Copyright Law

Fifty-Seven Communists

Posted on April 06, 2008
Just catching up for the moment. First, an annoyance: Will cookbook editors please do some shopping outside of the New York City metropolitan area, or better yet outside of Boswash/LA, before approving descriptions of recipes? The next time I see a recipe for something that should be simple — such as a rack of lamb — beginning with "Have the butcher?" I'm going to take a field trip to the

It Was Forty Years Ago Today?

Posted on April 04, 2008
? but this is not an essay about the Beatles. It's merely a note of one of the shattering events of the year in which America refused to confont its past, its present, or its future, and continues to pay for the consequences. On a hotel balcony in Memphis, They shot Dr Martin Luther King, Jr...

Non-April-Fool's Miscellany

Posted on April 02, 2008
I'm issuing a bumper crop of miscellany today; I'm holding one item that particularly outrages me for later today (the short version: "What part of 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,' did you not understand, Mr Yoo?")...

Almost Moving Day

Posted on March 28, 2008
It's been a bit busy here, getting the Voracious Teen ready for a trip, dealing with the Less Voracious (But Still Hungry) Teen on his Sprin Break, and doing all kinds of miscellany. So, I offer the following items for your consideration: The old domain will be reopening at a new address over the weekend, including the Warped Weft (quasiessays from this blawg)...

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Unreal Estate (5)

Posted on March 25, 2008
Some of the types of works covered in subparagraph (2) of the definition of WFH are fairly obvious, and fairly easy to dispose of. Some, however, are not. Recall that I have rearranged the subparagraph for clarity: (a) a contribution to a collective work; (b) a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; (c) a translation; (d) a supplementary work, that is a work prepared for publication

The Madness of March

Posted on March 24, 2008
It's a grumpy Monday here in Sharkville. Four thousand (directly attributable) deaths in Iraq and no exit strategy in sight. Politicians continue to prove that they are the perpetual "Me Generation;" no matter their age(s), they and their handlers make kindergarten recess look sedate, well-behaved, and mature...

Unreal Estate (4)

Posted on March 23, 2008
It's time to start working through subparagraph (2) of the definition. This oddly-structured monstrosity has a number of landmines waiting in it for both creators and their patrons. Patrons? This marks one of the not-so-subtle attempts to disguise what the WFH aspect of US copyright law is really doing...

Friday Freakout

Posted on March 21, 2008
Just more miscellany today. I'll return to unpacking the WFH definition over the weekend, but there's so little to do and so much time to do it in. One of the great fictions in the public understanding of defamation law — and, unfortunately, in the community of authors — is that labelling something fiction insulates one from liability for libel...

RIP Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Posted on March 18, 2008
According to a story on CNN, Sir Arthur C. Clarke has just died in a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Although he was never renowned as a stylist, Clarke was one of the big-idea-as-another-character giants of mid-twentieth-century fiction. Not just speculative fiction, either...

Tuesday Twaddle

Posted on March 18, 2008
Most of the miscellany has already gotten more comment elsewhere than I've had time for this past week. The Voracious Teen is on spring break, meaning that I have to feed him that much more often (constantly; I thought it was tough when he was an infant...

Unreal Estate (3)

Posted on March 17, 2008
Let's turn back to subparagraph 1 and try to define a few critical terms that mean both more (and less) than the entertainment industry would have them mean. an employee seems pretty straightforward, right? If I work for Company X, I'm an employee of Company X, right? Well, not exactly...

Unreal Estate (2)

Posted on March 16, 2008
(continued from 15 March) I'm going to start analyzing that ungainly mess by trimming away some of the simpler pieces first. The best way to do so is to recognize that a single narrative sentence frequently is the least effective way to communicate, particularly when communicating a list that itself consists of compound parts...

Repeating History

Posted on March 16, 2008
Forty years ago today, American troops slaughtered 500 or so — nobody will ever know the exact number — civilians in the midst of an undeclared war in a nation in which almost none of the troops spoke the language; in which it became increasingly difficult to tell friend from foe; in which we had no clear political or military objectives...

Unreal Estate

Posted on March 15, 2008
The archives (etc.) will shortly be moving to a new home. Fortunately, that does not require renting a U-Haul, or anything like that. It's really no less annoying, but nonetheless it's somewhat smoother. *  *  * And now, the beginning of a short assignment...

Better Dead Than Red

Posted on March 13, 2008
While pondering the irony that in the 1950s, we worried about "reds" as "commies," and in the early 21st century we worry about "reds" as "heffalumps," here's some not-safe-for-work redneck pondering on Eliot Spitzer for y'all. Which leads to an obvious question: If Nashville really is the "capital" of country music, why can't Dickerson compete with the Ku'damm? HT: The Perfesser.

Kissinger May Have Been Right

Posted on March 12, 2008
... that "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." That, however, is no excuse for forgetting some pretty damned basic biology: Gonads don't contain any nerve endings that have any processing power, so thinking with them is not a very good idea. Maybe the lack of scientists in politics is inhibiting this simple meme? Of course, the gonads will probably disagree...

Sausages No Longer in Pants

Posted on March 11, 2008
The taste of music critics is usually better with even catsup, although something spicier to offset the strange combination of blandness and rot works better. Unfortunately, the article in question fails to get to the real cause of the problem: Music critics listen critically; the general public listens with less than a quarter of an ear (and a lot lower proportion of brain), all too often

Magical Unrealism

Posted on March 09, 2008
I have some very unnice things to say about ongoing controversy over the Margaret Jones (Seltzer) "gangland memoir" Love and Consequences. There's plenty of blame to go around here; some of it involves irrational expectations, some of it involves corporate dynamics, some of it involves outright deception...

Sold the Buick

Posted on March 08, 2008
Today, a post-flu set of miscellany. Tomorrow, some not-very-nice comments on the latest (or, at least, most recently revealed) pseudomemoir. In one of the more disturbing relics of McCarthyism that one might find, California requires teachers — even at the university level — to sign a loyalty oath...

Buying the Buick

Posted on March 03, 2008
It's definitely still winter around here, influenza and all. Bleah. Herewith, therefore, a Bought the Buick special edition of the Monday Miscellany. Joanne Rowling is finally speaking out on her lawsuit seeking to halt a fan-created "lexicon" on Harry Potter...

More Sausages

Posted on February 28, 2008

A Day Late (Again)

Posted on February 26, 2008

ThREDbare Carpet

Posted on February 24, 2008

Law School Barbie

Posted on February 21, 2008

Weekday Update

Posted on February 19, 2008

Ninety Miles Away

Posted on February 19, 2008

Collaborations

Posted on February 17, 2008

Interlude

Posted on February 15, 2008

Surprise

Posted on February 12, 2008

I Don't Like Mondays

Posted on February 11, 2008

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