The James Bond wing of the Republican Party has a new enemy: S.P.E.C.T.E.R.. No doubt we'll be encouraged to think he's just as evil as Blofeld or any other Bond villain. I just want the Bond girl, myself; I'm not all that picky about which one.
- The DoJ has demonstrated that it has actually read its own bloody files (and, perhaps, every single antitrust-law casebook and treatise on the market) by opening an antitrust inquiry into the proposed Google Book Search settlement. This is not exactly a tough call, given that ASCAP and BMI are still operating under a consent decree negotiated after years of litigation with the government over antitrust problems; that the government drove the Society of Authors' Representatives (the predecessor of the Association of Authors' Representatives) out of business over antitrust concerns; that the DoJ has an open file on Google itself; and that European authorities are even more interested. Even my dog figured this one out.
I'd say more about how the deafening silence on this issue in the proposed settlement papers implicates whether either class counsel or the named representatives are "adequate" under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, but this isn't the right forum. I won't be remaining silent forever.
- Speaking of the Google Book Search settlement, I remind y'all that four months isn't nearly long enough (first bullet point).
- Meanwhile, across the pond, you can see exactly how the Pirate Bay walked the plank (PDF) (English translation). Arrrrrrrgh! Prepare to be (water)boarded!
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Law and reality in publishing and entertainment (seldom the same thing) from the creator's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into politics, military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting. |
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