Ernie The Attorney

What's the Grokster case all about?

Okay, by now everyone knows that the Grokster case was decided. And if you don't know what the Grokster case is about then you probably don't care what it's about, even though you should care. If you don't care about the Grokster case, or if you don't know about the battle over P2P file-sharing services and other innovative technologies that companies like the RIAA or MPAA are trying to shut down, then you should be reading Free Culture. I just finished reading it, and I'm going to go back and read it again. The first line of the Grokster opinion sort of ties into the main theme of Professor Lessig's outstanding book:

"From the advent of the player piano, every new means of reproducing sound has struck a dissonant chord with musical copyright owners, often resulting in federal litigation. This appeal is the latest reprise of that recurring conflict..."

Except the problem isn't just about technologies that produce sound. And the real fight over copyrights and technology is just beginning. It would be nice if our politicians had input from the people most affected by this struggle (hint: it's a segment of our population that cannot afford to hire expensive lobbyists, at least not without becoming more organized).

World's worst website

People can debate which website is the world's worst, but these guys purposefully tried to create the worst one. Indeed, it seems to have all of the requisite elements of a really bad website.

Ranier Beer - Not bad stuff, says the bear

I remember when I went to Seattle someone told me that Ranier beer is 'cheap beer that tastes like Moose piss.' It didn't seem that bad to me when I tasted it, and apparently this bear seems to agree. Or maybe the Moose flavor was what he was looking for in a beer.

These are the Dark Days of the Internet

Erik Heels has some keen observations about the intersection of law and technology: "We are only about a decade into the Internet revolution and we are clearly living in the Dark Ages of the Internet. Never before have so many bad laws been drafted to benefit so few to the detriment of so many..." [Read more]

Windows Service Pack 2 is not so good

Walter Mossberg comments on the soon-to-be-officially-released supplement to Windows XP:

"Over the next few weeks, Microsoft will be rolling out a major, free security update to Windows XP. It's called 'Service Pack 2,' or simply 'SP2.' I've been testing SP2 on two Windows computers, and it seems to work fine. I recommend installing it, if only because of the under-the-hood security improvements Microsoft claims it contains. But SP2 falls way short of what Microsoft could have done to fix the miserable state of security in Windows."

A friend of mine just got a new Apple iBook and is giddy with joy. Of course, she is getting used to the differences between the Windows operating system and Apple's OS X. She asked me why she was constantly getting prompted for her password whenever she installed a program, even though she was logged in as an administrator. "Welcome to world of real computer security," I replied.

Blog Annoucement

Katherine Legget recently started writing about the criminal justice system on a blog for the documentary website Deadline. Deadline, a feature documentary, followed former Illinois' Governor George Ryan's landmark decision to grant clemency to 167 death row inmates. The film premiered at Sundance and was recently broadcast on NBC's Dateline. The blog's function is to keep people updated on all the film's going on's as well as to keep the discussion going about issues regarding the death penalty and the criminal justice system. She's also planning on writing about the role that documentaries have on contemporary social issues.

Great Contract Negotiations - Case Study #103

One of the first classes you take in law school is 'Contracts.' The legendary Professor Kingsfield is sort of the unoffical Patron Saint of this discipline. In law school contracts is much harder than it is in real life. In real life, the thorny problems aren't mind-bending theoretical problems, but basic problems of gamesmanship and mock warfare.

How can I create a transaction that creates a lot of value for me, but doesn't require me to do too much? This is the quintessential thought-process of one who is contemplating entering into a binding agreement. Sometimes you can spend too much time thinking about tactics. Sometimes it pays to be just plain lucky. Like Ozzie and Dan Silna, the former owners of the St. Louis Spirits (an ABA basketball team). Remember them?

Probably not, unless you are old like my friend Steve Copley who is from St. Louis and told me the story of how these former ABA team owners struck a brilliant deal that has netted them $100 million dollars over the past 25 years. Here's the scoop:

After it became apparent that the NBA would only allow four ABA teams to join the NBA, St. Louis owners Ozzie and Dan Silna reached a famous agreement with the other remaining ABA owners. In return for folding their team, the Spirits' owners obtained the right to 1/7 of any future television money received by the surviving ABA teams (Denver, Indiana, New York and San Antonio) -- in perpetuity. In the late 1970's, the NBA's contract with CBS was modest in scope. But as the NBA's popularity exploded in the 1980's and 1990's, the league's television rights were sold to CBS (and then NBC), plus the TNT and TBS cable networks, for hundreds of millions of dollars. Over the past 25 years, the Silnas have collected approximately $100 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game. The Silnas continue to receive checks from the NBA on a yearly basis, representing a 4/7 share of the television money that would normally go to any NBA franchise.

Now, that's a contract worth studying. You know, I don't know if you are all aware of this, but 'perpetuity' is a really long time.

How to conduct effective jury voir dire

Bill Dyer starts off talking about the famous McDonalds coffee case, but quickly moves on to give a great example of how to deliver an effective voir dire on behalf of a defendant in a products liability case. His post belongs in a textbook.

Blogs vs. Journalism - Part XXVIX

The tireless debate about Blogs v. Journalism will not end anytime soon. Mostly, it's the journos who are posing this question (hey, they have to fill time somehow). And here's Wonkette pointing to such a discussion.

Wonkette is the perfect example of how blogs are different than traditional journalism. First, Wonkette knows how to dig up links and freely uses hyperlinks whenever possible to supplement her discussions, which are admittedly not serious news reports (at least not always). The New York Times has a web page, but when was the last (or first) time you saw a hyperlink embedded in the text of a story posted to the web site? There is a skill that is highly developed in most bloggers, which is completely non-existent in the mainstream media: how to find information on the web that is linkable.

I suspect that as more and more information becomes available on the web the skill of finding it quickly and knowing how to incorporate that information into one's writing will be something that bloggers will tend to possess and mainstream journalists will tend not to have facility with. When the average citizen becomes more tuned into the web (i.e. when our kids get older) this disparity between bloggers and mainstream journos will make a difference to them and at that point one of two things will happen: either (1) the public will start to abandon mainstream media sources in large droves, or (2) the mainstream media will evolve to appear more like blogs. Probably it will be some combination of those two, and definitely a lot more hyperlinking.

New magazine: Worthwhile

There is a new magazine launching soon that's 'Worthwhile.' No, I mean that's the magazine name. It's about working, and what makes it worthwhile. Check out the weblog for an idea of what the magazine will be like. My friend David Weinberger is heavily involved, along with well known bloggers such as Halley Suitt. Oh, and the well known business speaker and writer Tom Peters is also involved. So check it out; it looks, er, worthwhile.

Attorneys ordered to 'get a life'?

You know it's bad when the judge enters an order noting that the the attorneys need to 'get a life.' (PDF file)

Hurricane Charley - Insight from a blogger

My friend Buzz lives in Orlando and looks like he made out okay, but this post is an interesting account of the chronology of events. Towards the end when all the power is out and all he can rely on his Treo phone with E-mail access he is able, thank god, to get this important: "E-Mail offering me the opportunity to be a Scottish “Laird” in exchange for $69.95 via PayPal."

It's nice to know that even in a Category 4 Hurricane the spam keeps on flowing.