Scrivener's Error

null
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.

31 August 2012

link to: 17:56 [GMT-8]

Aqueduct, Sanitation, Roads, Irrigation, Medicine, Education...

The argument over who built what reminds me far more of the video on the right than it should. The real problem is not with entrepreneurs who build from nothing; it is with those who build — if at all — based upon the sins (and occasional virtues) of their parents, or others who bequested them wealth without regard to either energy or capability. That said, on to a delayed-by-migraine digest of particularly indigestible link sausages:

Statutory interpretation ain't sexy, but it's necessary. Then, there's more than one way to skin this particular cat — especially when there's a new type of cat unknown to those who would regulate the skinning of cats before the court... With all due respect to Justice Scalia, Judge Posner has by far the better of the argument here. At least he's not worrying about the quality of academic writing, though.
Law (and academia) are not the only areas that could benefit from clearer communication. Consider, for example, the BS of creationism/inscrutable design. A "balanced presentation" on that topic would really be very short: "Some people believe, as a result of religious doctrine, that evolution as we currently understand it is not responsible for life — some supernatural 'creator' is. There is no evidence for that view. That our understanding of evolution is imperfect does not mean that some creationist doctrine is therefore correct. That is actually more 'balance' than creationism deserves, in any form."

I'd suggest considering the problem with economic thought, but "dismal" is far too generous a description... and fiction gets much closer to the truth. Or, as the case may be, Truth (if there is such a thing).
There has been a lot going on with patent law in the last couple of weeks that matters to writers. Perhaps most obviously, there's the big loss in the US-based Apple v. Samsung matter — and I don't necessarily mean Samsung (as I think the probability of reversal on appeal is over 75%, and reduction in that billion-dollar damages award is virtually certain). I am skeptical concerning the patentability of an awful lot of the "inventions" in IP... and I say that as a longtime nerd with soldering scars. The judge did a reasonably good job, but a Supreme Court decision that came down after presentation of evidence had already started (and well after all the "law" hearings and decisions) should cause quite a bit of change after the fact(s).

As significant as that is, the Federal Circuit's ruminations on method patents, states of mind, copyright, and criminal law will matter far more in the long run. Akamai just reinforces, to me, the need to transfer copyright matters to the Federal Circuit — if only to avoid silly circuit splits like that created by the Ninth Circuit regarding how long is too long to wait to file a copyright infringement action. At least when the Federal Circuit screws something up, it's a clear screwup subject to correction by either the Supreme Court or Congress!
On a somewhat lighter note, strong — even violent — female characters on TV reduce violent attitudes toward women. Big surprise... especially given how poorly some of our supposed "leaders" act.
Last for today, and definitely least, here's more whingeing and post hoc rationalization for high textbook prices that has more than a little relationship to the first sausage on the platter today.

Labels: arts, copyright, intellectual property, jurisprudence, politics, science

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 © 2003–13 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.

Site Feed

I approve of no advertising appearing on or through syndication for anything other than the syndication itself; any such advertising violates the limited reuse license implied by voluntarily including syndication code on this blawg, and I do not approve aggregators and syndicators whose page design reflects only an intent to use the reference(s) to this blawg without actually providing the content from this blawg.

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

Links open in a new window.

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 (UC-Irvine)
- Professor Brian Leiter (U of Chicago Law/Philosophy)
- 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.

Searches

Optimized for at 1024x768.