Copyright Law

GBS: Named Plaintiffs Go Streaking

Posted on September 23, 2009
GBS item: The alleged plaintiffs have filed a motion proposing a delay in the scheduled fairness hearing date (07 October 2009) (PDF) so they can modify the settlement's terms after having a new orifice ripped in it by the United States last Friday. At least they're learning a little bit: Plaintiffs also are uncertain, at this stage, whether any additional form of notice, however limited,

Link Sausages Wrapped in Falling Leaves

Posted on September 22, 2009
Gee, I haven't been raptured away. I must not be one of the righteous elect. Darn. Congratulations to the 2009 MacArthur Foundation Fellows - the recipients of the "genius grants." If there's a theme this year, it seems to be "what the eyes reveal": six of the grantees work in the visual arts...

All You Shouldn't Eat

Posted on September 21, 2009
A bonus-sized, intellectual-heartburn-inducing, conscience-weight-gain-encouraging platter of internet link sausages this Monday morning that has been poaching since late last week! Just what you need before coffee (although a couple of these may induce keyboard spew, so beware; and no, I'm not going to warn you which ones)...

GBS: US Objects to Settlement

Posted on September 19, 2009
The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form)The United States has filed a brief opposing the GBS settlement (PDF) that doesn't go nearly far enough... but it is probably sufficient to cause Judge Chin to reject the settlement as it is written...

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GBS: Fairness Hearing Procedures

Posted on September 17, 2009
In an order issued yesterday, Judge Chin has established some parameters for the fairness hearing in the Google Book Search settlement brouhaha. In the order that y'all should care about: The hearing will go forward on 07 October 2009 at 10am, as previously scheduled...

One, Two, Three, Many

Posted on September 16, 2009
Next year, all of us here in the U S of A will be doing something we do once a decade - participating in the Census. And then, the real fun will start, in smoke-filled rooms across the nation: the amazing spectacle known as "redistricting." It seems to me that most redistricting arguments - if, that is, one is not a cynic who views "redistricting" as "partisan incumbent protection" - are about

Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

Posted on September 16, 2009
These sausages are virtually guaranteed to cause severe intellectual indigestion. As if anyone needed further proof that mechanisms used to perpetuate upper-class privilege are even more dangerous in the hands of the nouveau bourgeosie, British libel law is being asserted against a rhetorical flight of fancy criticising extreme claims for chiropractic care - and it's harming science

Chunky Monday Sausage Links

Posted on September 14, 2009
It's better with chunks... or so instructor pilots claim when taking cadets up on "orientation rides"... (I may be joking, but they really do.) Sarah Weinstein muses on the 17-book deal just signed by James Patterson with Hachette... all for publication in the next two years' worth of production...

GBS Settlement: No Professional Courtesy Here

Posted on September 11, 2009
The Settlement (in essay form)The Lawsuit (in essay form) Before getting into the substantive problems with the Google Books Search settlement, here are a few context updates: In an admirable attempt to make public documents truly public - that is, not behind the required-by-Congress ID-wall/paywall of the PACER system10 - one can find almost all of the filed documents in the lead case at The

Link Sausage Number Nine

Posted on September 09, 2009
Reality intruded on my plans to start dumping immediately on the GBS settlement again (besides, I'm digesting the last-minute objections), so here are some tasty link sausages to keep you, umm, entertained in the meantime... Fanboys everywhere had mixed news yesterday...

Unofficial End-of-Summer Barbecued Link Sausages

Posted on September 07, 2009
Labor Day, eh? Time to throw a vegetarian on the barbecue; remember, The Complete Vegetarian is a cookbook! Giving the excuse (if given at all, that is) of tough economic times, publishers are cancelling books... again. This should remind those who were paying attention a few years back - both of you - of the excuses offered by publishers in the face of the purported "crisis" allegedly

Friday Link Sausage Fry-Up

Posted on September 04, 2009
Rather chunky sausages this morning: As the culmination of an investigation started nearly a decade ago by Writer Beware (the anti-literary-scam watchdog of SFWA, which was recently joined as sponsor by MWA), the Florida Attorney General has sued a scam literary agency/vanity press based in Boca Raton for fraud (for more details, see Jim Macdonald's restrained screed in five parts - the link

Where's a Mohel When You Need One?

Posted on September 03, 2009
There's a mini-controversy brewing/steeping about Lev Grossman and some comments he made in a WSJ essay about novels, modernism, and so on. I was tremendously amused when I saw that essay; without even checking anything, my immediate reaction was "Must be a Yalie...

It Was an Overcast in September

Posted on September 01, 2009
and, for Europe, the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell's diary for seventy years ago today rather starkly says it: Invasion of Poland began this morning. Warsaw bombed. General mobilization proclaimed in England, ditto in France plus martial law...

Uncaffeinated Monday Internet Link Sausages

Posted on August 31, 2009
Just a couple of items today, then back to the paper mines. One note about the Google Book Search settlement, beyond my imprecation yesterday to actually make a decision, guys: Nobody is really talking about the elephant in the room. I won't analyze it in public before the opt-out deadline Friday...

