Ranting to /dev/null

Good patent ruling

The Supreme Court has just handed down a ruling making patents easier to invalidate for obviousness.

One chip in the IP regime. Now for copyrights...

Get more pitchforks! Light the torches!

Ars has a few pieces up sounding the death knell of the recording industry. I'm starting to get the image of peasants gathering ad hoc weaponry and storming the mad scientist's castle.

First, there's a piece about the increasing ability of software to "understand" music sufficiently well to actually accompany a live musician. How exactly does one account for such in existing copyright schemes? I mean, the software is essentially referencing an existing recording, but then using it to compose a new version on the fly, unique to that performance.

Then there's a report indicating that persons 18-34 worldwide have very low trust for recording companies, sometimes lower even than insurance companies. Why? Because the recording industry treats us like pirates. Granted, plenty of us are, but that's significantly in response to the recording industry not giving us what we want, i.e. the ability to play any media we acquire on any device at any time without restriction. Everyone knows that DRM isn't about piracy anymore: it's about selling more copies of the same stuff.

There's also a discussion of compulsory licenses, favored by Barenaked Ladies guitarist Steven Page, interviewed for the article. Essentially, ISPs would tack on an extra $5-10/month to their charges, track songs that are downloaded, and disburse funds accordingly. Not sure I like that idea, but it's interesting.

One thing is clear: any regime which criminalizes millions of US citizens but imposes no real penalties--like the existing copyright regime--is non-viable and in desperate need of reformation.

Dream jobs too soon

So I found my dream job. Too bad it's available now, instead of 5-8 years when I'd be ready to apply. Google is looking for an in-house Digital Media counsel in New York. Focus is on commercial transactions for YouTube. The description can be found here.

Cool, but I won't have 5-10 years of relevant experience for 7-12 years. Great.

Hopefully they'll still be hiring then.

Equal protection takes it long and hard

California is now allowing affluent inmates convicted of minor offenses to upgrade their jail cells for a daily fee, namely $82.

So much for "equal" protection. I mean, sure, anyone who meets the relevant criteria is technically eligible for the upgraded facilities, but what this really works out to is that rich people don't have the same experience in jail as poor people.

The lengths to which we'll go...

... to avoid studying for finals. Right now I'm not studying the external limits on the Commerce Power for my Constitutional Law final.

But I've got this:

New London seasons greetings

The infamous Kelo v. City of New London case, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), involved a woman whose house was taken through eminent domain for economic development. It wasn't a very popular ruling, and most states almost immediately amended their statutes to prevent that kind of thing.

The homeowner herself sent a Christmas card to the city councilmen which contained the following little rhyme:

"Here is my house that you did take
From me to you, this spell I make
Your houses, your homes,
Your family, your friends
May they live in misery
That never ends.
I curse you all, may you rot in hell
To each of you, I send this spell
For the rest of your lives, I wish you ill
I send this now, by the power of will"

My professor read that and then said, "Obviously, she's a little... peeved."

Yeah, I'd say so.

She arguably made $300,000 on the deal, because the city gave $440,000 for a property appraised at less than $140,000.

Is Apple bad for design?

Perhaps a provocative claim, but there's an interesting piece on that subject over at DesignObserver (hat tip: MeFi).

The suggestion is that yes, Apple has a pretty sweet style, but that style and design are not one and the same, and the imposition of a single "default" style that works so well for software does not necessarily work quite so well for hardware. It suggests that solving all your design problems with an "Illustrator-sketched oval" is not necessarily the way to go.

Design geeks, take a look.

I don't think you can do that here

The thieves who stole Munch's "The Scream" appealed their sentences. The judge decided that their sentences weren't stiff enough and tacked on extra time.

Ouch.

That kind of thing isn't generally allowed here. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require "due process" to proceed any taking of life, liberty, or property, and the Seventh Amendment requires the right to trial by jury. Imposition of sentences without a jury is increasingly considered to be a violation of this principle.

Historic preservation and sprawl

Sitting in Property and talking about historic preservation, that such regulations may in fact promote sprawl, which is probably a result quite opposite that intended by those who tend to like historic preservation.

How? Because if you can't reuse a historic site, then you've got to build elsewhere. Ergo there will be dramatically under-utilized properties surrounded by growing sprawl.

Positive IP law rulings

Two good rulings recently:

1) The judge in Capital v. Foster handed down a ruling denying the RIAA's request to reconsider the award of attorney's fees to the defendant. The judge had ordered such fees after denying the option to dismiss without prejudice, establishing a judgment on the merits for the defendant. Attorney's fees being an incredibly expensive part of litigation, this is great precedent.

