Scrivener's Error

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Scrivener's Error	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.

16 September 2009

link to: 12:25 [GMT-6]

Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

These sausages are virtually guaranteed to cause severe intellectual indigestion.

As if anyone needed further proof that mechanisms used to perpetuate upper-class privilege are even more dangerous in the hands of the nouveau bourgeosie, British libel law is being asserted against a rhetorical flight of fancy criticising extreme claims for chiropractic care — and it's harming science journalism. None of this is news to me, but it is news to many who haven't been paying attention. This is actually less about Simon Singh than about Rachel Ehrenfeld... but the article never makes that connection.

Combine this with some of the side effects of the UK's Official Secrets Act, and one has greater respect for the foresight of the Founders in making the First Amendment as broadly worded as it is. Even our libel system is far from perfect, but that is at least as much a problem with courts being unwilling/unable to require specific acts and instead substitute money judgments for "damages." (Query: Now that the subject of Rachel Ehrenfeld's "libelous" book is dead, can his estate continue to pursue damages against her and her publisher... since one can't libel the dead?)

Despite the First Amendment, our own intelligence agencies are far from blameless. Some of this, naturally, comes from the cynical (but not entirely unfounded) idea that we'd better do it to our own people before the Enemy does it. Some of this, naturally, comes from the inherent conflict between the blissful ignorance of the general population and the only-perfection-is-good-enough world of government skullduggery and "ungentlemanly activities." Most of the impetus to actually do something, though, can be traced back to the same motivations that underly the UK's libel system: Maintaining existing power structures, and most particularly the individuals currently in power. And if this tortured loop doesn't give you intellectual indigestion, just keep reading...
... probably past this short item, which pitted fungus against Old World craftsmanship — and the fungus won.
Scalzi pwns entitled wannabe writers; so does the incomparable Duke of Los Angeles, Harlan Ellison (or, at least, he bloody well should be the Duke of Los Angeles, and the city would be better for it). OK, this one isn't intellectually indigestible — rather the opposite, as intellectual honesty is largely missing from the whole wannabe writer ethos. But putting a digestible sausage on this platter might just encourage you to read the others, which more than makes up for it.
On the piracy front, we've got both historical questions on the economic model of piracy (which politely ignore the class-warfare issues raised by who became nautical pirates... and, for that matter, who becomes an IP pirate today) and immediate piracy of Dan Brown's latest dreck. Arrrrrrgh! Meanwhile, in a related development that will actually drive more piracy down the road, UK children's publishers are cutting advances and acquisitions. Of course, some of this piracy will be by vanity presses... such as those run/enabled by Robert Fletcher, who was recently sued by the Florida Attorney General for fraud. Just remember that a man with a briefcase (or scanner) can steal more money (certainly per capita!) than any crew of a sailing ship!

Labels: arts, civil rights, copyright, culture, intellectual property, internet, miscellany, politics

Ritual disclaimer: This blog contains legal commentary, but it is only general commentary. It does not 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.

All material © 2003–12 except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. This blawg does not use the Creative Commons License, although I'm usually pretty good-natured about permissions for attributed reuse.

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Sausages?

Internet link sausages, as frequently appear here, are gathered from uninspected meaty internet products and byproducts via processes you really, really don't want to observe; spiced with my own secret, snarky, sarcastic blend; quite possibly extended with sawdust or other indigestibles; and stuffed into your monitor (instead of either real or artificial casings). They're sort of like "link salad" or "pot pourri" or "miscellaneous musings" (or, for that matter, "making law"), but far more disturbing.

I am not responsible for any changes to your lipid counts or blood pressure from consuming these sausages... nor for your monitor if you insist on covering them with mash or sauce.

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.

Links of Interest

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Writer Beware and the Writer Beware Blog provide essential knowledge for writers who don't want to be ripped off
Writing-World.com published by the former managing editor of the now-defunct Inklings
Agent Research & Evaluation provides both free and paid analyses of literary agents
US Copyright Office, including both registration forms and records and quite a bit of other helpful information
Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) allows searches of granted, pending, and some rejected trademark registrations
US Supreme Court Opinions from the current and past couple of terms
Law Library of Congress includes statutes for free
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?)
- Music.Download.com (long-awaited successor to MP3.com)
- Janis Ian (artist)
- John McCutcheon (artist)

Other Blawgs, Blogs, and Journals

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:
- Professor Anthony Arend (Georgetown Law)
- Professor Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA Law) (aka "The Perfesser")
- Professor Jack Balkin (Yale Law)
- Professor Dennis Crouch (Missouri Law) (better known as Patently-O)
- Professor Michael Froomkin (University of Miami Law)
- Professor Eric Goldman (Santa Clara University Law)
- Professor Rick Hasen (Loyola-LA Law)
- Professor Brian Leiter (U of Chicago Law/Philosophy)
- Professor Lawrence Lessig (Stanford Law)
- Professor Michael Madison (Pitt Law)
- Professor Rebecca Tushnet (Georgetown Law)
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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