Overlawyered » newspapers 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 America as “prosecutocracy” http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/america-as-prosecutocracy/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/america-as-prosecutocracy/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:56:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27348 Deposed press lord Conrad Black is taking a public stand against the law enforcement and corporate-governance authorities that put him behind bars. [Andrew McCarthy/The New Criterion, earlier]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/america-as-prosecutocracy/feed/ 0 Argentina moves to take control of newsprint business http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/argentina-moves-to-take-control-of-newsprint-business/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/argentina-moves-to-take-control-of-newsprint-business/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:09:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26565 Economic liberty intertwined with civil liberty, part 7,914,886: “The paper used to produce newspapers came under government control in Argentina on Thursday, in a long-sought victory for President Cristina Fernandez in her dispute with the country’s opposition media,” reported AP last month. More from the BBC, and earlier from my Cato colleague Juan Carlos Hidalgo.

Independent papers in the South American republic are quite right to fear for their future, if earlier ventures into government newsprint control are any indication. Dictator Juan Peron used similar methods to muzzle the press, while in Mexico for decades governments of the ruling PRI closely controlled newsprint allocation, a power they were not hesitant to use to bring excessively independent publishers to heel. It came as an important move toward Mexican political liberalization in 1990 when the Salinas government did away with the controls, by allowing free importation of newsprint to any buyers subject to a modest tariff.

Significantly, the measure just signed by Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner inserts the government directly as a prospective owner of the business and contains provisions on newsprint imports as well. Per Impunity Watch:

Clarins newspaper notes that there are a number of disturbing aspects to the bill. First is the passage that allows for the state to unilaterally take a majority share of the company as the newsprint distribution is now classified a national interest. Also of concerns is the portion that would permit the Economy Minister to determine how much newsprint to import, establishing government quotas that have never before existed….

Concurrent with the media bill passage is a new anti-terrorism bill that classifies certain “economic crimes,” including certain actions taken by the media, as terrorist acts. The bill states that “economic terrorist acts” are those done with an intent to terrorize the general population.

