Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the CrimeRichard A. Oppel Jr. reports at the New York Times: But a dozen or so state legislatures have had a different reaction: They proposed or enacted bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms, or apply for a job at one without …Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Philadelphia councilman introduces bill aimed at improving health insurance prospects for life partners and transgendered peopleThis is an encouraging development. The bill introduced by Councilmen James Kenney and W. Wilson Goode would establish a: 6 percent tax credit for businesses that did not …Wednesday, April 10, 2013
California law school grads suing schools; neither party has a good pointAttorney Michael C. Sullivan, representing California schools in a spate of fraud suits brought by students over shady job-placement numbers: "What I find most ironic is that those individuals advertised themselves to law …Sunday, April 7, 2013
Select YouTube partners exempt from fair use policyYouTube’s well within their rights to refuse to leave a video up, or to re-post it after fair use has been reasonably well-defended. But it’s another reminder that when stuff is free for consumers, the interests of the producers providing the …Friday, April 5, 2013
Google fighting National Security LetterThe letters, issued by federal authorities investigating national security concerns, prohibit recipients from disclosing that they have received them, let alone what they’re asking for. The Judge in Google’s case1 struck down the law’s gag order provision as …Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The trolls are now trolling themselvesThis great post by Seattle attorney John Whitaker sums up the state of affairs in the absurd debacle that is Prenda Law’s trainwreck porn-infringement trolling.Monday, April 1, 2013
2nd Circuit: Aereo streaming of individual over-the-air TV feeds via internet doesn’t violate copyright lawThe Second Circuit has held in WNET v Aereo (PDF) that sending a unique stream of over-the-air TV signal to customers via the internet isn’t a copyright violation. Aereo assign each of …Monday, April 1, 2013
China is very serious about cyberespionageGoogle apologists like myself often answer concerns that the search-and-advertising giant can scan your email with something like “yes, but they’re doing it with robots and scrubbing it clean of all identifying information.” China, however, is not so …Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Abortion’s inevitable return to the Supreme CourtAbove the Law’s Elie Mystal is right: thanks to medical technology and laws that ignore their own consequences, abortion is going to return the Supreme Court. I hope it’s sooner than later.Monday, March 25, 2013
OUYA and EmulationDarrell Etherington, reporting at TechCrunch: OUYA forum admin and owner Ed Krassenstein said in a post on his site that EMUya, a NES emulator, has been submitted to OUYA for review and should definitely be available at launch, and a couple of SNES emulation options are confirmed, …Friday, March 15, 2013
Porn troll Prenda Law angers judge with shady behaviorEarlier this week I mentioned that the EFF was going to represent a couple of anti-trolling websites in a case brought by porno copyright troll Prenda Law. The Ars Technica article by Megan Geuss is well-written and really conveys the absurdity …Tuesday, March 12, 2013
EFF will represent targets of copyright troll Prenda LawCopyright trolls sue lots of people to extract settlements from those who can’t afford to litigate in the face of potentially massive statutory damages. Their claims are often facially lacking in merit and instead leverage intimidation and …Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Harvard snooped on faculty emailIf you’re composing an email you don’t want someone to see, consider picking up the phone instead. Your assumptions about the privacy of email are inaccurate.Thursday, March 7, 2013
ECPA amendment would require warrant even for email older than 6 monthsReps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) are pushing an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that would require a warrant for authorities to obtain any email, instead of …Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Zombie Law SchoolsGerard Magliocca of Concurring Opinions introduces a fresh take on the legal education topic.Sunday, February 3, 2013
CBS “Streisanding” itself among courts with CNET debacleCBS’s strong-arming of CNET on this front has the exact opposite of the intended effect: now that it is clear how much control CBS has and is willing to exert over CNET content, any reasonable court must consider the possibility …Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Apple store trade dressI wonder if there are any retail stores out there that have looked like Apple stores since before Apple stores, and before this trademark was granted earlier this month. I don’t mean knock-off stores, though. I’m thinking make-up shops, art galleries, and other entities that …Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Antigua responds to US gambling ban with government-backed infringement planThe Carribean nation Antigua and Barbuda and the World Trade Organization say a US ban on online gambling is costing jobs and “billions of dollars.” The WTO has approved a plan to allow infringement of US-based copyright …Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Confessions of a Liberal Gun OwnerNovelist Justin Cronin presents a very well-written and reasonable take on why knee-jerk reactions on either side of the gun debate are misinformed and unrealistic: […] in the weeks since Newtown, I’ve watched my Facebook feed, which is dominated by my coastal …Tuesday, January 29, 2013
At Google, Constitution trumps statuteDavid Kravets quotes a Googler: “Google requires an ECPA search warrant for contents of Gmail and other services based on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure,” Chris Gaither, a Google spokesman, said. The …Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Veganism as religious beliefI must admit that I never thought about it in that light, but I’d love to read the plaintiff’s essay.Wednesday, January 23, 2013
NLRB refines position on employee social media and workplace criticismMy personal policy is to refrain from discussing work on social media. In all my years of Twitter-ing and Facebook-ing, I’ve posted only a very few work-related updates, invariably focused on interpersonal minutiae like elevator …Tuesday, January 22, 2013
‘Escape from Tomorrow’, filmed in Disney World without permission, debuts at SundanceSteven Zeitchik of the LA Times: To make the movie, [Randy] Moore wouldn’t print out script pages or shot sequences for the 25 days he was filming on Disney turf, instead keeping all the info on …Thursday, January 17, 2013
Non-interfering citizens should be able to videotape on-duty policeIf someone is videotaping a police incident, but not interfering therewith, there is no lawful justification for police interference. I’m not always in agreement with the ACLU, but this harassment must end. A nation where state …Thursday, January 17, 2013
Panetta Ties Delay of Aid in Mali to Legal QuestionsAs I learned in that international law class I took last semester (for which, in case you were wondering, I earned a very respectable grade), there are Administration lawyers working feverishly behind every such move to ensure that we’re complying …Sunday, January 13, 2013
More House of Representatives data available in XMLO’Reilly's Alex Howard reports that both House floor summaries and bulk downloads of all House legislation are now available in XML. It doesn't mean everything Congress does is available yet, but it’s a great progression. I really hope some …Thursday, January 10, 2013
Law and the Multiverse analyzes ‘The Hobbit’ ContractI love several things about this: This is only the first in an ongoing series, with three other parts as of the moment I published this post. You can buy the contract from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit on Amazon. James …Thursday, January 10, 2013
Lawyers on QuoraFormer Facebook CTO and Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo, talking to Om Malik at GigaOM: The real reward is in the response to your answer and the fact that millions can read it. You already see more people giving and sharing knowledge for free. Lawyers and other professionals are …Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in PhiladelphiaThe Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig R. McCoy reports on a recent special commission report on the problem and some suggested solutions. In a city where street wisdom warns that “snitches get stitches,” this is an encouraging development.Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Student loses suit over school ID requirementWired's David Kravets reports that: The girl’s father, Steven, wrote the school district explaining why removing the chip wasn’t good enough, that the daughter should be free from displaying the card altogether. “‘We must obey the word of God,” the …