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.

23 October 2009

link to: 12:59 [GMT-6]

High-Nitrite Lunch

Just a few quick bites of link sausage today:

While out and about yesterday dealing with medical paperwork, I stopped by the local outlet of [famous menswear store's name deleted to save embarassment — on their part] and began browsing. I noted a new display for different monogramming options for dress shirts, and busted out laughing at part of it:

RNWII

monogram may include up to 4 letters

demonstrating a distinct lack of numerical literacy... that it took half a minute to explain to the store manager.
GBS minor update/kerfluffle As expected, someone has filed a pro forma objection to the parties' proposed schedule for dealing with the forthcoming "revised" proposed settlement agreement (see Doc. 760 (22 Oct. 2009)). Now let's see if they follow up by doing it correctly: Filing a motion to extend time after the "revised" proposed settlement agreement gets filed.

I find it a bit tactically naïve that the "notice" filed by the EFF et al. does not raise the parties' proposed schedule as an additional subissue implicating adequacy of representation. In my experience dealing with class actions, judges tend to derogate adequacy attacks that are less than pervasive and continuous (however much those attacks are — in consumer litigation — improper, they're not here). Perhaps I'll have something to say... since I'm a putative class member, and even opting out won't protect my interests against the economic effects of this settlement <vbeg>.
Professor Rebecca Tushnet is summarizing a number of paper and panel presentations at a conference on the intersection between copyright and "digital reality" (which is, to my mind, an oxymoron akin to "honest politician"... or "military intelligence"). Too bad the conference is at Vanderbilt, which sits in the circuit (the Sixth) farthest removed from reality on copyright! Part I and Part II are already up, and provide an interesting counterpoint to the procedural issues Professor Tushnet summarizes from a paper presented at a different conference on whether the Federal Circuit has been successful (by Professor Rochelle Dreyfuss).

Kudos to Professor Tushnet for making these pretty clear and accessible to non-expert audiences; even though they include a lot of the jargon, they do so in a self-defining manner, which also serves to educate for the next controversy. (If you give a friend a pirated song, he can enjoy it now; but if you teach your friend to use LimeWire, he can enjoy all pirated songs forever. Or something like that.)

Labels: copyright, intellectual property, jurisprudence, life, miscellany, publishing

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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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