Law

Supreme Court Justice Anita Hill

In December Vanity Fair writer Nell Scovell asked Anita Hill, currently a law professor at Brandeis University, whether she had considered the notion of being appointed to the Supreme Court. Hill, much to my surprise, responded to the question: Dear Ms. Scovell: My mother would have warned me against answering your e-mail and participating in the kind of "devilment" you are up to. Last month I was speaking in Maine and was asked about being appointed to the Court. I responded, "That would be ... (read more)

2009/05/01

AP Settles Dispute with Drudge Retort

Late Thursday night, AP issued the following statement after a day-long discussion of the DMCA takedowns issued to the Drudge Retort that reached all the way up to the company's top management: In response to questions about the use of Associated Press content on the Drudge Retort web site, the AP was able to provide additional information to the operator of the site, Rogers Cadenhead, on Thursday. That information was aimed at enabling Mr. Cadenhead to bring the contributed content on his site ... (read more)

2008/06/20

How Digg Handles DMCA Takedowns

Jay Adelson, the chief executive of Digg, told Saul Hansell of the New York Times how the social news site responds to DMCA takedowns: From time to time, Digg has received a request, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to take down a post, or a comment, that contains copyrighted material. Mr. Adelson said the company complies without complaint. But he said that often isn't necessary. ... But many of the items on the front page used headlines and descriptions lifted directly from the site ... (read more)

2008/06/19

How the Media Bloggers Association Got Involved

As I spend the morning reading stories about myself, a highly pleasurable activity that makes Rogers Cadenhead want to start referring to Rogers Cadenhead in the third person like Bob Dole, I have one question: Why is the Media Bloggers Association getting its ass kicked all over the Internet for attempting to have a dialogue with AP about the Drudge Retort's DMCA takedown dispute? On Daily Kos yesterday, Markos Moulitsas wrote about the association with his typical subdued restraint: The ... (read more)

2008/06/18

AP Rethinking Policy After Drudge Retort DMCA Takedowns

I'm gratified by the ginormous amount of support coming in from around the blogosphere after the Associated Press issued DMCA takedowns last week to Drudge Retort bloggers for excerpting short snippets of its articles. AP is rethinking its policy towards bloggers in the wake of this disagreement, according to a story by Saul Hansell in today's New York Times: Last week, The AP took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to ... (read more)

2008/06/16

AP Files 7 DMCA Takedowns Against Drudge Retort

I'm currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing "'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law." An AP attorney filed six Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment. The Retort is a community site comparable in function to Digg, Reddit and Mixx. The 8,500 users of the site ... (read more)

2008/06/12

Non-Disclosure Agreements Have No Saving Throw

Last Friday, Wizards of the Coast published the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the first major release of the game in eight years. During the development of the game, the company has been so generous with confidential information that it got almost 1,000 people locked under non-disclosure agreements. The company has followed this up with a friendly warning that in spite of the game's release, these people are bound until the end of time by the agreement: Q: Can I talk about my playtest ... (read more)

2008/06/09

Notre Dame Coach Loses Malpractice Suit

Notre Dame football Coach Charlie Weis nearly died after gastric bypass surgery a few years ago due to internal bleeding, so he sued surgeons Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin for negligence. I love this detail from the first time they faced off in court: The first trial ended in a mistrial in February after Ferguson and Hodin rushed to the aid of a juror who collapsed in the courtroom. It can't be good for your malpractice suit when the defendants save a juror. ... (read more)

2007/07/25

Cease-and-Desist Letter about Dilbert Parody

After seven years publishing on the Web, I received my first cease-and-desist letter. It was sent by United Feature Syndicate this week because of a Dilbert parody that was linked by a user on the message board for Cruel Site of the Day. The message contained HTML IMG tags that linked to externally hosted graphics containing parody versions of the Dilbert comic strip. I didn't see the parodies -- the cartoonist apparently got one of these letters before I did and removed the graphics -- but ... (read more)

2003/11/15