The grandson of James Joyce, Stephen James Joyce, has used his control of the copyrights to Joyce’s work to impede scholarly research by threatening to withhold consent to any academic who would veer into investigation of the family history. He spent a hundred thousand dollars of the estate’s money to halt publication of a new edition of “Ulysses”; has “blocked or discouraged” a number of readings; and threatened to sue the National Library of Ireland when it sought to display its copies of Joyce’s manuscripts. In revenge for Michael Groden’s favorable blurb of a scholar Stephen Joyce disliked, Joyce quoted a price of a million and a half dollars for Groden’s right to quote “Ulysses” in the multimedia work he spent seven years preparing. D.T. Max in the June 19 New Yorker explores the younger Joyce’s battles, and also mentions other litigious literary estates.
Archive for June, 2006
Crying rape
Cathy Young has been going back and forth with her critics on the topic (Jun. 13).
Legal defense costs: $400 million
That’s how much Purdue Pharma has reportedly spent in legal fees in its generally successful defense of its painkiller Oxycontin against product liability assault (Lattman, Jun. 14). See our earlier post of Sept. 28, 2004, at which point the meter had reached $250 million.
“Lawsuit Heaven — NYC’s Hell”
I’ve got an op-ed in today’s New York Post about the rising tide of liability lawsuits against New York City and its taxpayers (cross-posted from Point of Law). For more on how Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office disposes of reform legislation in Albany, see Henry Stern’s NYCivic, Jun. 14.
Nanny sues hidden-camera manufacturer
“A nanny who was arrested after police viewed hidden camera video recordings that appeared to show her shaking a 5-month-old baby is suing the recording system’s manufacturer.” Prosecutors dropped charges against Claudia Muro when experts noted that the “nanny-cam” in question captured only 5.5 frames per second, as opposed to the 30 frames of video cameras, with the result that the nanny’s movements with her infant charge might have appeared abnormally jerky and violent. “Muro’s attorneys said the Tyco Fire & Security recording system needed a warning on it that the cameras did not capture real-time movement and could distort the speed of motion.” (WTVJ/MSNBC, Jun. 14; Jon Burstein, “Nanny who spent time in jail files lawsuit against hidden-camera company”, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jun. 14)(& Cutting Edge of Ecstasy).
Around the blogs
“Robert Musil” marvels at the apparent untouchability of a key witness in the Anthony Pellicano wiretap case (Jun. 13) . At Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler skeptically examines a tendentious piece in Scientific American which claims that the Supreme Court’s pending decisions on two wetlands cases, Rapanos and Carabell, imperil the survival of the Florida Everglades (Jun. 13). The trial of journalist Oriana Fallaci, on charges of “insulting Islam” (see Jun. 11, 2005), has begun in an Italian courtroom; among the many giving it coverage are Dave Zincavage, Michelle Malkin and Howard M. Friedman. And Tyler Cowen expounds his opinions on the “net neutrality” issue here.
Visit our advertisers
Our experiment with BlogAds is enough of a success that at the moment we’ve actually got more ad submissions than we have space to fill them. Of course we don’t necessarily endorse the ideas, positions, products and services of our advertisers, but by checking out their sites you can compliment them on their good taste in choosing to advertise on Overlawyered.
Milberg’s comments chorus
Peter Lattman throws open the question (Jun. 13) whether indicted Milberg Weiss should be kept on in lead counsel in class actions. The fun arrives with comments #4 through #15, entered in quick succession under twelve different names between 11:12 a.m. and 11:19, more than one per minute, each of which defends Milberg and deplores the indictment in tones that are, well, you might say, curiously consistent with one another. An employee comment-swarm? A prankster? Pure coincidence? If it was an instance of Astroturf commenting, it certainly could have been done more skillfully.
Daryl Hannah and squatting
Ilya Somin notes an aspect of the Daryl Hannah squatting that the media has ignored. By protesting and suing over the revocation of an “urban garden” by a landowner that let the community use the land gratis for fifteen years, Hannah and her compatriots ensure that future landowners won’t dare allow urban gardens in the first place to avoid future litigation expenses if they try to close them down. (LA Times columnist Steve Lopez has some acid comments about the hypocrisy of the limousine liberals involved.) I noted a similar paradox about heritage commissions last year on Point of Law.
KFC sued over fattening menu
“KFC may be finger-lickin’ good, but a consumer group is suing the chain over the kind of fat used to fry the food. Dr. Arthur Hoyte, a retired physician from Rockville, Md., and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, want a judge to order Kentucky Fried Chicken to use other types of cooking oils or make sure customers know about trans fat content immediately before they make a purchase.” (“Colonel Sanders Under Attack for Trans Fat Content”, AP/WTOP, Jun. 13). For more on food suits, see our Eat, Drink and Be Merry page; for more on the nanny-maniac CSPI and its coercive designs on our menu choices, see Jan. 20 and Feb. 7, 2006; Feb. 25, 2005; and Sept. 19, 2003.
More: Peter Lattman notes (Jun. 14) that “According to the story on the suit in today’s New York Times, fast-food chains began using trans fats in the 1980s after nutrition groups demanded that the chains stop frying in beef tallow and palm oils. Nowadays, trans fats are considered more harmful than saturated fat.” Plus Jonathan Adler and commenters, Jacob Sullum.