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Entries from April 2009

Scalia’s Views of Privacy Apparently Change When His Personal Information is at Stake

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

From the ABA Journal:
Last year, when law professor Joel Reidenberg wanted to show his Fordham University class how readily private information is available on the Internet, he assigned a group project. It was collecting personal information from the Web about himself.
This year, after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made public comments that seemingly may [...]

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

“U.S. Targets Canada Over Copyright in Special 301 Report”

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

That’s the title of a new post by notorious international copyright subversive Michael Geist, which reports:
The U.S. Trade Representative released its Special 301 report today, in which it casts judgement on the intellectual property laws of dozens of countries around the world. To the surprise of no one, Canada finds itself playing the role of [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Sewing Machine Commons

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

Check out Adam Mossoff’s post at Volokh (and the comments), discussing his recent paper, A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket.
The paper is a terrific example of a case study of the emergence of a commons (in this case, a patent pool) as a resolution to a packet [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Music Via the Internets

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

Comedy is a Serious Business

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

Late last year the Virginia Law Review published a provocative and entertaining article by Dotan Oliar and Christopher Sprigman on copyright law and the social norms of stand-up comics. There’s No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy, 94 Va. L. Rev. 1787 (2008).
The law review’s [...]

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Tags: Ideas · Law & Technology

MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME

April 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Time Magazine’s “World’s Most Influential Person” poll got hacked. Detailed account of same here.

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Tags: Law & Technology · Law School · Online Norms and Culture

Posner on the obviousness of a generally lubricous glass-based material containing an appreciable amount of an oxide of boron.

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

Check out “Judge Posner at the Federal Circuit: Patent on Sex Aid is Obvious” at Patently-O if you want to read about Posner’s take on the patentability of adapting easy-slide thermometer materials for use on sex toys. Here’s the abstract of what was formerly an enforceable patent:
A sexual aid comprising a cylindrical rod is disclosed. [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

More Thoughts About On Demand Printing

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

Ann Bartow’s post about the Espresso on demand printing press highlights that change takes time. Ann’s post notes a Guardian article touting the machine as revolutionary and that a publisher in the U.K. launched a service based on the machine in the past few days. Yet, I wrote about the machine (and more importantly Time [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

David Post on his new book: “In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace”

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

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Tags: Ideas

Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship Workshop at Wisconsin

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

On Friday I was in lovely Madison, Wisconsin for the Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship Workshop which Shubha Ghosh put together and was sponsored by UW Law School, the Institute for Legal Studies, the Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship (INSITE), and the Global Legal Studies Center. I’m afraid I don’t have the ability to capture [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

“Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London”

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

The machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait. From The Guardian:
It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology · Law School · The Trouble With Trademarks

Swine Flu Goes Viral

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments

Via.

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

Newman! World Digital Library Misses Legal Opportunity

April 23rd, 2009 · 2 Comments

So when I first encountered the WDL, I was excited. I did, however, have a lingering question about the intellectual property laws involved. I scanned the page and found the infamous Legal link at the bottom of the page. I clicked. And then the moment of “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” vanished. Newman!
Although the [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology · Law School

Small Businesses in the Offline World

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

I recently wrote about online regulations and small business. Today, I have another example of small business struggling to meet its legal obligations. It is a local outdoor movie theater here is San Diego. It is called Tops Presents. With zero-gravity recliners, great movies, a good screen, excellent sound, and the warm San Diego sky [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW.

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

ENG 371WR:
Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era
M-W-F: 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Instructor: Robert Lanham

Course Description
As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the [...]

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

“The Backlash Tracker: Build ‘Em Up, Knock ‘Em Down, NEXT!”

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

Here. Embarrassed to say I was unaware of Cat Calendar Tolerance Level theory until reading the linked post.

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

One Snarky Book Review

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

Very mean but also funny, especially if you are familiar with the Picoult oeuvre.

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

Take That, Google! Well, Not Really: World Digital Library Now Online Near You

April 21st, 2009 · No Comments

Here’s a little public service message about the World Digital Library (seems to detect or default to English, but you can change the language). The WDL is free, offered in multilingual format, and offers these principal objectives:
[T]o:
* Promote international and intercultural understanding;
* Expand the volume and variety [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Fun With Slow Motion

April 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments

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Tags: Law & Technology

“He’s not only been used by politicians like the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, to promote their own agendas, but he’s also been employed by merchants to sell air fresheners in Peru, snowboards in Switzerland and wine in Italy.”

April 20th, 2009 · No Comments

He is Che Guevera, and this NYT book review further notes:
…The supermodel Gisele Bündchen pranced [ed: "Pranced?" Blarg...] down a runway in a Che bikini. A men’s wear company brought out a Che action figure, complete with fatigues, a beret, a gun and a cigar. And an Australian company produced a “cherry Guevara” ice cream [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks