Overlawyered » France http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Free Google Maps unfair to paid competitors, France rules http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:23:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27343 At Cato at Liberty, I find that uncannily reminiscent of a famous Bastiat parody (& IEA).

More from Coyote: “left unsaid is how they would jack up their prices when at least two other companies (Bing, Mapquest) also provide mapping services online for free.” But note that the French case arose not from Google’s furnishing of its free map service to individual end customers, but from its furnishing of its map API to businesses that typically adapt it for use in their own sites; as commenters at BoingBoing and Reddit as well as news reports point out, Google has indeed introduced fees for its largest business users of this type (which has caused some of them to adapt by switching from Google’s API to OpenStreetMap, a free wiki-based map service).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/free-google-maps-unfair-to-paid-competitors-france-rules/feed/ 3 Photos of high-design furniture http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/photos-of-high-design-furniture/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/photos-of-high-design-furniture/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:07:00 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27084 The French courts have ruled that it is a violation of intellectual property rights to disseminate photographs of armchairs and sofas designed by famed modernist Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouart Jeanneret). Per Getty Images in an email to creative contributors, “while you may hold a copyright in a particular image or clip, if it contains even a fraction of a Le Corbusier piece then you may not have all the necessary rights under French law to provide that content and therefore may be liable for copyright infringement under French law in respect of the furniture featured.” Getty has told its contributors that they may not feature in licensed content objects by some other designers as well, including the furniture of Mies van der Rohe. What about images of his buildings? [British Journal of Photography]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/photos-of-high-design-furniture/feed/ 4 “French fans sue Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray over ‘emotional damage’” http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/french-fans-sue-michael-jacksons-doctor-conrad-murray-over-emotional-damage/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/french-fans-sue-michael-jacksons-doctor-conrad-murray-over-emotional-damage/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:18:34 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26759 Lawyer Emmanuel Ludot “is acting for around 100 fans who are members of an association that calls itself the ‘Michael Jackson Community.’ He said that while each fan could be awarded damages of up to 10,000 euros ($A12,400), they were seeking only a symbolic euro.” Jackson’s doctor was convicted of involuntary manslaughter following the singer’s death from an anesthetic overdose. [AFP]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/french-fans-sue-michael-jacksons-doctor-conrad-murray-over-emotional-damage/feed/ 4 International law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/international-law-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/international-law-roundup/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:13:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26443
  • More on John Fonte’s new book Sovereignty or Submission [FrontPage interview, W. James Antle III/Washington Times, Clifford May via Israpundit, earlier here and here] U.N. Human Rights Council finds much to criticize about U.S. rights record, including inadequate attention to rights of clean water and sanitation; State Department response to “universal periodic review”;
  • “The President Can’t Increase Congress’s Power Simply by Signing a Treaty” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato, on Supreme Court case of U.S. v. Bond]
  • Another “international norms vs. American sentencing practices” showdown headed to SCOTUS? [Hans Bader]
  • France, Turkey restrict talk of Armenian genocide in opposite ways, and both are wrong [Walter Russell Mead]
  • Transnational prosecutions on an inexorable upward arc? Depends on how you count them [Jeremy Rabkin, TAI]
  • International law pressed into use to remake family law and gender customs [Stephen Baskerville]
  • “Time to Fix the European Court of Human Rights?” [Julian Ku, Opinio Juris]
  • “We are fighting the caste system with capitalism”: open market in India helps Dalits [NY Times]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/international-law-roundup/feed/ 2     Update: French court tosses “book review defamation” case http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/update-french-court-tosses-book-review-defamation-case/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/update-french-court-tosses-book-review-defamation-case/#comments Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:10:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21877 According to Prof. Joseph Weiler’s website, a tribunal in France has not only dismissed the criminal libel complaint that Prof. Karin Calvo-Goller filed against him, but has imposed a monetary penalty on the complainant for abuse of process. The dispute arose over a negative book review in an academic journal Weiler edits (earlier here, here, etc.).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/update-french-court-tosses-book-review-defamation-case/feed/ 1     Artisan cheese, Mark Bittman and Michelle Obama http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/artisan-cheese-mark-bittman-and-michelle-obama/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/artisan-cheese-mark-bittman-and-michelle-obama/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:02:44 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21354 I’ve got a food policy roundup at Cato that tries to answer such questions as:

    * Has FDA’s regulatory zeal finally met its match in the foodie zeal of cheese-makers and -fanciers who are beginning to insist on their right to make and enjoy cheeses similar to those in France, even if they pose a nonzero though tiny bacterial risk?

    * How annoying is it that Mark Bittman would stop writing a great food column in the NYT in order to start writing an inevitably wrongheaded politics-of-food column?

    * Is Wal-Mart secretly smiling after First Lady Michelle Obama publicly twisted its arm to do various things it was probably considering anyway, along with some things it definitely wanted to do, such as opening more stores in poor urban neighborhoods?

    Related: Led by past Overlawyered guest-blogger Baylen Linnekin, Keep Food Legal bills itself as “The first and only nationwide membership organization devoted to culinary freedom.” 11 Points has compiled a list of “11 Foods and Drinks Banned in the United States.” And GetReligion.org has more on the “shadowy community of outlaw Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers” portrayed in several recent press reports.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/artisan-cheese-mark-bittman-and-michelle-obama/feed/ 2     January 28 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-28-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-28-roundup/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:07:08 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21199
  • New York State Sen. Jim Alesi drops much-criticized suit against constituent couple in whose house he was injured while trespassing [WHEC, Techdirt]
  • “Distracted moving”: campaign heats up for laws prohibiting pedestrians from texting [Alkon, Greenfield, Popehat]
  • “Good News: Tort Costs Eased in 2009. Bad News: They Still Totaled $248 Billion.” [CJAC, Insurance Journal, Towers Perrin report (PDF)]
  • As Wisconsin moves to limit tort suits, lawyers race to file cases before deadline [Journal-Sentinel, NAM, NJLRA]
  • Settling scientific and scholarly quarrels in France by way of defamation actions? Criminal libel complaints? [Ron Bailey] Update on Joseph Weiler criminal libel case [Heller, Opinio Juris, earlier here, etc.]
  • NPR interview with Seth Mnookin on vaccine book [via TortsProf, earlier; plus, New York Observer]
  • “HP Tries a Coupon Settlement” [PoL]
  • “Strange but true” role of former Republican Senator Fred Thompson lobbying for Tennessee trial lawyers will not particularly surprise Overlawyered readers [WSJ Law Blog; background here, here, etc.]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-28-roundup/feed/ 3     January 24 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-24-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-24-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:57:44 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21098
  • Trouble with hunting bad/burdensome regulations: most of them have entrenched advocates [NY Times] “Obama — the Great Deregulator?” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe]. Earlier here and here;
  • Now we find out: tax hikes on outsourcing in 9/11 compensation bill infuriate India, were never vetted by Hill tax panels [PoL; more on Easter eggs in bill] Law firm that advertises for 9/11 dust clients is fan of Sen. Gillibrand [Stoll]
  • France will stop censoring some historical images of smokers in ads [NY Times]
  • “2010: The Year of the Angry, Company-Suing Plaintiff” [WSJ Law Blog] “The most sued companies in America” [Fox Business, counting federal-court suits only]
  • Death by drunk driving: As bad as purposeful murder? Worse? [Greenfield]
  • EPA gets specific on its plans to advance “environmental justice,” combat disparate racial impact in project siting, etc. [WLF, Popeo, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
  • Winners of Chamber’s “Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2010″ competition [US Chamber ILR]
  • “If the FCC had regulated the Internet” [Jack Shafer, Slate]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-24-roundup-3/feed/ 0     “Girls named Zoe lose suit against Renault for naming electric car Zoe” http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/girls-named-zoe-lose-suit-against-renault-for-naming-electric-car-zoe/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/girls-named-zoe-lose-suit-against-renault-for-naming-electric-car-zoe/#comments Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:07:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20213 A lawyer sued on behalf of two girls named Zoe Renault, but a French judge ruled the claim out of bounds absent proof that “the car name would cause the girls “certain, direct and current harm.” [USA Today]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/girls-named-zoe-lose-suit-against-renault-for-naming-electric-car-zoe/feed/ 0     Protectionism disguised as reparations-ism? http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/protectionism-disguised-as-reparations-ism/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/protectionism-disguised-as-reparations-ism/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:37:04 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19074 A California lawmaker targets a French railroad. [Coyote]

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