From Justice Bedsworth - the care and feeding of prisoners...
Chad is a convicted armed robber, presently a guest of the State of Michigan, who sued that state's prison system because He "wasn't being treated like God." This is a common complaint inmates have about our prison system. But it is only one of many....[read more] [via Denise]
9:38:16 PM
Congratulations to a new lawyer in Kentucky
"Today, at long last, I was officially sworn in to the practice of law in Kentucky. This event caps what is easily the single longest continued effort of my life: Seven years directed toward acheiving a single goal. As you can imagine, I feel pretty damned good about it." [Ipse Dixit]
I have enjoyed this fellow's blog, but was never able to subscribe to it until Rick showed me how to get RSS feeds from just about any website. Apparently this fine lawyer (Cebern Dodd Harris IV) not only joined the bar, but he also picked the winner of the Kentucky Derby. Ah, the Sport of Kings....
9:11:08 PM
The DMCA & how to write response letters to copyright lawyers
"As a lawyer, I am glad that most laymen can't write response letters this good. But, as a lawyer who agrees with him that bullying of laymen is reprehensible, I say, "Good on ya" to him for standing up for himself. His arguments look pretty solid, too." [Ipse Dixit]
I agree. This correspondence is typical of what you see from lawyers who represent bullying copyright holders, which is fine if they've truly got the moral and legal high ground. But this is stuff from the lowlands...
Last week I asked about which law schools were using wireless technology and got some good information from Rick and from Bill Altreuter. I've posted it as a story over here and I'll update it from time to time as I get new information.
I also was asked, a week or so ago, via E-mail from a prospective law student which books I would recommend that he read before starting school next Fall. I suggested that he read Scott Turow's "One L" and also Larry Lessig's The Future of Ideas (since he indicated that he was interested in IP law). I wonder if anyone has other recommendations for budding law students. If so, feel free to post some comments. Thanks.
8:27:04 PM
Media & Mediocrity - Send in the Blogs...
Granted, I am a blogger. So you can ignore my opinion if you want to believe journalists who say that bloggers don't cover stories with the same depth or professionalism that mainstream media does. Maybe that's true in a lot of cases, but then the mainstream media has some problems that are being exposed with the proliferation of blogs.
First, let's be clear that we are talking about blogs that cover special areas, like Glenn Fleishman's blog on 802.11b, or Dave Winer's blog on Scripting, or Robert Scoble's blog on trends and observations about technology. Great writing, and great observations. Even if I didn't have a blog, I would read their blogs.
And after having read these blogs for the past two months I've found myself less inclined to pick up magazines like PC World, or the various computer magazines that I usually read. Why?
Well, because Dave, Glenn and Robert's blogs (and the many others too numerous to mention) bring me news as soon as it is announced, and they add their own experience and observations, which are highly imformed (and often opinionated, but so what?). The bottom line is that the speciality blogs give me (1) immediacy of information, and (2) authoritative commentary. If Glenn Fleishman is at a conference and blogs about some announcement regarding wireless technology then I know about it pretty much right away. That's "immediate." PC World might cover it two months later at best, but at least they will know what they are talking about. That's more than I can say for my local paper, at least as far as covering technology goes.
The other day they put out an article about Internet access at the New Orleans Airport. One story angle had to do with the possibility of having wireless Internet access at the airport. The article quoted a "Master Consultant" who had told the reporter that before they decided to deploy wireless they would have to make sure that it didn't interfere with "operational frequencies" at the airport. When I read that I laughed. I knew that wireless access was available at several major airports and so I knew that the "operational frequencies" issue was a red herring. I blogged about this and suggested that the Master Consultant should call Glenn Fleishman. My friend Buzz picked this up and passed the information on to Glenn who in turn blogged about the wireless issue in a piece entitled "The Big Easy Goes Easy on Wireless."
So who did a better job of covering the the story-angle of wireless Internet at the airport? The Times Picayune reporter, Glenn Fleishman or me? Obviously, I'm not at the top of that list. But who's at the bottom of the list? It's not me either.
Here's another thing to think about. Glenn covered the question of wireless Internet access at the New Orleans Airport only because it was brought to his attention by someone with a blog who lives in New Orleans. So if you do a Google search on "New Orleans Airport wireless internet" what do you get? Not the Times Picayune article, that's for sure. They didn't even put that one on their website. I think it is safe to say that it's sad when a lawyer does a better job of covering technology than the local paper...
It has been said that "Power corrupts, but Powerpoint corrupts absolutely." This book looks like a good thing to have if you want to make good use of tools like PowerPoint. It's only $20, and if Jenny says she's buying then I am too. [Via] [LLRX.com]
5:31:41 PM
Study on Punitive Damages Suggests Juries' Awards Unpredictable
Cass Sunstein, the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School and the College, is the author of many books at the intersection of law and social science, and his latest is no exception. Punitive Damages: How Juries Decide.
Sunstein cites results from experiments with more than 600 mock juries. Using the tools of psychology, economics and the law, the studies found that, although juries tended to agree in their moral judgments about a defendant’s conduct, they rendered erratic and unpredictable dollar awards. “Instead of moderating the jurors’ verdicts, the process of jury deliberation moves the jurors to ever-higher and less predictable awards.” [Univ of Chicago Chronicle]
I suppose one argument would be that having unpredictable punitive damage awards is actually desirable because it enhances the deterrent effect on bad behavior. But my take is that punitive damages are out of control. At a minimum we should require that the entire award go to some public trust fund. I don't buy the notion that the award should go to the plaintiff that brings the first case. But then I'm not a plaintiff's lawyer...
Robert snuck me in to the TechED party when he was here last month and we got to see 3 great bands. Blues Traveller played at the Jazz Fest, but I didn't get to see them. My friend Andrew (who is a musician and a huge fan of Blues Traveller) said they were sort of "off".
In other music news, I heard Bonnie Raitt being interviewed on NPR yesterday. Her new album is great and I'm going to buy it as soon as I can. Her piano player is a guy from New Orleans named John Cleary.
