Little Bitty Internet Link Sausages

Tasty. Small chunks.

• The Times proposes a list of the strangest books ever published (in English) that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.
• One of the dirty little secrets of visa applications: Bureaucrats use their personal taste to determine cultural value and uniqueness. That makes just as much sense as having lawyers determine whether expression is "original enough" to deserve copyright protection. Wait a minute...
• Professor Lipton makes a short, sharp, and all too accurate assessment of "no infringement intended" disclaimers, which is all too appropriate in the wake of Tenenbaum (a file-sharing case claiming "fair use" because the copying was allegedly "noncommercial in nature").
• Professor Rebecca Tushnet remarks upon copyright preemption and the "special protection" state laws on copying recordings.
• Professor Crouch describes a patent infringement suit alleging that a fictional film portrayal infringed a method patent. Stopping Nicholas Cage is one thing; can we, instead, stop Michael Bay?
• Here's a Canadian preview of what's going to happen to those GBS dollars that will allegedly flow in. Remember, these are some of the same companies... and this isn't exactly news; it's not about copyright, but about business models.
• A somewhat overcautious — but not too overcautious — comment on the foolishness of trusting legal analysis that doesn't link to the underlying documents. Of course, that goes for all legal writing, in one sense; keep in mind that a substantial proportion of the necessary legal documents sit behind paywalls, and don't have persistent links and/or references.