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June 15, 2004

Duplicating Paris

Choire Sicha's recent Paris piece in the NY Times (They'll Always Have Paris) ends up in the Chi Trib. Is it syndication or infringement?

In case you didn't know Choire is the editor of Gawker and seems to me a very legal minded individual. In a recent Paris piece on Gawker (Paris Hilton: The Spawning), Choire relays to us that "Hilton Furniture owner Jack Hilton, quite a celebrity with his energetic cheap local-only Houston commercials, introduced his baby daughter on a commercial today" and hopes that Paris bothered to trademark and copyright her own name.

posted by Kevin Heller at 10:44 PM | |


One Newdow Under God

  • Radosh.net: bringing back school prayer
  • Sugar, Mr. Poon?: Funny
  • Ernest Miller: True Patriots Recite the Preamble
  • Curmudgeonly Clerk: Newdow

    • posted by Kevin Heller at 8:34 PM | |


    June 14, 2004

    Another Cardozo Blog

    Chris Rush Cohen has alerted me to Sanford Hausler's Second Opinion. Sandy's blog is about the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and its opinions and says that even if the the Court knew about it, he doesn't think it would mind. Let's hope not.

    Chris also has a Scoop on Battery Park Counterfeiter Bust and some pics that the cops weren't too thrilled about.

    Update: David from blogbook.org informs me that he is also Cardozo alum (96) and guesses that "its natural for Cardozo peeps to take the lead in emerging areas of law and technology, given the school's youthful age and physical location." I totally agree David.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 8:51 PM | |


    June 10, 2004

    Britney's Completely Creative Tour Names

    I was thinking about the whole Britknee IN THE ZONE trademark infringement lawsuit

    Since receiving a cease and desist letter from Lite Breeze requesting that Ms. Spears and the other defendants stop using its IN THE ZONE trademark, the Spears camp has allegedly pulled from sale all t-shirts using the IN THE ZONE trademark.

    Ms. Spears' unauthorized use of the trademark is in direct contradiction to her 2002 public service announcements warning people against music piracy and theft of intellectual property. In those announcements, Ms. Spears stated that downloading music from the Internet is the same as going into a CD store and stealing the CD. See Spears Warns Against Piracy, BBC, Sept. 26, 2002.

    In the lawsuit, Ms. Spears is accused of stealing the intellectual property, i.e. the trademark, of Lite Breeze. If Lite Breeze is successful in its lawsuit, Ms. Spears and the other defendants could be ordered to turn over all profits earned for Spears' In The Zone CD, the related tour and merchandising, and all damages to Lite Breeze.
    and a few things came to mind:

  • Despite the fact that the term seems to cliche to be protectible, you'd think she'd could throw a few dollars at some lawyers to clear the mark.

  • Is it possible that there are more in the zone plaintiff's lurking?

  • Although a potentially lucrative payoff awaits some lucky defense counsel, it's completely possible that the damages to plaintiff is zero.

  • You think we can still find some in the zone t-shirts on ebay?

    • posted by Kevin Heller at 8:54 PM | |


    Dismissed!

    Are you a young unemployed lawyer looking for work? Well then Craig's List has the perfect job for you: [cache]

    Charismatic young lawyers for a new reality-based LEGAL show. Compete in mock trials/courtroom showdowns on prime-time TV. The last lawyer standing wins a lucrative job at a law firm.

    To qualify, you must have passed the bar exam and received notification between May 2003 and May 2004. You also must not have a full-time job at a law firm yet.
  • I wonder if this is for The Partner

    Update: David E. Kelley's new reality show will make a partner out of a law grad. The premise of the NBC series is similar to "The Partner," a reality show set to premiere in November on Fox.

    (originally posted April 27, 2004 and brought back by popular demand; and yes I am the Kevin Heller cited by Lori Patel on law.com; see also Who Will Be 'The Partner'?)

