- Popehat’s Patrick tells the story of how, representing a bank, he resisted a serial litigant rather than pay her off [Twitter thread]
- News of suits motivated by attorneys’ fees may be slow to reach Harvard [“Bill of Health”, dismissing “idea of opportunistic lawsuits to enforce the ADA” as “somewhat farfetched” since federal law does not grant damages]
- Tim Sandefur on the Indian Child Welfare Act [Cato Regulation magazine, earlier]
- $3.5 million gift from leading trial lawyer Elizabeth Cabraser launches new Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice [Berkeley Law School]
- “The South African government will soon discover the extremely complex technical headache of expropriating land without compensation.” [Johann Kirsten and Wandile Sihlobo, Quartz]
- Speak not of trolls: “Lawyer who filed 500-plus copyright cases in federal court calls $10K sanction ‘judicial error'” [ABA Journal]
Posts Tagged ‘copyright’
“This Year ‘Big Content’ Likely Won’t Push to Extend Copyright”
New Cato Daily Podcast with Caleb Brown: “Without action by Congress, a whole class of copyrighted works will fall into the public domain next year. And yet, Big Content isn’t fighting to stop it. Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica discusses why.” More: Lee in Ars Technica via David Post.
December 6 roundup
- Torts class hypotheticals come to life: tipsy axe-throwing, discussed in this space last June, is coming to D.C. [Jessica Sidman, Washingtonian] One guess why Japanese “slippery stairs” game show might not translate easily to Land O’ Lawyers [Dan McLaughlin on Twitter]
- “California lawyer pleads guilty in $50M visa scam” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal]
- Claim: longstanding practice in Louisiana and Oregon of not requiring jury unanimity for felony convictions reflects states’ racial past [Angela A. Allen-Bell, Washington Post]
- “Judge Halts Copyright Troll’s Lawsuit Against A Now-Deceased Elderly Man With Dementia And An IP Address” [Timothy Geigner]
- David Henderson reviews Richard Rothstein book on history of federal encouragement of housing segregation, The Color of Law [Cato Regulation magazine]
- Class action: sellers of cold-pressed juice should have disclosed that it was high-pressure-processed [Elaine Watson, Food Navigator USA]
Law of the Nursery
‘It’s my toy’ – property law
‘You promised me’ – contract law
‘He hit me first’ – criminal law
‘Daddy said I could’ – constitutional law
— the late Harold Berman of Harvard Law School, via John McGinnis, Law and Liberty.
Some others, via social media:
‘Mama said NO’- Supreme Court decision — Cathy Maddox on Twitter
‘Last week you said’ – case law — Dave Ferguson on Twitter
‘Stop repeating everything I say’ – copyright law — John Althouse Cohen
‘Make him turn it down’ — nuisance law
Scrubbing consumer reviews: “Decline and fall of the dumb copyright trick”
One thing professionals “have tried to do to avoid negative online reviews is to find ways of claiming some kind of copyright in any review posted by a former client, then suing the negative reviewer for copyright infringement….Finally, the courts are catching up.” [Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion; Pamela Chestek; Eric Goldman in 2013 on Goren dispute with Ripoff Report]
November 1 roundup
- Antitrust crackdown on Big Tech based on predictions of where markets may head in future? Just don’t [Alan Reynolds in part three of series; parts one and two]
- Copyright holder sends mass demands to IP address holders, but for lower amounts and as “fines” rather than settlements. A move away from troll model, or refinement of it? [Timothy Geigner, TechDirt]
- Among the many issues far afield from Bill of Rights that ACLU is up to lately: defending drive-by ADA filing operations against remedial legislation [ACLU, earlier on its drift from civil liberties mission]
- Texas AG sues arguing unconstitutionality of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA); case involves blocking of “adoption [that] has the support of the boy’s biological parents and grandmother, Paxton said.” [Texas Tribune] More: Timothy Sandefur, NR;
- More local and personal than my usual fare, I ramble about my education and upbringing, why I live where I live, as well as some policy matters [Frederick News-Post “Frederick Uncut” local-newsmaker podcast with Colin McGuire and Danielle Gaines]
- “What’s the Difference between ‘Major,’ ‘Significant,’ and All Those Other Federal Rule Categories?” [Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr., CEI]
October 25 roundup
- Canada: passenger sues saying low-cost airline boasted of “champagne service” but served only sparkling wine [The Points Guy]
- Not just air: balloon makers face serious copyright issues [Timothy Casey (Baker & Hofstadter), Balloon Professionals Magazine via @JenniferMRomig on Twitter]
- Noteworthy: Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.), citing due process concerns, vetoes state bill adopting into law Obama-era guidance on campus sexual misconduct [Emily Yoffe, The Atlantic]
- New electronic logging mandate eliminates fudge factor for independent and big-fleet truckers alike. What could go wrong? [Alan Smith and Forrest Lucas, The Hill]
- San Diego: “Artist Says Hotel Damaged His Work, Let It Be Used in Porn” [Victoria Prieskop, Courthouse News]
- “U.S. Withdrawal from UNESCO Is A Good Start” [Marian Tupy, Reason]
“Football Coach Sued for Copyright Infringement Over Retweet”
“You better think twice before hitting retweet because there are some vengeful potential plaintiffs out there. King’s College and its football coach were sued for copyright infringement for retweeting a link to an unauthorized image of a single page of a book.” [Michael Lee, Morrison Lee via Timothy Geigner, Techdirt]
Suit over banana costume: a closet full of wearable-copyright disputes?
Kmart's knock-off banana costume just doesn't have the same a-peel, designer says https://t.co/x2B16jmea1
— Keith Robinson (@wkeithrobinson) October 2, 2017
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands on cheerleader uniforms has generated new uncertainty as to where a line falls between useful aspects of apparel, which are not copyrightable, and decorative aspects, which are. “The ruling is widely expected to lead to increased litigation in the fashion industry.” A lawsuit against Kmart over its sale of a banana costume “could be the first in a wave of copyright lawsuits over fairly generic Halloween costume designs.” [Timothy Lee, ArsTechnica; Bill Duhart, NJ.com; Polly Mosendz and Kim Bhasin, Bloomberg]
“Welcome to Life: The Singularity, Ruined by Lawyers”
“Please accept these terms and conditions in order to continue Life.” Hilarious and unnerving: “Your stored mind contains one of more patterns that contravene the Prevention of Crime and Terrorism Act of 2050. Please stand by while we adjust these patterns.” And don’t miss, at 1:57, the fate of memories covered by other people’s copyright [Tom Scott, YouTube video, 2:44]