2) The Federal Circuit granted a permanent stay of the injunction against Vonage in the Verizon v. Vonage patent infringement case. Verizon had previously won a finding that Vonage had infringed on three Verizon patents, and won an injunction against Vonage preventing them from signing up any new customers and casting the future of that company in doubt. Vonage isn't out of the woods yet, but at least they're not dead.

This comes on the heals of the announcement of a patent reform bill which looks to significantly improve upon the current system.

Hitch on VT

Anyone who thinks that I was insensitive for my gut reaction" to the VT massacre needs to read Hitch today.

Relatedly, they should also read this, recycled by BoingBoing from 9/12/01, entitled "Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics".

Scotland and Ireland

Setting up plans for my trip to London this summer. Classes start on June 25, so I'll be flying into Dublin on June 24 and catching a cheap flight from there to London that morning. Then class until August 1, when I'll ditch London for Scotland. Planning on being in Edinburgh for 4 days, then flying back to Dublin, to spend until August 11 driving around and exploring the island.

Anyone want to come?

Man, I hate this stuff

Just got no use for any of it.

Causes for optimism: Vista failure watch

Windows Vista is failing. Pretty rapidly, from all accounts. I'll save time by posting a single news story that discusses two remarkable events that have happened in the past week:

1) Dell reintroduces XP on new PCs.

2) Microsoft offers XP "Starter Edition" and Office 2007 to the third-world for $3.

Basically, they're so desperate to get people to use their software that they're willing to drop the price 99.5%. If people actually wanted to use it, they might not be that desperate.

I think sometime in the past few years we reached the point where new versions of an OS will no longer be sold as independent products. OSS has been operating this way for years. Wiping your drive to install a new version is a damn silly way to run an operating system. People are basically satisfied with XP, and a lot of the "features" offered by Vista actually curtail users' ability to use their systems in the ways they want to use them.

I can't for the life of me think of a reason to drop $300 on software that takes things away from me.

Open WAP and probable cause

The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed down an opinion, U.S. v. Perez, --- F.3d ----, 2007 WL 1065784 (5th Cir. 2007), on a case where a man was convicted of possession of child pornography. Federal agents tracked him down through his IP address, which traced to his apartment. The defendant operated an unsecured wireless access point, and argued that this defeated probable cause, because anyone within a few hundred feet could have accessed the internet through that IP.

While not disagreeing with the technical facts, the court held that "though it was possible that the transmissions originated outside of the residence to which the IP address was assigned, it remained likely that the source of the transmissions was inside that residence." (Id. at 3).

It is worth noting that the court did not hold that the IP address proved that the defendant was guilty. No, it was the stacks and stacks of CD-Rs filled with porn that did that. Way to create a sympathetic public image for the judge, buddy.

All the IP address did was establish probable cause sufficient to swear out a warrant. This seems to make sense. Just because your IP address matches with undesirable activity doesn't prove anything, but it ought to be sufficient ground for interested parties to check you out.

The implications for file-sharing litigation are limited, as the vast majority of such cases are civil, not criminal (Justice has better things to do than prosecute college students). Probable cause doesn't really apply. Once the RIAA sues you, they can get your hard drive through the discovery process, no subpoena necessary. In both cases, what's on your hard drive is going to be a lot more important than your IP.

It's also worth pointing out that in civil litigation, the plaintiff need not prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt. If the RIAA has an alleged record of your IP downloading a file, and the file is on your hard drive... that looks bad. And looking bad is frequently enough to assign liability in civil cases. Saying "You can't prove it was me or that those files originated with your alleged download transaction" won't get you out of anything.

Vatican finally eliminates an element of fiction from its doctrine

The Vatican, in an official statement (not an encyclical, but still important... somehow) from Pope Benedict XVI has modified the Roman position on limbo, which had been maintained for centuries.

Of course, they had never really adopted it as "official" doctrine, so this isn't really a recantation...

Cryptography may be irrelevant

I mean, if they can read the radio signals generated by display cables from three offices away, it doesn't seem to matter whether or not they've got your password.

Get out that tin foil...

U.S. ex rel Mayo v. Satan and his Staff

54 F.R.D 282 (W.D.Pa. 1971).

I kid you not. Somebody tried to file a class action against Satan in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The opinion follows. For those without converse in civil procedure, the thrust of the opinion is that though the plaintiff does seem to keep the form of the class action, the judge doubts that the court can acquire jurisdiction over Satan and notes that the plaintiff hasn't included instructions on how to serve Satan with process.

-----
Plaintiff, alleging jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 241, 28 U.S.C. § 1343, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 prays for leave to file a complaint for violation of his civil rights *283 in forma pauperis. He alleges that Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall.