Google Book Search Opt-Out Deadline

Posted on August 30, 2009
... is this Friday, 04 September 2009, unless again extended by the Court (a distinct possibility, but will depend upon the results of the fairness hearing in October, so don't count on it). If you want to opt out, you need to do so one of two ways: You may use the electronic form on the settlement website...

Imaginary Time

Posted on August 27, 2009
PW shock horror: an editorial criticizing the publishing industry that almost makes sense. With all due respect to Mr Rushkoff - and he's is due some respect for having the balls to say what he said in the first place - he has missed a more fundamental problem: Counterfactual management theory driven by the relentless quarterly report...

On the Passing of a Lord

Posted on August 26, 2009
Nay weep not [...] for thy Brother's crimes; O gen'rous Boy, thou shar'st but half his blood, Yet lov'st beyond the kindness of a Brother. But I'll reward thy Vertue. Follow me. My Lord, you wait the King who comes resolv'd To quit the Toils of Empire, and divide His Realms amongst his Daughters, Heaven succeed it, But much I fear the Change...

Squirrel Sausages

Posted on August 25, 2009
Substitute "Springfield" for "Washington" and that's about right. What screen resolution makes sense for your webpage or blawg/blog? A Seattle company provides some data of dubious applicability (snurched from RightReading) that can be reanalyzed...

Link Sausage Avatars

Posted on August 21, 2009
Even more miscellaneous than usual. As this video excerpt demonstrates, it's important to know your audience. In this instance, the dining-room table accused a speaker of supporting a "Nazi policy" while forgetting that the speaker in question is both Jewish and an acknowledged - hell, avowed and proud of it - homosexual...

I Don't Vouch for the Chunks in These Sausages

Posted on August 17, 2009
Monday. Again. An academic study on the whys, wherefores, hows - and flaws - of alternate and secret histories is just mindbogglingly reflexive in its own implications for a secret history of books reviews. And that's only part of the fun! What's next in the continuation-of-the-"classics" meme (and I don't just mean alternate histories)? Now we're seeing complaints that style matters, and

Costs and Benefits

Posted on August 13, 2009
Thought for the day: The video on the right is also - unintentionally - a window into the fair use problem. Does Spinal Tap itself count as a parody, or is it a satire? If it is, in fact (or at least in law, since in fact it clearly is), a parody, how many levels of parody count as fair use? How about the dubious idea of "transformativeness"? Where does self-parody enter into this? Most

I'll Remove the Cause

Posted on August 09, 2009
... but not the symptom, this weekend of Anticipation (2009's World Science Fiction Convention) in Montreal. Fallout from the ghostwritten science articles I noted: A medical professor demonstrates - using social networking theory - that the review article requires further review for its scientific value...

Congratulations

Posted on August 06, 2009
Congratulations to Justice-designate Sonia Sotomayór, who in the past few minutes was confirmed 68–31 by the Senate (Senator Kennedy didn't vote "on account of illness"). On one tentacle, this is good news because the Court is back to full strength in time for the new Justice to fully participate in the rehearing of Citizens United before the new Term starts in October...

Grinding Away

Posted on August 05, 2009
Before jumping into the sausage grinder, a little historical note: Remember the so-called plot patent (what the applicant called a "storyline patent")? The examiner rejected the application1 on August 28, 2008 because it did not consist of patentable subject matter - one of the two objections I noted...

I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Posted on August 03, 2009
Cue the cellos! It's Lawyer Shark Week on Discovery Channel! PW is on the block - again. This can't help being a good thing; it will keep the staff nervous, and perhaps looking a little bit harder at those press releases they so blithely reprint, even if the sale doesn't go through...

Die Grippe

Posted on July 29, 2009
Travel grippe finally caught up with me. Urggh. Thus, these sausages got some extra aging and "seasoning." Even more so than usual, you really don't want to know how these link sausages were made. William Shatner (and his hairpiece) have been up to interesting things lately...

Hollywood Sausages

Posted on July 25, 2009
Just like any other sausages, you really can't examine the ingredients of movies too carefully, or you'll be completely turned off. Like the trailers, which indicate pretty unmistakeably that the War on Drugs has not interdicted any of the hallucingens commonly consumed by the idiots who green-light this stuff...

Link Sausages of Unusual Size

Posted on July 24, 2009
Today's publishing/IP sausages probably don't belong on the same plate... if only because there's not much room left after the first one. And I apologize for the lateness of that particular sausage - I spent a lot of time toning down my own ire. Some YA critics feel cheated by the new Justine Larbalestier cover...

All-Natural Lean Meat Fillings

Posted on July 21, 2009
These sausages are a bit meatier than many of those of late - I've been saving up some musings while away, and several stories finally broke that were awaiting meaty treatment. (But not as meaty as the sausages at Brats Brothers Gourmet Sausage Grill in Sherman Oaks...

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