Copyright Law

Snowpocalypse Now!

Posted on February 01, 2011
It's pretty obvious that the various parts of publishing think of themselves as "special," and not subject to other law. The story at Harper's is good-old-fashioned union busting: The "Publisher" has attempted to fire organizers and refuses to negotiate until after a round of layoffs, even going to the extreme of rejecting donations intended to avoid the layoffs...

Mumbling While Cairo Burns

Posted on January 29, 2011
Hosni Mubarek ? who is what post-Second-Thirty-Years'-War westerners think of as a "third-world strongman" ? finally addressed the Egyptian people last night. In Modern Standard Arabic, not Egyptian dialect. Imagine, for a moment, that Obama had given the State of the Union address in formal Queen's English (treating most collective nouns as plural ? "the company are" rather than "the company is"

Steady-State-Hypothesis Link Sausages

Posted on January 26, 2011
Several tasty link sausages leading up to indigestible bites of the State of The Onion link sausage: In a shocking ? I say shocking ? development that discloses the iniquity of Writer's Digest for all to see, WD has announced a "partnership" with dubious, deceptive vanity press Author Solutions to create a "self-publishing solution" for readers of the magazine...

First Essay Assignments of the Semester

Posted on January 24, 2011
Since the spring semester (or winter quarter, for some of you; and I suppose summer quarter for those in the southern hemisphere) is in full operation now, I propose the following three essay assignments based on link sausages. Here's a fascinating, three-way exercise in comparison-and-contrast arguments: Should we decategorize "serious music" as a way of making it more popular, or should

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Schadenfreude Pie

Posted on January 22, 2011
No link sausages today. Instead, I'm serving up slices of schadenfreude pie. I'll start out with the settlement of a malicious prosecution lawsuit... against the law firm, to the tune of $25 million. This pleases me on both a general and a personal level...

Objects in the Monitor Are Closer Than They Appear

Posted on January 20, 2011
The local news stations are basically falling all over themselves proclaiming winter weather and a snowpocalypse. Yeah, I'm impressed. There has been a lot of musing about midlist writers going on on the 'net lately, but I think this cartoon nails it...

First Day of Spring (Semester) Link Sausages

Posted on January 18, 2011
More minor Life and health stuff for the past few days (which never seems minor while going through it), plus the holiday yesterday (one of the few I respect), so this isn't an especially large platter of link sausages. Nonetheless: One dictator out...

Bleaaagh

Posted on January 13, 2011
Still somewhat under the weather, but that affects only the quantity of sarcasm and snark on offer... not the amplitude. Are historians AWOL from contemporary political debates because academic standards require disengagement from the present or because the marked lack of civility in current public discourse is anathema to the academic mindset?1 There's probably some truth to both

Reality Is Just a Crutch

Posted on January 12, 2011
... for those who can't handle politics. Not much else for today, due to Life and the flu and such. But... I suppose it's time for a quiz. Which of these three ridiculous speeches demonstrates the least historical ignorance and disjuncture from reality: The former part-time Governor of Alaska's claim that attacks on extreme rhetoric from what she claims is the left (and in America, probably

Leftovers

Posted on January 10, 2011
Still bogged down by Life... but that doesn't prevent me from making link sausages out of the leftovers! Sarah Weinman discusses the darker side of publishers and new authors, and ? as dark as her portrait is ? nonetheless finds some grounds for something resembling optimism...

Killian Bezos Is Lying to You

Posted on January 07, 2011
After still more Life, I was less than amused to find the following e-mail in my inbox last night. Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program: We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that, if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon...

Welcome to 2011

Posted on January 04, 2011
The cause of the delay in starting the year was a combination of a daylong 'net connection dropout, the need to reflect on the ingredients of some of these sausages, and TMI about Life. But it has resulted in a number of link sausages that are still inside their sell-by dates...

Last of the 2010-Vintage Whine

Posted on December 30, 2010
Just a couple of random sausages today (although not much whine, actually); this blawg will return in 2011, two days from now, unless something Really Really Blawgworthy happens in the interim. In short, that juris doctor degree indicates that you really should trust me...

Light Link Sausages

Posted on December 28, 2010
Light news, so light sausages ? and unlike many other sausage sources, I don't use (excessive) fillers! The fabulous Sarah Weinman pours a well-deserved bucket of cold water on boosterism for e-books. Not on enthusiasm, or recognition that they have a complementary role ? on boosterism...

Does Coffee Mix With Leftover Eggnog?

Posted on December 26, 2010
...we're about to find out, as I pick on the NYT for telling only part of the news that's fit to print. The NYT editorial page exposes yet more ignorance about IP and cultural imperatives with a seemingly contemplative criticism of Chinese attitudes toward IP enforcement...

"Hello, Clarisse..."

Posted on December 23, 2010
Just picked up some lamb chops for dinner, which shall be served extra rare. For real people, we have life sentences (or the death penalty, which is essentially meaningless and even pragmatically a bad idea). For unnatural persons, we don't... and rehabilitation just doesn't seem to work for them...

