Copyright Law

Nondiverse Link Sausage Platter

Posted on July 08, 2020
If there's one common spice across this platter, it is reflections on a lack of diversity and how that's self-defeating. From the Department of Ignoring Inconvenient Facts, consider this piece on the "novel of ideas" as a gimmick. (In that magazine, "ignoring inconvenient facts" is rather an editorial requirement...

Droopy Monday Link Sausage Platter

Posted on July 06, 2020
It's Monday. All week. My proposed new name for the NFL franchise located in the nation's capital: The Washington Ruskies. It keeps the same initials, is consistent with the existing color scheme, and continues the theme of the oppressor lording it over the oppressed...

Once Again, Merely Giving the King the Finger

Posted on July 05, 2020
?probably one of those blown off in home fireworks "celebrations" by people improvising in the absence of professional displays while one or more of (a) drinking, (b) refusing to read the f*cking manual, (c) under twelve (and therefore even more convinced of personal invincibility), (d) not completely cleaning off alcohol residue from hand sanitizer, or (e) notwithstanding anything else, being a

Not So Anonymous

Posted on July 02, 2020
Hi. My name is [redacted], and I've been unjustly accused of being a Karen. Hello, Karen. See? That's exactly what I mean. I can't help it if I have family wealth that I didn't earn. It really doesn't matter if I inherited it, or married it, or continue to leach it off my still-living relatives...

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Potentially Overloaded Link Sausage Platter

Posted on June 28, 2020
Sometimes it's almost not worth trying to do a link-sausage platter, if only because including everything I want would look like a 20m-long buffet and not just a platter. During the Year of the Virus, buffets will be right out. As a further demonstration that the un/undereducated right wing is incapable of recognizing reflexiveness ? and the irony that a purported expert on Chicago city

Unseasoned Boring Midweek Link Sausages

Posted on March 30, 2011
So some government officials in both countries are advocating that the US/UK governments should sell arms to those who oppose Qaddafi Duck if he won't leave office. How'd that work in Afghanistan with the Mujaheddin, anyway? That's not to say that everyone must be bound by every possible historical analogy; it's only to say that historical analogies provide guidance, particularly in the

Spring Break Ist Entsprungen

Posted on March 28, 2011
Now that Spring Break is over, perhaps I can get back to some work. After I get over the germs brought home from school by the younger remora and so generously shared, that is... Time for another Borders bankruptcy update. Now things that actually matter to authors are starting to get filed...

GBS Update:The Settlement Is Dead; Long Live the Settlement Negotiations!

Posted on March 23, 2011
The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) So, Judge Chin (properly, IMNSHO) rejected the Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA)... Why Did He Reject It? Unfortunately, Judge Chin's opinion is not a model of clarity on this issue. There is no conclusion that says "x, but in the alternative y", or "for the combination of the above reasons," or "x, and in addition I would also consider

Poisoning Authors in the Park

Posted on March 22, 2011
In honor of the first day of spring, I offer a musical tribute to the season... Just a quick Borders bankruptcy update... The Economist has noticed ? it's now officially An Event! Second, last week Judge Glenn signed a flurry of orders in the matter, uniformly rejecting the pro forma (and often substantively ridiculous) objections raised by various creditors, particularly the utilities

GBS: Settlement Rejected as Not Fair and Adequate

Posted on March 22, 2011
So, the wicked witch is dead: Judge Chin has rejected the Google Book Search settlement. I want to digest this before I make too many detailed pronouncements, but there's one huge "I told you so!" moment: While the named plaintiffs and Google would argue that these authors can simply opt out, the comments underscore certain points...

B321x

Posted on March 21, 2011
Back from a mild bout with the flu. And with dental surgery. But during remora spring break, so don't expect deep thoughts (except, perhaps, in the sense of "piled higher and deeper")... The first vultures have come home to roost from the FCC's (improper, IMNSHO) approval of the Comcast-NBCU merger: AT&T proposes to buy T-Mobile...

Defamation Across the Pond

Posted on March 16, 2011
The UK coalition government has presented a draft of its proposed amendments to English libel law. These amendments are a good start, but they are woefully insufficient in two respects. The first problem ? a technical one, admittedly ? concerns jurisdiction regarding foreign claimants (what we would call "plaintiffs") and publishers (remembering that in defamation law, the "publisher" is the

Pies Are Square?

Posted on March 15, 2011
No pi yesterday ? it was 14.03, and I couldn't find a way to make the time 15:93, even for insular Yanks who don't know how to write the date... Borders bankruptcy update: The usual nonsense in these kinds of proceedings is accelerating. What a surprise...

Pot, Meet Kettle

Posted on March 10, 2011
After Rep. King's hearing yesterday, and in the interest of fair and balanced coverage of the issues he was attempting to raise, I request ? no, I demand ? that he call the following individuals and organizations and require them to give testimony under oath on radicalization of religious beliefs and the invidious effect that has on both individuals and society: On behalf of the

"I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death"

Posted on March 09, 2011
On most issues, governors of the State of Illinois ? historically and particularly recently ? are less than exemplary politicians, let alone members of the human race. When they're not getting actually convicted and sentenced to jail for corruption, they're playing featherbedding games with their cronies...

