Copyright Law

Drugged-Up Sausages

Posted on December 14, 2009
Today's sausage links sponsored by codeine and a slip on the ice checking an empty mailbox. A warning for the government guardians of French linguistic purity: The history of English linguistic purity. Some lament the end of Kirkus; some don't...

Little Bitty Internet Link Sausages

Posted on December 10, 2009
Tasty. Small chunks. The Times proposes a list of the strangest books ever published (in English) that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. One of the dirty little secrets of visa applications: Bureaucrats use their personal taste to determine cultural value and uniqueness...

Repent, Harlequin!

Posted on December 07, 2009
Since I've already expressed my disdain for Harlequin's decision to embrace vanity press operations as a revenue source, the title of this post should come as no surprise. I'm not the Ticktockman trying to enforce conformity upon Harlequin; I'm an outraged jester myself trying to make the Ticktockman conform to the sources of her own authority...

Post-Turkey Internet Link Sausages

Posted on December 01, 2009
I emerged from my tryptophan-induced coma to a pile of dishes that closely resembled the Bush Administration's "plan" for invading Iraq. Thus the silence for the past couple of days... coupled with muttering at the lack of a dishwasher... In another instance of "follow the money," the WSJ has a story on ghostwriters for celebrities...

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The 2009 Turkey Awards

Posted on November 28, 2009
An annual tradition for over a decade! This is my list of ridiculous persons - natural and unnatural - from 2009 (so far). Pass me one of those rolls, please: The Greasy Gravy Award for oily publicity that makes the main dish inedible goes to Amazon's PR department for its role in #amazonfail...

The Last of the Pre-Thanksgiving Link Sausages

Posted on November 25, 2009
Too many other things going on lately... like pondering the nature of 'murican politics in preparation for the Turkey Awards. Some kinds of books may be bad for literati (and for publishing in general). This isn't really the analogy I would have chosen: I might have mentioned tobacco or coca as an alternative to real agriculture...

Canadian Madames

Posted on November 20, 2009
Apparently, the world's largest romance publisher - already notorious for short shelf-lives, miserly author compensation, and improper treatment of copyright - thinks that aspiring romance authors could learn from Velvet Jones. At least 'hos get paid, though...

GBS: Settlement 2.0 Deadlines

Posted on November 20, 2009
Judge Chin has provided "preliminary approval" (PDF image) of Settlement 2.0. This does not mean he thinks it should/will be approved; it means, instead, that: 7. The Court has reviewed the Amended Settlement Agreement and determined it to be within the range of possible approval; GBS Doc...

Google Book Search Settlement

Posted on November 19, 2009
Tangent: A Short Gloss on Antitrust (1) The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) While I was in the midst of expounding upon the antitrust implications of the GBS settlement proposals - and, indeed, whether any settlement could pass antitrust scrutiny absent legislative approval - I realized that I was using a great many technical terms and concepts...

Google Book Search Settlement

Posted on November 16, 2009
Settlement 2.0: The Discordant Melody Remains the Same The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) Version 2.0 of the settlement has arrived. It's as much of a monster as was its predecessor, and really does very little to actually address the concerns that purportedly led to the changes...

GBS: Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Posted on November 14, 2009
Just a quick status update: The parties-plaintiff did file their "revised" settlement documents this evening. I've got downloaded copies off of the filing system, and I'll point to them from a publicly accessible site when they're available and verified...

It's a Job, Not an Adventure

Posted on November 11, 2009
In this time of job losses and economic hardship, it's especially frustrating to see people who have jobs not doing them. One of the biggest problems with so-called "tort reform" is that it's so one-sided: It focuses exclusively on "frivolous" claims without considering frivolous defenses and/or unfair defense tactics...

GBS: No Revised Settlement Today

Posted on November 09, 2009
The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) As Gomer Pyle might have said, "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!" The "parties" in the GBS litigation won't have their "revised" settlement ready for filing today (09 November 2009), and have asked permission to actually file it on Friday, 13 November 2009...

Tearing Down Walls and Building New Ones

Posted on November 09, 2009
Another twentieth anniversary... As anyone who knows me has heard me complain about at length, I despise Apple. It's not that the technology is inherently bad, but that arrogance of "Steve knows best" that comes through the closed architecture, the inability to adapt products easily to one's own needs (e...

Feuerwerken

Posted on November 05, 2009
Next Monday, perhaps we'll be chanting Remember, remember, the ninth of November The Authors Guild/Google Books plot . . . as we try to slog through a 350-plus-page "amended settlement agreement." But, for today, I'll just turn toward the AG's offices in New York and implore them to go Fawkes themselves...

Bumper Bambi

Posted on November 02, 2009
Still on the road, so these are probably roadkill sausage links. Language learning, language diversity, and the difficult determination of whether the Tower of Babel is a good thing. Walter Laqueur argues that Russia's fate is struggle with imaginary demons, like Islam...

