Legal Commentary

Holy Kryptonite er... Holy Copyright: Superman (TM) Lawyer Invokes California Anti-SLAPP Law Against a Warner Bros. DC Comics Copyright Lawsuit

Posted on August 17, 2010
Matthew Belloni at THR, Esq. asks: Can the 'Superman' lawyer SLAPP away a Warner Bros. lawsuit?. See also Steve Younis at his apparently non-official Superman Homepage. There is even a Superman Webring. Much of society operates by vested monopoly rights, rather than by merit, and that is one of the serious problems we face in the economic world today -- a lot of people in the economy are not pulling their weight, rather they are plundering the system, and surprise, surprise, as the financial crisis has shown us, the pot at the end of the rainbow has been plundered EMPTY...

Is Your Swimming Pool Registered and Legally Compliant? Aerial Images via Google and Bing Proving to Be a Boon to Government and Law Enforcement

Posted on August 15, 2010
Correctly used, modern photography and aerial film imagery provide government and law enforcement with effective tools for all kinds of useful surveillance. See Smile! Aerial images being used to enforce laws

Women's Suffrage and the True Story: "Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt"

Posted on August 15, 2010
How did women get the right to vote in America? Gail Collins tells the story at the New York Times in My Favorite August

From Attorney to Vintner : CEO at St. Francis Winery and Vineyards Tells His Story

Posted on August 15, 2010
The New York Times relates the story of St. Francis Winery and Vineyards CEO Christopher Silva who went From Lawyer to Vintner.

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Housing Bubble Graphs: Historical Charts of Home Prices

Posted on August 14, 2010
Everyone talks about the housing bubble, but what is it really? To view a picture of the "bubble" see Housing Bubble Graphs: Charts of inflation-adjusted, historical home prices.

Microsoft Word in Business at Shauna Kelly : A Very Useful Website for Assistance with Microsoft Word at Various Levels of User Competence

Posted on August 14, 2010
The graphic user interface for Microsoft Word starting with Word 2007 is a disaster of programming by people who apparently never write anything themselves. We can't find anything via the totally non-intuitive interface which seems to be designed by fashion models who are thinking "pretty", and forgetting that a word processor is a "tool", where the most important design features should be speed and ease of use -- the fewer clicks the better -- the fewer menus the better -- the simpler the better...

Fashion and All that Jazz : The Copyright Wars

Posted on August 14, 2010
Kal Raustiala, Professor of Law at UCLA, and Christopher Sprigman, Professor Law at the University of Virginia, bring us Why Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Fashion - NYTimes.com.

A Question of Borders: U.S. President Barack Obama Signs Bipartisan Border Bill

Posted on August 14, 2010
Julia Preston at the New York Times in Obama Signs Border Bill to Increase Surveillance notes that:"President Obama signed into law a $600 million bill on Friday to pay for 1,500 new border agents, additional unmanned surveillance drones and new Border Patrol stations along the southwest border...

For All the Golfers Out There: The 2010 PGA Championship via the Danny Balin Diary: A PGA Professional?s view of the PGA Championship

Posted on August 13, 2010
Danny Balin, age 28, PGA Club Professional, Burning Tree Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, is playing his first PGA Championship and reports about his experiences at The 2010 PGA Championship - Balin Diary: A PGA Professional?s view of the PGA Championship

Understanding the Federal Deficit: Quantitative Easing: Printing Money Without the Presses

Posted on August 13, 2010
To understand what the federal government has done and is currently doing to deal with the financial crisis, it is useful to read Sewell Chan's August 11, 2010 New York Times news analysis at For Fed, Unpalatable Decisions May Be Ahead, in which the economic concept of quantitative easing plays a central role: printing money without the presses.

Germany Moves Forward in Financially Troubled Times as German Economy Makes Comeback, Defying the Financial Recession in Other Countries

Posted on August 13, 2010
At the New York Times, Nicholas Kulish reports on August 13, 2010 from Berlin in Defying Others, Germany Finds Economic Success that: "Statistics released Friday buttress Germany?s view that it had the formula right all along. The government on Friday announced quarter-on-quarter economic growth of 2...