Plaintiff alleges that by reason of these acts Satan has deprived him of his constitutional rights.

We feel that the application to file and proceed in forma pauperis must be denied. Even if plaintiff's complaint reveals a prima facie recital of the infringement of the civil rights of a citizen of the United States, the Court has serious doubts that the complaint reveals a cause of action upon which relief can be granted by the court. We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district. The complaint contains no allegation of residence in this district. While the official reports disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff. The defendant in that action was represented by the preeminent advocate of that day, and raised the defense that the plaintiff was a foreign prince with no standing to sue in an American Court. This defense was overcome by overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whether or not this would raise an estoppel in the present case we are unable to determine at this time.

If such action were to be allowed we would also face the question of whether it may be maintained as a class action. It appears to meet the requirements of Fed.R. of Civ.P. 23 that the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, there are questions of law and fact common to the class, and the claims of the representative party is typical of the claims of the class. We cannot now determine if the representative party will fairly protect the interests of the class.

We note that the plaintiff has failed to include with his complaint the required form of instructions for the United States Marshal for directions as to service of process.

For the foregoing reasons we must exercise our discretion to refuse the prayer of plaintiff to proceed in forma pauperis.

It is ordered that the complaint be given a miscellaneous docket number and leave to proceed in forma pauperis be denied.

Final course list

I just got back from meeting with the professor for Topics in Reformation History, and that's a go. As such, next semester's course listing is as follows:

Antitrust: MWF 10:00-10:50
International Law: MW: 11:00-12:15
Business Associations: TR: 1:30-2:45
Topics in Reformation History: R: 6:00-8:30
Business Torts: W: evening (times TBD, probably the odd Sunday afternoon)

That's 15 credits. Not too bad. The schedule is awesome too. No class before 10:00. Heck yeah.

People die. It's what happens.

There's a piece on Slate which sums up part of my reaction to the VT shootings. Which, though obviously terrible, are... well... kind of small potatoes. Certainly not for the people involved, but... we're talking about 33 people here. Iraq lost 170 in an open air market last week. In seconds. A few months earlier, 125 were killed at the same market. Heck, Timothy McVeigh took out 168 few years back.

At the time of my writing this, a reservoir has burst in central China, forcing the evacuation of two villages and over 2,500 people. Elsewhere in that country, an accident at a steel mill poured molten steel on workers in a break room, killing 32 of them. One is dead, 65 infected, and 9,000 at risk for typhoid in Fiji from contaminated water. 300 people are homeless in Alberta after a fire destroyed 94 housing units late last night.

People die. It's what we do. It's terrible, tragic... and mundane. Sure, the VT shootings happened to mostly young people. Sure, the shooter was pretty psycho and sent a package to NBC. Sure, nothing exactly like this has happened in the US before. But, really, in the long-run, I just can't get all that excited about this. I predict that it will have largely faded from the public square within a week, if for no other reason than that there's no one to prosecute. It's over. People are dead, and those of us still living move on. Those directly affected by the tragedy will grieve for a time, as they should. Those who know them should provide what comfort and sympathy we can.

But life is full of things like this, and though some people's lives have just been turned upside down, I have class in two and a half hours, and a paper due this week.

Do... not... want!

This choice bit is from Mark v. Oregon, 974 P.2d 716 (Ore. 1999). It relates to a landowner suing the state for allowing public nudity at a state park near plaintiff's property.

"An increasing number of users engage in open public nudity, which is not wildlife-oriented recreation."

Gosh, I hope not.

Partial birth abortion ban upheld

SCOTUS has just handed down a ruling upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The act bans a particular procedure and does not restrict the time at which abortions may be procured as such.

That's one.

Slipping away...

So registration for next semester is today. My registration time is at noon. But 2Ls have been registering since 8:00AM. I'm watching classes I want to take fill up over the morning. Patent Law? Not a chance. Fortunately, an obliging 2L is holding a spot in Business Torts for me, otherwise there'd be no way on earth I'd make it in.

Tentative schedule, subject to revision once I register:
Business Torts
Business Associations
Antitrust
International Law
Topics in Reformation History

That last one isn't a law course, but it looks fantastic.

The upshot of this schedule is that I'll be finished with classes by 12:15 on Monday and Wednesday, 11:00 on Friday, and don't have to be at school until 1:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. BT and TRH are both evening courses on Wednesday and Thursday.

Here's hoping.

UPDATE: Topics in Reformation History apparently requires use of untranslated French sources. So that's out. In goes Conflict of Laws.