    'nother update: Carolyn Elefant reports that NBC has a reality tv show where they're looking for real lawyers to argue real cases; trial experience is a must. You also need to e-mail resume/picture to nbclawseries@maildotcom

    • posted by Kevin Heller at 8:30 PM | |


    Monolith and digital copyright

    Both Ernest Miller and Crash dis Monolith take on filesharing, encryption and copyright.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 12:28 AM | |


    June 9, 2004

    1 in 200, 500 or 1,000

    New York Law Journal estimates that there are 200-500 legal bloggers but david at blogbook thinks its more like 1,000. The blawgring has 449.

    And I just found another one: Nathan Paul Mehrens, Esq. runs NatronLaw. As of this posting NPM has 905 days, 4 hours, 8 minutes, and 1 seconds left until he is eligible for admission to the Supreme Court Bar.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 8:49 PM | |


    How's it feel to be 1 in 63 Million

    Chris Rush Cohen, a 3L at my alma-mater, explains.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 7:56 PM | |


    Email Happenings

    Tony Pierce has "three g-mail invites [to] send out."

    Jonas Luster has more. [via Denise]

    Bill Heinze sent me a pretty hilarious email alerting me to his new Intellectual Property Updates blog. Great info Bill. Thanks.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 12:27 AM | |


    June 7, 2004

    Supplemental Income

    In order to supplement my income with #2 on the way. I have taken a new position with CNA handling their E&O; professional liability media and copyright claims. Just thought it was important to get it out there so as not to mislead anyone out there as to what the proprietor of this blog does for a living.

    [please note: The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or their clients.]

    posted by Kevin Heller at 8:51 PM | |


    June 6, 2004

    More on Notes

    Footnote 138 from my paper arguing that Scorsese's and Schrader's Taxi Driver is an adaptation of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. "Travis Bickle's assassination attempt against Palantine is also a reflection of Arthur Bremer’s failed political assassination of Governor George Wallace, which is glorified by John Hinckley in his attempt to assassinate President Reagan five years later."

    posted by Kevin Heller at 11:33 PM | |


    June 4, 2004

    New Kinja Feature: Favorites

    You can now view a list of all the sites I aggregate via Kinja: Kinja Favorites.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 10:32 AM | |


    June 3, 2004

    Today's Brief

    I'm sad to see Lori Patel is gone but Lydia Markoff is doing a good job so far having taken over for her in putting together Today's Brief on law.com. I find it to be a daily must read.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 11:08 PM | |


    Homosexual still libel per se?

    Gawker editor Choire Sicha directs us to a NY Lawyer article Being Labelled Gay May No Longer Be Defamation discussing Southern District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. ruling issued last week in Lewittes v. Cohen, wherein he observed that "welcome shifts in social perceptions of homosexuality" create "good reason" to question the precedents embracing the per se approach.

    I also saw that Legal Reader had a post last week pointing to a ruling out of Massachussets wherein District Judge Nancy Gertner indicated that stating that someone is homosexual does not libel or slander them, particularly in light of new court decisions granting gays more rights.

    As Choire says, while linking to some blind items from the post, "I bet we'll be finding out the hard way about that whole gay/defamation thing soon enough."

    Update: I just noticed that How Bashman has posted a link to this article on a student being suspended for wearing an anti-gay t-shirt to a gay rights celebration.

    See also: "Homosexual" As Defamation

    posted by Kevin Heller at 8:55 PM | |


    Trophy Husband Burning Bridges

    Looks like Pam Smith of The Recorder (via Law.com) may have tracked down the identity of the trophy husband who sent out a rather scathing resignation email to his co-workers last week:

    In what appeared to be a farewell e-mail last week, a Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker associate wrote that he hoped the "smoke from any bridges I burn today [may] be seen far and wide." At the rate the e-mail is traveling, that won't be a problem. But now it seems the lawyer may be having regrets. By Friday, the message -- apparently sent from the desk of associate Gregory Evans Jr. [-- or someone at his desk --] to the rest of the firm's San Diego office -- had been forwarded to lawyers at scores of other firms and popped up on infirmation.com's "greedy associates" Internet bulletin boards for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. John Benassi, a litigation partner in the firm's San Diego office, said he'd seen the e-mail -- as well as a follow-up message saying Evans wanted to retrieve it. "It might have been an accident, because he tried to recover it as soon as he sent it," explained Benassi, who said he doesn't know Evans.
    I saw that alott5ma had a copy of the email up on May 28, but had redacted the sender info. The 'ps' lends credence to the notion that someone may have sent it from his desk rather than the person named above:
    From: [REDACTED]
    Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 1:11 PM
    Subject: FW: Goodbye...