Bad Economic Policy and the Destruction of the American Economy Since the Days of President Nixon

Posted on August 13, 2010
Paul B. Farrell at Market Watch in his article Reagan insider: GOP destroyed economy reports on Four Deformations of the Apocalypse, a recent July 31, 2010 NY Times op-ed by David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, where Stockman claims that Republican policies starting with former President Nixon bankrupted America and the Republican Party, who have abandoned sound, traditional values for bad economic policy...

Misleading? Study Suggests U.S. Law Firms Lag Behind Merged UK Law Firm Conglomerates, perhaps? Ignoring Formal Law Firm Alliances and Cooperations

Posted on August 13, 2010
Via David Hechler at Corporate Counsel in Who's Afraid of U.S. Litigation? (Almost Everyone), Ashby Jones at the Wall Street Journal WSJ Law Blog points to a telephone survey study of 1000 corporate in-house lawyers by Acritas (a UK based firm !) to be released in a week which suggests that Internationally, U...

LawPundit Now Open to (Sensible) Comments: Blogger Integrates Google Spam Filtering Technologies in its Comment System

Posted on August 13, 2010
Blogger has integrated Google spam filtering technologies in its "Comment System": see Blogger Buzz: New Comments System on Blogger. In addition, unwanted comments can now either be deleted in full or their content removed. Previously, if a blogger at Blogger opened up his comments to the world, it was not possible to delete illegal, potentially illegal or offensive comments or spam...

Oracle Sues Google Over Android Operating System ? GigaLaw.com Daily News

Posted on August 13, 2010
Oracle Sues Google Over Android Operating System ? GigaLaw.com Daily News

The Website as an Expense viz. Investment In Law Practice

Posted on August 13, 2010
Carey at the RealPractice.com Company Blog discusses An Expense vs. An Investment In Your Practice - The Website.

Defining Internet Freedom : eJournal USA at America.gov: The Enigma, Intellectual Property and the Copyright System, Internet Censorship

Posted on August 12, 2010
Defining Internet Freedom at America.gov (How do countries' values and political systems shape citizens' access to online content?) is the most recent issue found at eJournal USA, a freely downloadable .pdf eJournal which features the following articles (U...

Good Morning America! Proposition 8 and the Constitutionality of California's Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on August 11, 2010
George's Bottom Line by George Stephanopoulos, the anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America", in Proposition 8 Ruling Takes Aim at Justice Kennedy, in our opinion correctly assesses the probable outcome of Justice Walker's ruling before the Supreme Court of the United States, should it take the case...

Sightwalk in Germany Scoops Google Street View in 360° Navigable Photos of German Inner Cities : Bonn Berlin Düsseldorf Hamburg Köln München Stuttgart

Posted on August 11, 2010
Sightwalk in 360° navigable panorama photos reminiscent of Google's Street View shows locations in selected inner cities in Germany: Bonn, Berlin, Cologne (Koln), Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich (München), Stuttgart. Hat tip to CaryGEE.

The Good Life and Virtue, Practical Wisdom and Eudaimonia : Declining Sales for High-End Goods Last Year : Happiness on Less : Keep it Simple

Posted on August 11, 2010
Are you caught up in the vicious cycle of ownership? Are you working around the clock to pay for what you have or think you want? Due to the financial recession, sales of high-end goods -- except in China -- have declined in the past year. What does that mean? What do we really need? Albert Einstein is said to have used only one kind of soap, even for shaving, as he found multiple soaps for various uses "too complicated"...

So, You Know the Ropes? You Are an Expert? The Power of Ignorance May Be Eluding You - See Anthony Tjan - Harvard Business Review

Posted on August 11, 2010
The Power of Ignorance - Anthony Tjan - Harvard Business Review "[W]e often see some of the most creative and entrepreneurial insights coming from younger people. Wisdom and experience help to grow and sustain a company, but generating novel ideas requires a certain amount of naïveté...

