Law and reality in publishing (seldom the same thing) from the author's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.
Just as Dead as That Squirrel
Just a few miscellaneous items today.
I promised more posting yesterday. The local squirrels and wind had other ideas... The line-repair tech came out, and it took over 45 minutes to replace the line going into the house. The squirrels — probably in retaliation for Lucy chasing (and occasionally catching and eating) them — had begun the process by chewing up the insulation and nibbling on the wires. The wind finished it by forcing one of the wires out of the connector, leaving it to flap against the connector and tantilize me with occasional connections. It wasn't that big a deal to replace the line, and it was probably necessary: The last service date noted on the connector was over fifty years ago.
Charlie Stross explains why your "broadband" 'net connection still takes forever to download articles. As a rather disturbing corollary, it's been my experience (backed up by data, not just anecdotes) that there's a lot less bloat associated with more-bandwidth-intense content, such as music and videos. Thus, by being "efficient" in demanding textual content, all I'm doing is enabling the advertisers to waste an even higher proportion of the bandwidth.
Perhaps some of those who believe that "lit crit should embrace science" should try understanding both literature and the scientific method before they begin making such proscriptive claims. The point of the scientific method is that it enables one to reason from data to a theory; to then test that theory with different data, and determine whether the theory is satisfactory or requires revision (or even, as in the case of the ether, derision). However, one of the key points of literature — and, for that matter, literary criticism — is that the "data sets" have only coincidental congruence at best. That's not to say that neither field can learn from the other; it is only to say that such learning is by analogy, not by direct application.
Of course, it would be a good idea if a few more lit majors (and, for that matter, biz/econ majors) took some serious, math-based science, and if a few more scientists took some serious, high-level (that is, non-survey) literature courses. They might learn something about communication if they did.
When an overseas paper that's as normally insensitive to nuances in IP as The Times begins to accept that the Harry Potter Lexicon lawsuit is about trademark as much as about copyright, one would ordinarily sit up at take notice... except that this is a guest article written by actual attorneys, so perhaps doing so is premature. That said, one might almost think they'd read my initial take on the lawsuit, which is quite similar in the end (allowing for the translation to UK terms and perceptions). Plagiarism is hardly a new concern... but neither does it fit comfortably within either the "copyright infringment" or "trademark infringement" rubrics.
Last, and far from least, I'd like to add some emphasis to Mr Gaiman's comments in this embedded video. I spent several years in Mr Gaiman's homeland during the reign of Margaret I, and on free-speech issues it was extremely embarassing. At one point, in order to do my job I had to go abroad and buy copies of an English-language book by a former UK government servant. (I cannot confirm or deny what that involved; some of the people most interested in reading it were my UK colleagues...) And, compared to other parts of the world, the UK is a veritable paradise of free speech; at least one can identify the Official Secrets Act without going to jail for merely identifying the government authority.
I won't go so far as to say "America — love it or leave it." I have no patience with that kind of jingoism, especially since the very point of the construct "America" is that dissent is not merely tolerated, but embraced... and that necessarily means admitting that the union is, at present (and in the past), less perfect. But I will say "The First Amendment — use it or lose it," because I cannot conceive of a long-term self-perpetuating functional democratic republic without it (or something very close indeed). That should be a hint of what I predict in the long term for the "democracies" in Europe... and Russia since The Wall fell is merely an accelerated example.
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constitute legal advice for your situation. It does not create an attorney-client relationship or any other
expectation of confidentiality, nor is it an offer of representation.
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Archives
Warped Weft
Now live at the new site. I have arranged some of
the more infamous threads that have appeared here
by unravelling them from the blawg tapestry (and hopefully eliminating some
of the sillier typos). Sometimes, the threads have been slightly reordered for clarity.
The Public Library of Law can help you
find the law... but not use it in court, as many of its resources are not in proper form and do not provide
all of the citation information needed in court papers
Legal, free e-books are available through
Online Books (University of Pennsylvania)
and Shakespeare (MIT)
Legal, free music is available through
ClassicCat.net
(what kind of music do you think you'll find here?)
These may be of interest; I do not necessarily agree
with opinions expressed in them, although the reasoning and writing are almost always first-rate (and
represent a standard seldom, if ever, achieved in "mainstream" journalism). I'm picky, and have
eclectic tastes, so don't expect a comprehensive listing.
A blawg is sort of like a blog on legal issues, but
usually has a lot more links to outside resources (other than other blogs) than does a typical blog.
Scrivener's Error is a blawg, not just a blog. You can find other blawgs at <?law blogs#>.
How Appealing
is aimed at appellate lawyers and legal
news in general. If you care about the state of the law, start here — Howard's commentary is far
better balanced, better informed, and better considered than any of the media outlets. To
concentrate on the Supreme Court, don't forget
SCOTUSBlog.
Some academics' blawgs with a variety of political (and doctrinal) viewpoints:
BoingBoing, by speculative fiction writer
(and 'net
activist) Cory Doctorow, is quite hostile to copyright enforcement efforts, particularly
regarding file-sharing
The main European IP blawg of interest remains the UK-based IPKat, on a variety of intellectual property issues, with some overlap (with a
less Eurocentric view) at IPFinance
Cyberlaw (Stanford) has its agenda
grounded firmly in the so-called "digital commons," which might make a bit more sense if any of the
advocates of that viewpoint understood diddly-squat about population ecology
The American Constitution Society blawg
is a purportedly "liberal" counterweight to the so-called
"Federalist Society" (which, despite
its claims, should be called "Tory Society") that has yet to establish much coherence... but maybe
that's all to the good.
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Scrivener's Error
at 1024x768.