UPDATE x2: I talked with the professor of Topics a bit, and will be meeting him for coffee on Friday, but I think it should work out. He was more interested once I pointed out that I have a history major, and he recognized that I wouldn't be the only person in the class without a working knowledge of French. We'll see what happens on Friday, but I'm thinking that this could work out well.

Eye in the sky

Ars is reporting that California has just authorized the tagging of gang members with GPS devices. This follows up "Jessica's Law" which authorizes felony sex-offenders to be so tagged even after their parole is up.

I'm pretty sure I don't like this, as the implications for privacy are pretty stark. I don't have any problem with 24-hour surveillance of convicts, and doing it on the cheap is even better. But for people who have served their sentence... How much of a step is it from there to people who are merely suspected of a crime? I don't have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with the government tracking my movements.

Additionally, given the state of security in government organizations, the odds of this tracking information falling into non-government hands is unacceptably high.

Pure delight

"To do the good and reject the evil from a reasoned insight into their respective natures is a noble thing, but it is a still nobler thing to do so out of regard for the nature of God, and the noblest thing of all is the ethical strength, which, when required, will act from personal attachment to God, without for the moment enquiring into these more abstruse reasons. The pure delight in obedience adds to the ethical value of a choice."
-- Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology

Snippets of conversation overheard

"...it's like a cross-treated ethnography..."
- random female undergrad(?) as I was entering the law school

If there were a way of mentally bitchslapping someone, that would have happened there.

Sometimes Hitch is brilliant

Other times he's just crotchety.

Either way, he's usually fun to read.

"Roller-coaster" indeed

People say that housing markets can be like roller-coasters. Someone took that a bit literally and has actually created a roller-coaster using a popular game that accurately models median home values in the US since 1980.

I think all historical graphs should be presented as roller-coasters.

Well... okay

And now Iran has released the hostages. Just because.

Weird.

They have laws about that

So it's in the news that Verizon's "unlimited" wireless data plans aren't exactly unlimited. In fact they're only 5GB a month. The TOS for the service says that you pretty much aren't allowed to do anything remotely interesting with your connection, and aren't allowed to use it as a primary internet connection. The TOS actually requires you to have another source of internet access.

This is what consumer protection and truth-in-advertising laws are for.

A step in the right direction, but not quite there

Both Apple and EMI are announcing that EMI will begin offering portions of its catalog through iTMS DRM-free.

This is a good start. But it's not enough to get me to become a customer. Why?

Because the files will still be in Apple's proprietary AAC format. This means its compatibility with other players is pretty restricted, and you're still largely stuck with iTunes. The absence of DRM makes this a bit less of an issue, but it's not truly interoperable until you can play it on whatever hardware with whatever software you want.

So I applaud EMI for its actions, but am still waiting for them to take the final step. Ogg, FLAC, and mp3 are perfectly viable formats. Use 'em.

New pirates of the Caribbean

The Caribbean nation of Antigua is currently in the midst of a WTO dispute with the US government over online gambling. Congress recently passed a law criminalizing online gambling even when done in other countries, and the WTO ruled that the US has no such jurisdiction and that the act violates WTO standards. Rightly so.

Predictably, the US government ignored the decision. The WTO issued another statement criticizing the US for continuing to violate WTO standards. If the US government ignores this as well, as it is likely to, we could see the return of piracy to the Caribbean for the first time in a few centuries. If the US refuses to abide by WTO standards, Antigua is under no obligation to abide by them either, and as Antigua is already a member of the WTO, the US has little actual recourse should Antigua decide to play home to someone like The Pirate Bay, which is always looking for potential data havens. All of a sudden these files would be completely legal, as they originate outside US jurisdiction and would not be subject to any copyright laws. Just route your connection through Antigua and the RIAA wouldn't be able to touch you.

I really hope this happens. I really do. It's gotten to the point that I've stopped buying music on principle. I just want to hurt the bastards.

Back up and running

I'm about five minutes away from finishing my data reacquisition. Installed the new SATA drive (320GB Hitachi) without any problems, though it's just kind of sitting there since my case doesn't really have room for five HDD. I've now a RAID 0+1 array at 465GB. And dang is it fast.

Had to uninstall and reinstall my NIC for reasons unknown, as when I tried to get my data back from the network temp drive it seemed to think that 15K/s was a reasonable transfer rate. By my calculations that would have taken approximately 104 days. But it went back up to 4MB/s after that. I'm pretty sure I managed to do this without any inadvertent data loss, but let me assure you, the prospect of transferring extra gigs over the network is a good incentive to discern just how much you really want that extra iso.

For those of you that have an interest: my IP is likely to have changed as a result of messing with network cables. Those of you that have an interest already know who you are and can contact me for the new IP.