Pogue Interviews Palfrey at NY Times: Internet Cyberbullies and Anonymity: The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Act

Posted on August 10, 2010
What should we do in terms of legislation in dealing with the widespread and flagrant misuse of Internet anonymity and the increasing spread of cyberbullying? Should the pending Megan Meier Cyberbullying Act, which provides criminal penalties for cyberbullying, be passed, or would its impact have too great a chilling effect on free expression? Are there less drastic alternatives to dealing with bullies or criminals hiding behind the cloak of anonymity? See the interview of John Palfrey by David Pogue at Q&A: Rumors, Cyberbullying and Anonymity - Pogue's Posts Blog - NYTimes...

Finding Mutual Ground: Conflict Resolution Where Conflict is Inevitable and Combat is Optional

Posted on August 10, 2010
Debra L. Bruce of The Legal Intelligencer in her Law.com article Tips to Help Lawyers Resolve Conflicts -- in Cases and Beyond relates inter alia this important quotation: "'Conflict is inevitable; combat is optional,' said Justin Patten....."

Nobel Prize Winning Economist Paul Krugman Has it Right at the New York Times - America Goes Dark, Gravelly and Uneducated Rather than Opt for Greater Income Equality

Posted on August 10, 2010
Paul Krugman is rightly waving a gigantic red danger flag in his op-ed to the New York Times: America Goes Dark. How many of you thought that was ethnic? In fact, Krugman writes: "In effect, a large part of our political class is showing its priorities: given the choice between asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation?s foundations to crumble ? literally in the case of roads, figuratively in the case of education ? they?re choosing the latter...

Who Owns the LinkedIn Connections at a Company or Law Firm ?

Posted on August 10, 2010
Who Owns the LinkedIn Connections at a Company or Law Firm ? Robin Hensley at Raising the Bar states the question as "whether the employer or the employee is entitled to control an employee?s LinkedIn account".

Best Tweets: Constitutional Law and Kanye Edition | The Atlantic Wire

Posted on August 10, 2010
Best Tweets: Constitutional Law and Kanye Edition | The Atlantic Wire: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Knockoffs in Fashion Design Plague Designers as Fashion Industry Copyright Bill Reintroduced to Congress

Posted on August 10, 2010
Tech Dirt alerts us to the introduction of a Fashion Copyright Bill at It's Back: Totally Unnecessary And Damaging Fashion Copyright Bill Reintroduced. The fashion industry is of course the best example that creation of an incomparably dynamic and innovative industry proceeds best WITHOUT copyright protection...

Are Law School Grades More Important to a Career than the Rank of the Law School Attended ?

Posted on August 09, 2010
Debra Cassens Weiss in Law News Now at the ABA Journal reports on research which finds that Law School Grades More Important to Career than Elite School, Researchers Say.That of course is not really that surprising.Law students accepted by law schools have different characters and different aptitudes and many students are in fact not as suited for law as others, even though they may have had top undergraduate grades, good LSATs and excellent references...

Economics 2008 Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman calls Wisconsin Congressional Representative Paul Ryan "The Flimflam Man"

Posted on August 08, 2010
Economics Nobel Prize Winner of 2008 Paul Krugman has unleashed both economic barrels at Wisconsin Representative to the U.S. Congress, Paul Ryan, who Krugman calls The Flimflam Man for Ryan's ignorant and absurd pie-in-the-sky plans for America's future in which the current abhorrent and unjustified inequalities of income would in fact become worse than ever...

Thoughts on Law Firm Rankings : A Function of Size and Expertise

Posted on August 08, 2010
Some questioning of law firm rankings is found at The Belly of the Beast in MIRED IN METRICS? HAVE SOME MORE!. Although the criticism of law firm rankings found there is surely justified in some particulars, it is nevertheless unavoidable that the criteria for a top 10 or top 100 or top 500 ranking of anything is always a function of the values and priorities of whoever is doing such a ranking...

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