News & Media
Another great proposal for thought-policing law students
By J. DeVoy With one semester left to go in law school, I’d compare my experience in legal education to being a member of a barbaric tribe of hunters and gatherers. As a group, there are too many of us for existing economic opportunities, even in good times, yet we cannot simply cut out the undesirables. For those at the top of the grades/prestige hierarchy, an embarrassment of riches — being wined and dined in faraway cities during interviews and the dog-and-pony show known as summer associateship — is ours theirs. For everyone else there is little, if anything. Occasionally,
Frank Lautenberg – Piece of Shit of the day
Haisong Jiang, the guy who slipped past security to kiss his girlfriend goodbye and caused a nationwide mewling coward freakout is facing minor criminal charges. (source) I guess that makes sense. You go past the boundary, there ought to be some penalty. Of course, asshats and douchebags will never let an incident pass without scoring points with the mewling cowards crowd. In an interview on Saturday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, of New Jersey, said he was hoping that the United States attorney’s office would consider bringing federal charges because the penalty Mr. Jiang is facing, “is hardly noteworthy and would
Long Live Lukeywes1234!!!!
Luke Taylor is an 8 year old boy who had a few mildly amusing videos up on Youtube. 4chan got a real kick out of it, and hundreds of people began subscribing to Luke’s youtube channel. Then, YouTube yanked all of Lukeywes1234’s videos down, because he was not old enough to post, per YouTube’s terms and conditions. /b/ INTERVENE. If 4chan decides that someone is internet nobility, you obey. The Legal Satyricon hereby pledges its loyalty. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsLi9dmz8UI] Now if only we can keep pedobear away from him.
America is the Land of the Mewling Cowards
I’ve been saying so for years. But, it seems that finally the Wall Street Journal thinks so too. It’s a remarkable fact that a nation founded, fought for, built by, and transformed through the extraordinary courage of figures such as George Washington, Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. now often seems reduced to a pitiful whimpering giant by a handful of mostly incompetent criminals, whose main weapons consist of scary-sounding Web sites and shoe- and underwear-concealed bombs that fail to detonate. Terrorball, in short, is made possible by a loss of the sense that cowardice is among the
Caturday
By J. DeVoy [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2J3SY5WHbA&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Background.
DudeVu Disappears from Web After Piracy Suit Is Filed
Explains why DudeVu independently went offline and reiterates that Corbin Fisher intends to further pursue its litigation. Copyright infringement is well defined in Federal law, but defendants accused of it often take their infringing content offline in an attempt to mitigate their damages. This is not necessarily effective, as the statutes look only to whether infringement occurred, and not whether the defendants showed contrition.Read more…
Not a very smart cookie – Kardashian cookie libel suit
Kim Kardashian claims that some doctor who invented the “cookie diet” used her name to endorse the product without her permission. (source). She tweets that the diet is “unhealthy” and that Dr. Siegal is “lying.” So Siegal files a defamation suit against her. The complaint is an example of pretty bad legal strategy. The plaintiff makes allegation after allegation about how famous he is — thus conceding that he is a public figure. This is basic defamation 101 — a public figure has a much higher burden of proof than a private plaintiff. A private plaintiff only needs to prove
Truth Wins Out in Defamation Suit
A New Jersey plaintiff sued the local democratic party for circulating flyers that mentioned the opposing candidate’s criminal record. The plaintiff was under the impression that the flyers were defamatory, because his record had been expunged. Firstamendmentpwned. “These flyers are, as a matter of law, not defamatory because the information contained in them is true. It is undisputed that plaintiff was, in fact, arrested and convicted of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute it. H/T: Courthouse News Service
Meshuggenah lawsuit tossed out on its tuchus
The plaintiff in this case belonged to a cult that has a practice of placing men on a “shun list” in order to convince them to give their wives a divorce. The cult’s newspaper published the husband’s name on its “shun list,” but one of its newspaper reporters mixed up whether it was a an official shun, or just a suggested shun. Whether or not the statement about the shunning was defamatory or not would have required the court to dig into the specific ecclesiastical rules of this particular cult. American courts don’t do that, and thus the case was
Even I wouldn't take these "First Amendment" cases
It certainly annoys me when I see others’ First Amendment rights being abused. However, it is almost as annoying when I hear people wank about how their First Amendment rights are being trampled upon, and there is just no such thing going on. Take this asshat, for example. According to reports, he was screaming out in the street, hitting parked cars, and the cops came by to ask him to stop. They didn’t beat him down, they didn’t throw him in handcuffs, they didn’t taze him. After all, this was Cambridge, not Miami. Instead of just quieting down: He reportedly
Paris Hilton continues her IP education… from the defendant’s chair
by Jason Fischer After getting the go-ahead from the Ninth Circuit earlier this year on her “That’s Hot!” trademark infringement case against Hallmark, hotel heiress Paris Hilton has apparently signed up (although unwillingly) for another intellectual property lesson. This time, she’s going to be studying design patents. Her professor, a footwear designer called Gwyneth Shoes, claims that its design patent has been infringed by Ms. Hilton’s kicks. (Source.) If you look closely, you can see the heart. Design patent protection is similar to copyright protection, in that the alleged infringer is in trouble if they’ve produced something that is substantially
The correct answer is "sterlize me"
LawGuru Answers presents this question: After a fight with my boyfriend, he said he was coming to my house to take back all the things he has given me during our relationship. After he knocked for awhile at my door, I heard him yell at my cat because it supposedly scratched him. I finally let him in and he went to my room, and he took the things he has given me and left. I wanted to have a civilized conversation with him and I wanted my things back, or at least the things I have given him over the
"His penis was left bruised and swollen but otherwise unharmed."
