to have tyranny to have freedom"
Best trolling of the Orlando Police Department ever. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pJuedzzLXE] Hat Tip: Mr. DNA
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Apparently it sounds an awful lot like “Europe’s last dictator” Alexander Lukashenko feeling all butthurt. Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus has ordered a crackdown on political protests. In order to evade tough regulations on public rallies, protesters eschew placards and shouted slogans, and merely clap their hands to display their anger at Mr. Lukashenko’s policies. Since the weekly flash mob protests began last month, more than 1,700 people have been arrested – 400 this week alone. Most of them were fined heavily or jailed for up to 15 days on police court testimony that they were expressing a political opinion by clapping their hands in public. (source) Konstantin Kaplin from the town of Grodno, Belarus, was apparently convicted of “applauding
Righthaven again amends Strategic Alliance Agreement with Stephens Media LLC
By J. DeVoy This new document, filed today, is here. This is Righthaven’s second attempt to amend its strategic alliance agreement with Stephens Media LLC. H/T: Kurt Opsahl, EFF
"Conservatives" — meet your reality. Bachmann signs pledge to wipe her ass with the Constitution
Michelle Bachmann, someone unqualified to clean my toilets, has jumped out ahead of the pack as the new conservative darling. Anyone who thinks of themselves as a conservative should either change name tags or have their heads examined. Bachmann is in the news today for signing a pledge that she will fight homosexuality and pornography. (source) You see, the damn liberals want to tell us how to run our lives. And, government that governs best governs least. Right? So lets make sure that the government stays out of our lives and respects the Constitution by, ummm, errr… well, trying to influence who people fuck. Lawrence v. Texas be damned… and we, umm… well we love presidential candidates who sign pledges
And the inevitable happens…
Some dipshit insists upon passing “Caylee’s Law.” AUSTIN, Texas — Texas state Sen. Chris Harris says he will introduce a new law to make it a felony for a parent or guardian to not report a missing child.(source) You know, because there is just a rampant problem with parents finding their kids dead and then not telling anyone. Seriously, if there is a parent out there whose kid went missing, do you really think that fear of prosecution is going to change their behavior? If my kids were missing for 5 minutes, I’d be screaming at every cop, FBI agent, and underworld mob figure I could contact, demanding that they find them. But, I suppose I qualify as a decent
One man's heist from an adult novelty store blows up on him
By J. DeVoy A Virginia man broke into an adult novelty store earlier this week, but did not steal anything. Law enforcement was summoned and, upon arriving on the scene, the suspect fled to a closet in an effort to avoid apprehension. He was then discovered by police — as he was “attempting sexual relations” with a blow-up doll. Naturally, South Park has commentary pre-made for the incident: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-L4VvWHrVc&w=560&h=349]
"Thou shalt condemn prostitution" struck down
The U.S. government mandated that if a group wanted to get funding to combat HIV/AIDS, well then that group could not use any funds “to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking.” Further, it imposed the following policy requirement: No funds made available to carry out this Act . . . may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking, except that this subsection shall not apply to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative or to any United Nations agency. In other words, if you wanted Uncle Sam’s bucks,
Why was this written?
By J. DeVoy The Buffalo News: “Abandoned Cat Loses Weight, Gains Confidence“. Who knew that cats and teenage girls had so much in common – and that it took more than 1,000 words to say. I like the Buffalo news and will still read it in the future. But one need not look much farther than this article to understand why newspapers are dying.
In Monkey World, Righthaven works!
By Marc J. Randazza Apparently some monkey grabbed a camera and started snapping self portraits. (source) If you go to the news article, you’ll see that the photos have a copyright notice from “Caters News Agency, LTD.” But, if the monkey is the one who “authored” the work, then how the hell does Caters News Agency claim that they own the work? Holy crap! I figured out a way that the whole Righthaven scheme can work! You see, I think that the monkey owns the copyright. The monkey is the one who “authored” the work. 17 U.S.C. § 201. But, I don’t think that non-humans can own copyrights. Monkeys don’t have property. See, e.g., NRS 111.055 (denying animals real property