Ever Heard of "Grey"?

Posted on October 28, 2009
The theme today appears to be overgeneralization... At GalleyCat, there's yet another whinge about problems with the short story market. The major difficulty with this particular whinge is that it has an exceedingly narrow view of what constitutes a "short story": If it's material that might conceivably have a dragon, or a spaceship, or a detective, on the cover, it doesn't count...

Caffeine Deficiency

Posted on October 26, 2009
Is it just me, or are zombies more in need of caffeine than brains? Orwell was right about pervasive surveillance on Airstrip One - just about fifteen years off in his estimate of when it would happen. Sometimes even the Daily Telegraph has something perceptive to say about publishing...

High-Nitrite Lunch

Posted on October 23, 2009
Just a few quick bites of link sausage today: While out and about yesterday dealing with medical paperwork, I stopped by the local outlet of [famous menswear store's name deleted to save embarassment - on their part] and began browsing. I noted a new display for different monogramming options for dress shirts, and busted out laughing at part of it: RNWII  monogram may include up to 4

Hold the Mustard

Posted on October 22, 2009
Just a little afternoon link sausage snack: Bigger isn't always better, as Professor Johnson notes. Now apply this lesson to "big media" - not just NewsCorp, but Pearson, and Bertelsmann, and Hachette, and Viacom, and... while remembering that it's not just the economy that's at issue when Big Media gets too big: It's the First Amendment (historians may recall the Hearst situation of a

Your Tuesday Sausage Platter

Posted on October 20, 2009
A particularly diverse set of link sausages. No guarantees on species... or planet of origin. Dance has nothing to fear but dance itself. And critics. And the public. And the financial downturn. And the music available for dance. And... If you really, really need any proof that the S&M dorks are in charge in publishing, ponder S&S's decision to sign up a YAish trilogy based on an iPhone

GBS Tangent: Sergey Brin's Ignorant Defense

Posted on October 17, 2009
Irony. It's like goldy and bronzy, but it's made out of iron. It is also well beyond the capabilities of any of the participants in the Google Book Search litigation to recognize... especially when it's coming out of their own mouths. As I noted a couple of days ago, Sergey Brin (one of the founders of Google) had his seemingly empty head handed to him in a very short, sharp response at the NYT

Under the Influence?

Posted on October 15, 2009
Another disjointed, only marginally sausage-like set of links. It's a good think that my literary license can't be revoked for drivelling under the influence of children... GBS Status Update Two appeals by disgruntled, rejected intervenors have been filed (docket numbers 752 and 756)...

Not Sausages Yet

Posted on October 12, 2009
IP nerd second. Civil procedure geek third. Parent first. Thus, the unplanned silence for the last few days, as I've been through the sausage grinder myself and - as ugly as internet link sausages usually are - nobody wants to see that. In any event, there are two obvious items that I should comment upon quickly, and a whole bunch of others that will just have to wait...

GBS: Status Update

Posted on October 07, 2009
The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) This is a status update only; I am working on some more-substantive responses to Professor Tim Wu's recent piece, which fit in nicely with where the long-form-version of the comments on the settlement was going anyway...

Exactly Half

Posted on October 06, 2009
Extra chunky abstract internet link sausages today! That's largely because the easily digestible ones are getting a bit rancid, due to Life intervening between the sausages and your delicious platter. It's also because, as your dog would tell you when chewing on used facial tissue, it's better with chunks...

First Monday in October

Posted on October 05, 2009
Still here... just dealing with two sick remoras and the cold from hell. I offer only one bite of internet sausage links this morning (I sneezed on the rest of the sausage, so - like a typical cheap breakfast place - I just cut that part off and kept it for a casserole), and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the sexual proclivities of New York-based talkshow hosts: One American export that

Sausages for Breaking Fast

Posted on September 29, 2009
No sausages yesterday. At least not during daylight hours (as if I were observant - or had even been raised in that tradition - anyway, or even, as an atheist, cared). Doonesberry's focus a while back on soldiers' playlists on iPods now has some academic respectability (or at least enough for a Monday morning)...

No Surprises

Posted on September 28, 2009
Financial fraud shock horror: Financial regulatory authorities have been captured. First, a little vocabulary: In administrative law, "agency capture" refers to agencies that are essentially captives of the industries/businesses that they are supposed to regulate...

GBS: Status Hearing Instead of Fairness Hearing

Posted on September 24, 2009
Judge Chin has granted the motion I described yesterday (PDF, signed but not docketed), deferring the fairness hearing that was scheduled for 07 October 2009. Unfortunately, the way his order is written makes sense to lawyers... but will scare nonlawyers into thinking that they're never going to be heard...

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