How Government Works (or doesn’t):
This foundational regulation that affects all of government is completely and totally broken. One need only look at CIO-Of-The-Federal-Government Vivek Kundra’s desk for the evidence. Last time I was in there, he had a 17″ all in one Gateway computer sitting on it because regulations prohibit him from buying a reasonable machine. He’s the CIO!
The North Country Gazette does not put its articles behind a paywall, but insists that visitors not read more than one unless they subscribe. According to BoingBoing, a notice on the site (now apparently taken down, or at least inaccessible to many visitors) contained the following menacing wording:
A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved… and will then pursue individual legal actions.
“Jane Doe” has sued a Missouri company, Foxtrax Vehicle Tracking Inc., in a Wisconsin court, saying it aided and abetted her domestic partner in tracking her whereabouts, thus enabling him to commit assault and battery on her. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via Masnick/TechDirt and Siouxsie Law]
Concerns are raised about a provision in the Dodd financial services reform bill. [Robert Litan, HuffPo via Timothy Lee, Cato at Liberty and Mike Masnick/TechDirt; John Mauldin, Frontlinethoughts.com/ Business Insider]
“Knowing why and how startups can be sued into oblivion will give you a new appreciation for the problems in the patent system.” [Sawyer at Feld Thoughts via Pete Warden]
We’ve previously encountered Arthur Firstenberg of Santa Fe, N.M., and his anti-wi-fi litigation. Now the self-reported sufferer from electromagnetic sensitivity “is suing his next-door neighbor for refusing to turn off her cell phone and other electronic devices,” saying his efforts to avoid the fields threatens to render him homeless. He also thinks neighbor Raphaela Monribot should pay him $530,000. He’s represented by lawyer Lindsay Lovejoy Jr. [Santa Fe New Mexican, The Register, DSL Reports]
More: alt-paper SFreeper (which seems to have been on the story first) reports that attorney Lovejoy “is a graduate of Harvard and Yale, as well as a former Assistant New Mexico Assistant Attorney General who has argued cases alongside now-US Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM.” (via Chris Fountain)
By way of more chances for plaintiffs to identify arguable red flags in the form of information that a physician “should have known”. [Robert Mintz, HCPLive]
It’s not too early to begin thinking out the liability implications of robotics. [WSJ Law Blog]
“The American Booksellers Association loves people who buy books. It loves them so much that it wants to protect them from wicked retailers who sell popular titles at affordable prices.” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe] More: Mark Perry.
Related: antitrust laws mostly “used today by one group of competitors to try to hamstring another competitor in their business” [Coyote on IBM mainframe investigation]
A California federal court granted summary judgment to Hewlett-Packard against a plaintiff who “brought a putative class action against HP because its laser jet printers shut down printer operations before the toner cartridges are really empty. … The User Manual did not disclose that toner would remain in the cartridges when they reached ’empty,’ but rather advised that the cartridges would yield up to 2,000 color pages.” [Russell Jackson; Baggett v. Hewlett-Packard, PDF]