Blog Meet-Up Day is Tomorrow - I was contacted by the head of the New Orleans Blog Society, which is called NolaBlogs. I guess I'm going. Doc recommends it, and he has a clue about these things (pun intended).
3:56:53 PM
Webcasting Debate & some good links - Copyfight says this gives hope for changes in the much debated Copyright Office webcasting royalty rates. And Copyfight points out that Denise Howell's got good links. It's been awhile since I've seen some good links, so I'm off to check them out...
3:49:31 PM
Singer Aaliyah's aviation accident caused by pilot who was high on cocaine - so why is her estate suing the record company that she contracted with? Uh, is it because they have a lot of money? [Story Link]
3:00:20 PM
Baseball is full of Racketeers - or so the lawsuit just filed in Miami by fourteen former owners of the Montreal Expos asserts. The suit names Bud Selig as a defendant along with Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. Supposedly, the bad guys tried, among other things, to "fraudulently eliminate the Expos from Montreal." You can view the story here, and the complaint here. As I've explained before the RICO statute, which was designed for prosecuting mobsters, has a civil provision that plaintiffs' lawyers love because if they are successful under that statute, then they get their damage award trebled, and they also get attorneys' fees.
So this is just another chapter in the saga of plaintiffs' lawyers trying to shoehorn an ordinary civil dispute into a full-blown RICO claim. Here's a list of the federal statute's definition of what amounts to "racketeering activity." See if you can find something in there that would apply to baseball team ownership rights. You'll have to skip over the parts about murder, kidnapping, arson, and gambling. Can't find anything? Well, a Miami court has already ruled that the six largest HMO's can be sued under the RICO statute. Maybe we're not looking hard enough. Maybe it would help if we were plaintiffs' lawyers.
1:56:26 PM
Meet the Nigerian E-Mail Grifters - Nigerian e-mails 'respectfully requesting your assistance' and promising great rewards actually do work -- for the Nigerians. An admitted scammer explains how it works. "I was told to write like a classic novelist would," Taiwo explained. "Very old world, very thick sentences, you know?" [Wired News]
I knew these guys were craftsmen, but I had no idea of the intricate scope of their operations. I wonder if, one day, in some creaky half-lit room a professor will be dissecting the literary handiwork of these scammers? I wonder which "classic novelists" they were influenced by? Alas! So many questions, and so much to learn. I'll guess I'll just wait for the History Channel special to come out.
12:15:50 PM
Victim of Paintball Gun Attack Sues Gun Mfg and Loses at Trial - A 15 year old paintball shooter was in a car in 1998 with two other kids when he shot a 14 year old girl, who was standing outside an ice cream parlor. The incident left the victim blind in one eye. The girl settled with the paintball shooter, but her case against Brass Eagle Inc., the manufacturer of the gun, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which sold it, went forward. At trial the jury found in favor of the defendants. [Law.com]
Okay, so the good guys win this one. But it raises the perennial question: are corporations always responsible for everything that goes wrong in our lives? Why is it even conceivable that the manufacturer and seller of the paintball gun could be responsible? Why did they even have to go to trial to establish that they had no responsibility?
11:09:06 AM
Ken Layne - He's Baaacck! - "I'm back. The redesign isn't much, but I didn't exactly have the cash to pay one of those design firms. It's my own sloppy work. Leave a comment if it looks like crap on your computer." Ken Layne
I'm glad he's back, but I'm also sorry that he didn't go to Belize for at least a little while. Can you imagine what sort of stuff he would have posted from there? Oh,incidentally, I'm reading his book (Dot.con) right now, and I can't recommend it enough. Ken has a great writer's eye for social detail, and his pacing is in the vein of Elmore Leonard or Raymond Chandler (in a tech-world meets the seamy underbelly of smoggy urbana kind of way). He's got some copies left if you go to his site and act fast.
10:13:54 AM
Let's Get Tough with Hackers - Life Sentences? You've got to be kidding!
2:04:20 AM
Future Shock - "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Alvin Toffler
1:47:38 AM
Important Announcements - Public Knowledge - a new advocacy group "dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant "information commons'." with an All-Star cast on its Board of Directors.