A Book By Any Other Name...

Posted on March 08, 2011
... is not merely a "book." One should remember that a book is a package for content. Here are a few examples that lead, rather inexorably, to my Prescription for Publishing?: The American Association of University Presses has issued a report suggesting that the economic model of the university press depends on two false economic assumptions: That publishable "knowledge" is rare, and

These Link Sausages Aren't Winning

Posted on March 07, 2011
There just hasn't been a lot from which to make link sausages of late. The publishing industry is holding its collective breath over Borders; H'wood and recorded music are in their respective annual post-awards-orgy malaises; even Charlie Sheen is just repeating himself...

Link Sausage Platter: Criminal Intent

Posted on March 02, 2011
No, this isn't a spinoff for next season, but it might as well be for today... Compare and contrast:Now Random House (Bertelsmann) is joining the Macmillan (von Holtzbrinck) agency model resale price maintenance agreement rush, whileEU antitrust authorities begin a skeptical look at e-book pricing with raids on e-book firms Yeah, this is going to end well, with a unified worldwide pricing

I Don't Like Mondays

Posted on February 28, 2011
These link sausages are guaranteed to be free of being and nothingness. Later this week, Apple is probably (at present, in rumor only) going to announce a new version of the iPad. Across the pond at the Grauniad, Charlie Booker describes the attitude problem behind Apple products: They make you feel good, Apple products...

Link Sausages Delayed by Technical Issues

Posted on February 26, 2011
Well, I was forced to spend money on a new laptop ? the old one fried last August, and a look at my productivity over the last six months just made things too clear. Thus, the last couple of days have been spent installing software, copying data, doing setup, etc...

The Definitive Work on Pain (3)

Posted on February 22, 2011
We've seen that, in a hypothetical liquidation of Borders, and assuming (since there is no better data as yet) that what was in the most-recent quarterly statement bears some resemblance to reality, publishers ? thanks to the priority system ? can expect to get around two-thirds of their invoiced receivables that were due prior to the bankruptcy filing on 16 February...

A Holiday for Dead Presidents

Posted on February 21, 2011
Just a few related link sausages today, then more of The Definitive Work on Pain later on. There's a distinction between "advancing the Sciences and useful Arts" and mere "innovation" ? and some figures in the MSM (who, collectively over the last thirty years, has been the paradigm for that distinction) are finally figuring that out...

The Definitive Work on Pain (2)

Posted on February 21, 2011
I'm trying to get at least the first two parts of this ode to The Machine up before filings start happening again on Tuesday morning. This entry will move from the essentially unavoidable 7% loss to creditors caused by the fact of the bankruptcy filing to the particulars of the Borders matter, and why creditor v...

The Definitive Work on Pain (1)

Posted on February 19, 2011
... will probably be created from either (a) trying to develop a definitive, prospective definition of "fair use" that works or (b) trying to figure out what unsecured creditors are going to get out of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding; both are far more fiendish than The Machine...

Borders Refuses to Pay the Rent

Posted on February 16, 2011
... leading to bankruptcy. It's not worth doing link sausages today thanks to the Borders Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. What does that mean? Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (Title 11, United States Code) is intended to give companies in trouble some breathing space to reorganize themselves and continue in business...

Cynical Link Sausages for Monday Morning

Posted on February 14, 2011
These link sausages are exceptionally cynical, even for me. The Egyptian protesters are starting to discover Pete Townsend's clairvoyance: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Mubarek had been in power for so long that almost nobody remembers that he and his predecessors Sadat and Nasser were all members of the top council of Egypt's military immediately before assuming power.

Dismal Link Sausages

Posted on February 10, 2011
Today's platter of link sausages is mostly dismal... or at least drawn from the dismal science. The Economist offers several interesting perspectives on slightly-beneath-the-surface-but-still-important matters. A surprisingly balanced piece describes the "hot news" doctrine ? a quasi-copyright doctrine in the US that keeps people from just rewriting "hot news" and reprinting it without

It's Better With Chunks

Posted on February 08, 2011
Just two great big link sausages today, each made from multiple varieties of meats (please don't ask about the fillers). I've been predicting this for almost a decade now: A major name in publishing is abolishing territorial divisions and going over to product-line imprints...

The Ads Were More Boring Than the Super Bowl

Posted on February 07, 2011
Professor Krugman does something unusual: He puts economic events into the context in which they occur before theorizing on their causes. This is a great big hint to those who claim that "all government deficits are always evil"... particularly while they're running up their own mortgages and credit card balances, and doing private debt-instrument swaps, and so on...

Snowpocalypse Redux

Posted on February 03, 2011
Not a snowpocalypse after all ? only 41cm. That polar bear was right. The ghosts of James Frey and the Beardstown Ladies are now ganging up, along with some dubiously motivated lawyers, on a Nobel Peace Prize winner: Former President Jimmy Carter...

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