Overlawyered » copyright http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 February 1 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27256
  • “Hawaii may keep track of all web sites visited” [Declan McCullagh]
  • NEA (and now Obama) answer to public education woes: lock the exits by hiking school-leaving age [Steve Chapman, earlier]
  • On nomination filibusters, New York Times editorial policy has pulled a 360, not just a 180 [Whelan, 2003, 2005, earlier]
  • English copyright ruling “creates ownership in the idea of a photo’s composition” [Doctorow, BB]
  • New Maryland push for same-sex marriage will include stronger religious exemptions, a course I urged last year [Sun, my view] Detailed inquiry into the law of interstate marriage recognition and DOMA [Will Baude, Volokh]
  • When lawyers face prison for the advice they give [Jack Fernandez, Zuckerman Spaeder via Legal Ethics Forum]
  • FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals: “More reasons to discount adverse event reports” [Yeary, Drug & Device Law, the CPSC database analogy]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/feed/ 0     January 23 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-23-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-23-roundup-2/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:51:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27051
  • Copyright violations on PIPA sponsors’ websites? [VICE] “A SOPA Analogy” [David Henderson]
  • DEA agent who mistakenly shot self loses appeal [BLT, earlier]
  • “And people say libertarians lack empathy”: AP adopts pre-emptively disapproving tone toward advances in pain control [Coyote; related, Alkon on Primatene Mist]
  • Cordray, NLRB recess picks allow President to reward key Democratic interest groups [Copland, Examiner] Litigation Lobby gunning for ban on consumer finance arbitration as Cordray priority [CL&P] Mike Rappaport on the recess appointment clause [LLL, earlier here, etc.]
  • Keystone’s just the half of it: US environmental funders push shutdown of Canada energy production [Vivian Krause, Financial Post]
  • Hot potato, or just hot business sector? “Credit Suisse Parts with Litigation Finance Group” [WSJ Law Blog]
  • Speaking of shoplifters in elected office [Harrisburg Patriot-News on Perry County, Pa. case h/t commenter A.A.; earlier on California case]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-23-roundup-2/feed/ 1     After SOPA protest day http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/after-sopa-protest-day/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/after-sopa-protest-day/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:54:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26995
  • What did the protests accomplish? [Image of one-day change in Hill opposition courtesy TechCrunch, PC World, Timothy Lee/Ars Technica]
  • Some of the best protests [Ad Age, earlier on Flickr's clever entry and others]
  • Going-dark site “strike” was a bit like Atlas Shrugged without the monologues [Greve] “So, nothing like #AS” [@nickgillespie] “…and fewer pirates” [@JohnPMcGuinness] “That’s a shame. I want to see Francisco’s money speech in binary code.” [@BenK84]
  • Speaking of Citizens United… [John Samples/Cato, Popehat, @joshgreenman]
  • Chris Dodd: we could turn off flow of Hollywood politibux if we don’t get this law [Politico] “Win/win!” [James Poulos]
  • Where next? [Julian Sanchez, Cato, Kotaku ("PIPA not as bad as SOPA" claims), roll call via Pro Publica]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/after-sopa-protest-day/feed/ 4     SOPA on the ropes? http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopa-on-the-ropes/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopa-on-the-ropes/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:57:51 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26844 Welcome news, if true: key members of Congress are said to be backing away from the rogue-sites legislation as currently written and in particular are willing to drop the hotly contested provisions on domain name blocking. [Timothy Lee, Sandoval/McCullagh, CNET, Mike Masnick/TechDirt] And suddenly the Obama administration is sounding skeptical notes too [Lee] As recently as last week the copyright enforcement bills were reported to be on a toboggan to quick passage [Industry Standard, earlier] More: Masnick.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopa-on-the-ropes/feed/ 0     Joyce copyright expires http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/joyce-copyright-expires/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/joyce-copyright-expires/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:21:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26667 Will I raise a glass to toast the Irish author’s long-awaited return to the public domain? Yes I said yes I will yes [Gordon Bowker, Independent, earlier here, here, and here]

    But note: The jubilation is over the entry of the author’s work into the public domain in the European Union; in the United States most of the author’s writings remain tied up for a long time to come. Details here (thanks commenter JWB).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/joyce-copyright-expires/feed/ 5     SOPA’s Hollywood accounting http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopas-hollywood-accounting/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopas-hollywood-accounting/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:52:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26629 Some advocates of the legislation cook the books when they count (and double-count and triple-count) the costs of piracy. [Julian Sanchez, Cato; Mike Masnick, TechDirt]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/sopas-hollywood-accounting/feed/ 2     SOPA fight heats up http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-fight-heats-up/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-fight-heats-up/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:54:34 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26489 Brad Plumer in the Washington Post summarizes the provisions of the bill as well as the state of play on it in Congress as of mid-month. Although much commentary has assumed that persons determined to visit blocked sites could readily find ways around the SOPA restrictions, David Post notes that the draft bill authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctions against persons who assist in circumventing the law, which might include websites that publish “here’s how to evade SOPA blocking” information. Timothy Lee at ArsTechnica notes growing opposition to the bill among conservatives, while Joshua Kopstein at Motherboard reviews a comic markup session. Meanwhile, “Gibson Guitar & Others On SOPA Supporters List Say They Never Supported The Bill” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt] Earlier here and here.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-fight-heats-up/feed/ 3     “SOPA: An Architecture for Censorship” http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-an-architecture-for-censorship/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-an-architecture-for-censorship/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:09:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26370 The proposed law is being promoted as a way of blocking piratical “rogue” sites, but once it’s up and working, and internet providers have begun automatically blocking sites from a list continually updated by the government, it won’t stop with copyright and trademark infringers. Extending the interdiction to other sorts of sites will be a relatively simple and straightforward matter:

    With the legal framework in place, expanding it to cover other conduct — obscenity, defamation, “unfair competition,” patent infringement, publication of classified information, advocacy in support of terror groups — would be a matter of adding a few words to those paragraphs.

    How long before a sentimental Congress yields to demands to block suicide- or anorexia-promotion sites, or perhaps those accused of glorifying the taking of illegal drugs or profiting from depictions of animal cruelty? [Julian Sanchez, Cato, more; earlier] More: Stephen DeMaura and David Segal, Roll Call (potential use against political candidates), Bill Wilson (ALG), The Hill, Stanford Law Review, “Don’t Break the Internet”.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/sopa-an-architecture-for-censorship/feed/ 8     The case against SOPA/”Protect IP” http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/the-case-against-sopaprotect-ip/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/the-case-against-sopaprotect-ip/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:19:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26237
    My Cato colleague Julian Sanchez argues that a bill rapidly moving through Congress would give far too much power to authorities to close down websites without due process, yet would be readily circumvented by actual IP pirates. More: Sanchez/Cato, BoingBoing, Declan McCullagh (software execs blast proposal), Derek Bambauer/Prawfs (”Six Things Wrong With SOPA”), Stewart Baker/Volokh.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/the-case-against-sopaprotect-ip/feed/ 4     YouTube, Flickr in peril? http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/youtube-flickr-in-peril/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/youtube-flickr-in-peril/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:09:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25568 Concerns are mounting about something called the Stop Online Piracy Act, billed as giving authorities the power to close down “rogue” websites devoted to exchange of stolen content. [Timothy Lee, Cato at Liberty]

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