Ssomeone called me last week and asked what do about his 16-month-old monitor that had just died. He had already shown it to a dealer, and the dealer told him there would be a $500 minimum charge. Since monitors aren’t something you can easily troubleshoot or repair, i started think about ways to avoid paying …
Category Archives: law
one expensive VISIT
Since January 2004, the US-VISIT program has apprehended nearly 1,000 people. Out of 44 million. At a cost of $15 billion. That’s $15 million per bad guy caught.
Cory Doctorow: Canada doesn’t need craptacular copyright law
Cory Doctorow has a great op-ed in The Toronto Star about the harm done by bad copyright laws. There’s sizzle with this steak, too: Musicians want to be remembered as “the guy who wrote the song you lost your virginity to,” not “the guy who wrote the song you lost your hard drive to.”
oh, washington, when will you ever learn?
20 congressjerks support the broadcast flag.
riaa sued dead woman
while the RIAA is pondering their RICO defense, i’d like to note they sued a dead woman a few months back: The Associated Press reported that the RIAA identified Gertrude Walton as a prolific file sharer known as “smittenedkitten”. Accusing her of illegally trading music over the internet, the lawsuit was apparently filed more than …
the law is an ass
“If the law supposes that,†said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.†— Mr. Bumble, Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
RIAA countersued
Tanya Andersen, a 41 year old disabled single mother living in Oregon, has countersued the RIAA for Oregon RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of “outrage”, and deceptive business practices: 11. Settlement Support Center also falsely claimed that …
copyright infringement vs shoplifting
I wrote this as response to a comment on Lindi’s blog about “copywrite infringement” and thought I would share it. First, a pet peeve. It’s copyright infringement. It refers to the right — a bunch of rights, really — the rights to translate, reproduce, publicly perform, adapt (create a derivative work), be identified as the …
Downloading iChat is a felony?
Kutztown, Pa. school district: Downloading iChat is a felony – IO ERROR Thirteen high school students in Kutztown, Pa., have been charged with computer trespass, a third degree felony, for simply trying to use the laptops the school district forced on them.
copyright, explained
The kind folks at Bromberg & Sunstein LLP – Intellectual Property, Business, Litigation have a nice flowchart showing just how easy copyright law is.