    As many of you are aware, today is my last day at the firm. It is time for me to move on and I want you to know that I have accepted a position as "Trophy Husband". This decision was quite easy and took little consideration. However, I am confident this new role represents a welcome change in my life and a step up from my current situation. While I have a high degree of personal respect for PHJW as a law firm, and I have made wonderful friendships during my time here, I am no longer comfortable working for a group largely populated by gossips, backstabbers and Napoleonic personalities. In fact, I dare say that I would rather be dressed up like a pinata and beaten than remain with this group any longer. I wish you continued success in your goals to turn vibrant, productive, dedicated associates into an aimless, shambling group of dry, lifeless husks.

    May the smoke from any bridges I burn today be seen far and wide.

    Respectfully submitted,

    [SIGNED]

    ps. Achilles absent, was Achilles still. (Homer)
    p.p.s. When you're standing on a burning bridge the view is kinda hazy.

    Update from Techdirt: Passing On Third Party Emails Officially Not Defamation

    posted by Kevin Heller at 12:57 AM | |


    More on Blog Disclaimers

    Robert Scoble, of Scobleizer and Microsoft on disclaimers: "When would I not listen to my bosses? If they told me to put a disclaimer on every post. That's not a blogging best practice, sorry Josh. Find another way."

    He's referring to this josh ledgard post: "Some Microsofties are now including disclaimer text at the end of each posting in addition to linking to a disclaimer on the sidebar. A long internal thread went around where 'best practice' guidance was given from a member of the legal team that included inserting the disclaimer into every entry as well as in any comment we leave on other blogs."

    I think adding this language to your disclaimer though may be helpful: "The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or their clients. This site is not maintained utilizing the author's employer's resources or on company time."

    See also blawging difficulties.

    Update: Loosely Coupled asks whether rss/atom feeds should contain a disclaimer field since so many readers only peruse the site in that manner: "if no one ever sees my disclaimer, am I actually disclaiming any liability?"

    Also, josh ledgard whose post got us rolling here, discovers that lawyers blog and responds to my disclaimer language by saying that sometimes blogging is part of the job.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 12:29 AM | |


    June 2, 2004

    Overheard

    (while attending mandatory NJ CLE at SHU last night)

    A young female attorney to her friends: "I sit at my desk and think to my self... how can I bill for staring at my computer screen."

    Had I spoken up, my answer would have been 'legal research.'

    posted by Kevin Heller at 10:11 AM | |


    June 1, 2004

    You can't read Notes from Underground then study pre-law

    Yet I was somehow able to read it at 18 20 and go on to study law.

    Alan Barra who usually writes about sports for the Journal has a Salon piece on the new Pevear-Volokhonsky translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground and how much better it is than Constance Garnett's and Jessie Coulson's. I enjoyed the Garnett translation of Crime and Punishment as well as the A. R. MacAndrew translation of NfU, but Barra finds that the new translation brings "one important aspect of the novel [] into clearer focus, which is that Dostoevsky, a devout Christian and a political conservative, was not advocating nihilism but mocking it." Interestingly, had he read the works of FD's biographer Joseph Frank, this all could have come into focus for him much sooner.

    My understanding, and this dates back to my younger days, is that Notes from Underground was written as an attack on the Nihilist, utopian novel What is to be Done? Tales about New People written by Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. As Joseph Frank explains, Notes from Underground is intended as an ironic parody. In Part I, Notes reflects the Nihilism of the 1860’s and in Part II, the social Romantic doctrines developed in the 1840’s in Russia. Dostoevsky reveals the impossibility of the underground man’s attempt to live within the ideological grip of the times through his acceptance of the ideals of Nihilism and Romanticism and the chaos of the underground man’s life is a result of living in accordance with these social doctrines.

    posted by Kevin Heller at 11:35 PM | |


    OverFlow (reBlog)
    Copyright
    :: (c) 2003-2004 Kevin J. Heller some rights reserved ::

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