Saturday, June 29, 2002
The Very Pink Of Courtesy
posted by Denise at 8:24 PM
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Friday, June 28, 2002
Shades Of I Love Lucy
posted by Denise at 5:33 PM
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Smokin' Hot Links
These have the sizzle of an unbeatable platter of Sabatino's sausages:
1. Christopher Locke's interview on yesterday's Marketplace Morning Report. (Real Audio; fast forward to 7:20 - 10:40 of the 17:29 minute program.) After spending an afternoon with our guests at Disneyland, this rings too true. [Via Jeneane and Elaine; bonus link, same sources, George Partington's interview.] Is there any doubt the Sorting Hat puts RB in Slytherin? (Is there any doubt a six-year old is a mind altering substance on par with anything regulated by the FDA?)
posted by Denise at 1:09 PM
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Thursday, June 27, 2002
The Paynter And The Muse
posted by Denise at 12:58 PM
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New Site Time
Elaine's new digs are lovely! Go take a tour.
posted by Denise at 11:18 AM
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Copyfight/Donna Wentworth/Berkman News
Copyfight has a new co-sponsor, the Berkman Center, where Web Publications Editor Donna Wentworth (separated at birth from Laura Dern?) also writes and edits The Filter and is a GrepLaw author and Chilling Effects contributor. (Ahem.) In the current issue of The Filter, Donna and Berkman report among other things that Donna will be blogging live from the Berkman Center's Internet Law Program on July 1-5, and that the program will include "a debate between Lawrence Lessig and Jason Matusow of Microsoft Corporation on the merits of open source, shared source, and proprietary software." The program sounds terrific, but since I can't go I'll be checking in with Donna for the highlights.
posted by Denise at 9:36 AM
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You know you grew up in California when...
your schools always just said "indivisible."
posted by Denise at 9:01 AM
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Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Stephan Bechtold On Digital Rights Management
Dr. Stephan Bechtold (of the Link Controversy Page mentioned here before) is "a 27-year-old German lawyer who is a Fullbright Fellow at Stanford Law School" [via The Daily Journal], and has written a paper titled "From Copyright to Information Law - Implications Of Digital Rights Management." (link: PDF) The paper examines DRM's tendency to supplant copyright law (since it allows providers to protect "the economic, moral and personal interests" in an author's works without further legal assistance), and posits that if measures are so overprotective as to trample on fair use, laws will develop to limit DRM and clarify fair use principles in the digital environment. Dr. Bechtold thinks "it is far from clear that content providers really need the combination of five different means of protection (technology, contracts, technology licenses, anti-circumvention regulation and copyright law) instead of one (copyright law)," observes that private parties implementing DRM "may or may not honor the interests of third parties and society at large," and concludes "[i]t is the law that has to react to this 'overprivatization' and limit the different means of protection in a DRM system." The paper provides a thoughtful take on the unsettled state of DRM technologies and the current legal framework, with interesting ideas about where things might go from here.
posted by Denise at 2:58 PM
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"To improve our justice system and ensure a free and just society under the law."
Incoming California State Bar president James Herman was elected last Saturday, and wants to make more people aware of the Bar's mission statement, above. [Via The Daily Journal] James lives near Doc in Santa Barbara, so if they should bump into each other over coffee Doc may have some suggestions...
P.S. Dig student Declan Murphy's "Images Of Freedom" photo.
posted by Denise at 2:10 PM
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When Good Programming Meets Good Blogging
posted by Denise at 12:34 PM
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Spam Quixote
Ben Livingston [via InfoWorld, via BoingBoing] and Morrison & Foerster [via SiliconValley.com] are, independently, on to something here.