ouch. Apparently, the guy stuck his dick in a metal pipe and then became “aroused,” thus making it impossible to remove his penis from the metal orifice. The firefighters used the four-and-a-half-inch grinder to cut the pipe from around the man’s penis and it took about 30 minutes. The patient was given an anaesthetic and his penis was left bruised and swollen but otherwise unharmed. 1) How the hell did he get so turned on by sticking his dick in a metal pipe? I mean, was the pipe that hot? 2) Saying that a penis is “bruised and swollen, but
She obviously doesn't know Dick about intellectual property law
The awesome-as-fuck movie, Blade Runner is based upon the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, by Philip K. Dick. In the novel, the “artificial humans” that the protagonist is tasked with “retiring” are the “Nexus-6” models. The Google phone launched this week is the “Nexus One.” And Isa Dick Hackett, Philip K. Dick’s daughter thinks that this is an infringement upon her late father’s intellectual property rights. (source) Obviously, she needs to fire her lawyer, because whoever told her that doesn’t know Dick about intellectual property law. Hackett believes that Google was referencing “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
Lesbian stabbed in eye for being a lesbian
By J. DeVoy I wanna belong, I wanna be proud; But your gay-bashing voices are so fuckin’ loud -Bill Moseley*, “Feelin’ Chicken“ A Buffalo woman was stabbed in the eye by two other women as she exited a popular lesbian bar on New Year’s Eve. As if this wasn’t horrific enough, two women were arrested in an unrelated incident for attacking a man in the parking lot of a shopping center because they suspected he was gay. The details: Lindsay C. Harmon said she and two friends were minding their own business as they walked out of Roxy’s, a lesbian
Streisand 101
by Jason Fischer In an effort (I’m assuming) to be hip and relevant, my alma mater (and Randazza’s previous teaching gig) has begun adding courses to their curriculum that have little to do with the law or lawyering. One example is a course called “Popular Culture and the Law,” to which the registrar has assigned the following course description: This 2 hour seminar will examine social attitudes toward law, lawyers, and legal institutions through the viewing and examination of Hollywood films. Film depictions of law students, juries, and judges will also be considered. Each seminar session will focus in as
Smart Lawyer Gets No Sympathy from the Court
by Richard J. Mockler A story published by Law.com on Christmas Eve really got my attention. So, when is it fair to revisit the terms of your divorce? That may depend on who you are. Yes, a final judgment or decree is supposed to be “final.” But, in family law cases, there are occasions where it is completely appropriate and sometimes even necessary to change the terms of the final judgment or decree. What justifies modifying a final judgment? You obviously don’t want people going back to court every time they realize they left something out of their agreement or want something new.
Criminalizing chicken nuggets would reduce crime
By J. DeVoy Most readers are familiar with this Florida woman, who called 911 three times to protest her local McDonald’s running out of chicken nuggets. (Can I say McNuggets and claim fair use? I think nuggets is the proper term, since other fast food eateries call their deep-friend chicken blobs things like tenders, strips, and, blandly, nuggets.) Ohio, the wonderful state where 10% of the population was on food stamps even before the current recession, is not to be outdone by perennial loser-state Florida. From the Toledo Blade: A Toledo woman, who allegedly put her fist through a fast-food drive-through