Reindeer Link Sausages

Posted on December 22, 2010
Thanks to remora duty and other TMI, this will be a minimalist sausage plate, not even qualifying as a platter ? even though it's rather chewy and filling. Yet another lament about the "end" of music, and musical history... which, reading not far between the lines, appears to be based on the idea that "music" is limited to "the stuff that Serious People listen to at leisure...

A New Enemies List

Posted on December 19, 2010
The following thirty-one US Senators, who were the "no" votes yesterday on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Keep Patriots in the Military" (Senate Roll Call Vote 111–281): Alexander (TN) Barrasso (WY) Bennett (UT) Bond (MO) Brownback (KS) Chambliss (GA) Coburn (OK) Cochran (MS) Corker (TN) Cornyn (TX) Crapo (ID) DeMint (SC) Enzi (WY) Graham (

Distracted Link Sausages

Posted on December 17, 2010
Still finals week... therefore, still distracted... On the effectiveness (or not) of Mystery Security Theater 3000, as implemented by your friendly neighborhood sexual molester TSA. There are so many exceptions to the system that it doesn't even make sense under the rubric of "something must be done; this is something; therefore, this must be done...

Midweek Link Sausage Platter

Posted on December 15, 2010
It's finals week for the elder remora, and I am therefore distracted. A critically important decision on authors' and musicians' rights came from England yesterday, via the only feline worth listening to, the IPKat. This time, Pink Floyd managed to hold EMI to its contract terms: Since the contract didn't authorize sale of individual songs or of electronic downloads, EMI can't do so.

Blustery Day Link Sausages

Posted on December 13, 2010
Yesterday's winds: 50kph gusting to 80kph, resulting in some interesting drift patterns visible out the rattling windows. Maxwell's Daemon isn't free... especially when he's charging secret rents or hiding behind the wholesomeness of advertising revenues...

Suspicion Breeds Confidence

Posted on December 09, 2010
... and these are link sausages of very suspicious origin indeed. According to the NYT ? which, in this context, means it's based on highly questionable assumptions about sales figures based on an undisclosed survey method ? romance, not speculative fiction, is leading the charge to e-books...

Soylent Pulp Sausages

Posted on December 07, 2010
... because Soylent Pulp is authors! Nobel Prize shock horror: China is organizing a boycott after the Peace Prize is awarded to a Chinese pro-democracy dissident. I've waited a couple of days to give them a chance to say the "a" word, but nobody is considering antitrust in the "proposed" Borders/Barnes & Noble merger...

Definitely Monday

Posted on December 06, 2010
There's been lots going on, but not a lot that's blawgable; it's been a combination of too small for a blawg entry, too large for a blawg entry, or too personal for a blawg entry (e.g., TMI on migraines and remoras). That said, here are a couple of items to chew on, but they're both heavy going: Professor Grimmelmann notes a special symposium issue of the New York Law School Law Review on the

Free Riders of the Purple Wage-Slave

Posted on December 02, 2010
I'm not exactly late for the party, but this piece on Amazon's disrespect for what it is selling has been making the rounds. At a deeper, theoretical level, though, it indirectly exposes a question about publishing as it exists. Put as baldly as I can: Is it appropriate to expect the same purely financial returns in a business that is built upon preexisting, specific government protection for

The New Complete Vegetarian Is a Cookbook!

Posted on November 30, 2010
... just like To Serve Man. So, the EU has launched an antitrust investigation into Google. One wonders, though, if the EU has the balls to look into two much more disturbing antitrust problems in its own backyard: The anticompetitive and abusive behavior of Pearson (a UK-based conglomerate) and Wolters Kluwer (an Anglo-Dutch conglomerate) in scientific and academic journals...

Post-Holiday Stuffed Turkey Link Sausages

Posted on November 29, 2010
So I took the weekend off from the sausage factory... that just gave the spices a chance to blend. What a shame ? the cofounders of the Pirate Bay lost their appeal and must now suffer the ignominy of being labelled "criminals." Worse, the Swedish appeals court increased their fine by almost a third...

2010 Turkey Awards

Posted on November 25, 2010
An annual tradition for over a decade! This is my list of ridiculous people from 2010 (so far). Pass me one of those rolls, please: The Greasy Gravy Award for oily publicity that makes the main dish inedible goes to the continued "whitewashing" of YA covers...

Unpardoned Turkey Link Sausages

Posted on November 24, 2010
We don't pardon tasty animals around here. We eat them. The reality ? and unreality ? of Maxwell's Daemon, information, and the second law of thermodynamics. Now maybe someone will apply these insights to economic and financial systems... A huge honkin' "copyright infringement" award for which the damages aren't based on the copying so much as on the nature of what was copied:

Book Depository Link Sausages

Posted on November 22, 2010
If you don't understand the title today, look at the damned date. James Frey doesn't know when to quit; he's added the million-and-second little lie (and several others) when defending his indefensible, unlawful exploitation of desperate wannabe authors...

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