Whether relatedly or not, the Argentine government last year launched prosecutions of independent economists who have asserted that the country’s actual inflation rate is higher than that reported by the government (& Coyote).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/argentina-moves-to-take-control-of-newsprint-business/feed/ 5 Class action: I thought USA Today at my hotel was free http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/class-action-i-thought-usa-today-at-my-hotel-was-free/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/class-action-i-thought-usa-today-at-my-hotel-was-free/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:06:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24116 “A guest at a Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa who was upset that he was billed 75 cents for a newspaper he assumed was free has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel chain, saying he was deceived by a scheme that also hurts the environment.” [San Francisco Chronicle] More: Jeff Bercovici, Forbes.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/class-action-i-thought-usa-today-at-my-hotel-was-free/feed/ 10 Objecting to a New York Post cartoon http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/objecting-to-a-new-york-post-cartoon/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/objecting-to-a-new-york-post-cartoon/#comments Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:33:38 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19550 A judge declines to toss an employment-law suit against the New York Post by an ex-staffer who — among other grievances — says she was retaliated against after denouncing a cartoon as racially insensitive [Romenesko]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/objecting-to-a-new-york-post-cartoon/feed/ 1 “Lower Your Newspaper Advertising Prices, Pay a $21 Million Fine” http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/lower-your-newspaper-advertising-prices-pay-a-21-million-fine/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/lower-your-newspaper-advertising-prices-pay-a-21-million-fine/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:25:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18893 Matt Welch scrutinizes a San Francisco “predatory pricing” antitrust verdict that you’d really think would be raising more alarm in publishing, and other, circles. [Reason]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/lower-your-newspaper-advertising-prices-pay-a-21-million-fine/feed/ 1 Slowing down the copyright trolls http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/slowing-down-the-copyright-trolls/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/slowing-down-the-copyright-trolls/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:21:36 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18590 How to respond to the emergence of assembly-line copyright-suit filers without undermining the right of content owners to stop unauthorized reprints that go beyond fair use? Max Kennerly raises the possibility of steering rights owners into agency complaints or arbitration as an alternative, or at least precondition, to court action. That might slow down the business model of groups like RightHaven, which has demanded in terrorem sums from mom-and-pop bloggers and other infringers and even asked courts to order seizure of the domains of otherwise legitimate target websites.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/slowing-down-the-copyright-trolls/feed/ 3 July 26 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-27-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-27-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:01:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18436
  • Emerging newspaper business model: copyright lawsuits against bloggers? [Kravets, Wired, Ron Coleman, TechDirt, PoL]
  • Five NYC hospitals to use “health courts” to seek agreements before medical malpractice cases go to trial [WSJ]
  • Serpentine asbestos politics behind “California state rock” fracas [Cal Civil Justice, more, PoL, Bailey, earlier here and here]
  • From Andrew Grossman: “Feinberg: ‘priests, mayors or even sheriffs could vouch for [BP trust fund] claims of local businesses.’ Has he ever been to Miss, La.?!”
  • Va. lawyer, real estate agent sanctioned for “frivolous claims supported by wild speculation” [ABA Journal]
  • An injury lawyer reads and reacts to my first book, The Litigation Explosion [Alan Crede]
  • Le Corbusier’s writing made him sound like certain pro se litigants [Johnson, PrawfsBlawg]
  • “Tip: Photoshopping Self Into Charity Photos Not Likely to Reduce Sentence” [Lowering the Bar, more]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-27-roundup-3/feed/ 3     June 24 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-24-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-24-roundup/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:58:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17937
  • “IP Lawyer Who Spotted Expired Patent on Solo Cup Lid Loses Quest for Trillions in Damages” [ABA Journal, earlier on "false markings" suits here, here, etc.]
  • Like we’re surprised: Linda Greenhouse favors sentimental (”Poor Joshua!”) side in 1989 DeShaney case and hopes Elena Kagan does too [NYT Opinionator, my take a few years back]
  • Why is Le Monde in financial trouble? For one thing, firing a printing plant employee costs €466,000 [Frédéric Filloux, Monday Note via MargRev]
  • “Will these salt peddlers stop at nothing?” Michael Kinsley on NYT sodium-as-next-tobacco coverage [Atlantic Wire]
  • “‘Victim’ Gets $4.17 Coupon, Lawyers Get $10 Million Cash”: Expedia class action settlement [John Frith, California Civil Justice Blog]
  • Scruggs investigation finally over as feds drop probe of political operative P.L. Blake; several figures in Mississippi scandal are up for release soon from prison [Jackson Clarion Ledger]
  • $20 billion Gulf spill fund: “Oil Gushes and Power Rushes” [Sullum, Althouse]
  • “NYC Naked Cowboy to Naked Cowgirl: Stop copying me” [AP]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-24-roundup/feed/ 5     Brandeis on privacy http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/brandeis-on-privacy/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/brandeis-on-privacy/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:42:00 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17791 The most overrated law review article in history? Or an instance of useful legal doctrine developed from imperfect origins? [Stewart Baker, Volokh]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/brandeis-on-privacy/feed/ 1     Securities law and spill news http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/securities-law-and-spill-news/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/securities-law-and-spill-news/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:20:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17787 “Given recent volatility in BP share price, I’m told that information related to top kill is now considered stock-market sensitive, which means it has to be managed under disclosure rules for the London and N.Y. stock exchanges,” the BP media official said in an e-mail message. “In a nutshell, that means all investors must be provided information on an equal basis. That precludes me from sending you updates as various aspects of the operation unfold.” — today’s New York Times. Readers can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe securities law itself, and not merely private exchange rules, currently constrains companies’ release of stock-market-sensitive information.

    P.S.: Ira Stoll, better informed than I about the background, makes the same point: “I agree with Mr. Carr that this is a problem, but his quarrel should be with the SEC and Reg FD, not with BP.”

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