posted by Denise at 11:56 AM
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Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Swamp Beaver Law
You can learn all kinds of things keeping up with U.S. appellate decisions. Like the fact they make coats out of nutria (don't tell Baby). (Industrias Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A. v. Louisiana Bayou Furs Inc., via FindLaw)
posted by Denise at 4:27 PM
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Contract Law Meets Domain Name Auctions
In a published decision filed yesterday (Lim v. The .TV Corporation International, via FindLaw), the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Four, held that a Web solicitation of bids for the registration of a domain name (here, "golf.tv"), can constitute a legally valid offer to sell registration rights to the highest bidder. The defendant's argument that its email confirmation of the plaintiff's bid - which referred to the domain as "--golf" - was a counter-offer and not an acceptance went nowhere, partly because a domain name preceded by hyphens goes nowhere:
Defendant put the name "Golf.tv" up for public auction, and plaintiff bid on that name and no other. As we have discussed, that was an offer and acceptance, and formed a contract. The distinction between "Golf.tv" and "- -Golf.tv" comes from the acceptance e-mail sent by defendant. Of course, if a contract already had been formed, the designation in that communication would be almost immaterial. Certainly the hyphens preceding the name "golf" could not defeat the existence of an already-formed contract. It is only if, as a matter of law, defendant's website posting was a solicitation for an offer, so that plaintiff's bid constituted the offer, that the difference is material. But here, once again, the communications must be read in context. Defendant was accepting plaintiff's bid; it plainly was not making a counter offer, particularly since, according to the pleading, the name "- -Golf" did not "compute"; it did not qualify as a domain name. At least for purposes of pleading, the e-mail must be read as an acknowledgment of plaintiff's winning bid and acceptance, if not confirmation, of the contract.The Court also held the complaint's fraud claim to be adequately pled and overruled the trial court's order sustaining a demurrer to the complaint. The case will return to the trial court for further proceedings before Judge Haley Fromholz, in which plaintiff Je Ho Lim presumably will continue to urge his entitlement to "golf.tv" (for which he paid $1,010) and damages for his "time, money and effort in developing plans to commercially exploit the name."
posted by Denise at 2:41 PM
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Paynt Flies Again
Andrea's interview encourages trust in our future, folks. And that's not something that comes free with your coffee every day.
P.S.: I took the pic of Frank and Beth, and had the huge pleasure of their lively talk and captivating selves at the Hotel Laguna last week. Will blog my portrait of the master portraitist once I get our houseguest to save his Harry Potter game and relinquish the Mac.
posted by Denise at 12:30 PM
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Collected Writings Of Daniel Pearl
posted by Denise at 11:43 AM
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"Quantum Entanglement"
posted by Denise at 11:07 AM
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Reviews And Terrors
As a carryover from last weekend, we have three and six year old guests for the week (and their wonderful Mom). The little one, Claire, offers these insightful opinions, in a vocal amalgam of Elmer Fudd and Bubbles:
On the house (and why it doesn't have toys): "Because it idn't a home." O!
On The Screen Savers: "Dis is vewy nice tawlking. Dey vewy fwiendwy." (An overclocker in the making.)
On the practice of law: "Why you pack up and go da office when we go da beach aw day?"
Meanwhile, we can't get her older brother off the Mac, and I can't get over the fact I've taken to an item associated with "Bunco" in Google search results. (**runs screaming for the door**)
posted by Denise at 11:05 AM
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Monday, June 24, 2002
Complaints All Around
...about Internet radio royalty rates. Yeah, I know you know that, but thought this David Ho article snapshotted things well. [Via Law.com] Kevin Marks suggests a solution.
--Later: So does Doc.
posted by Denise at 12:18 PM
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Sunday, June 23, 2002
Change Of Venue, Two Degrees North
Had a great L.A. day yesterday, hanging out here, here and here with old friends from college (gals' day!!!). The latter spot, Beverly Hot Springs, has a deceptive name. People always assume it's some chi-chi Beverly Hills spot where lab-coated raptor-ladies whisk you through delicately scented, deadly soothing surroundings, but they're way off base. This place is near downtown, off Western (on Beverly drive, hence the name), in the Korea Town district. It's a legitimate Korean bath house with hot and cold mineral pools fed by a natural spring, steam, sauna - a primal fount of moisture and heat. It's a fantastic enough experience just to go there for the pools. The hot-cold switch my drug of choice, agony at first, then pure bliss as the body lets go of the difference and you yearn to sit for hours with a stone dragon dripping water between your eyebrows, so chilly you're stunned it takes liquid form. But they also offer "treatments," which must be the English translation of "back alley mugging" in Korean. I desperately need to learn "GENTLY!" in the mother tongue of the round, laughing-eyed, bikini-clad, able-to-take-down-oxen-with-three-well-placed-blows denizens of the back room before our next trip (though I doubt it will help). Stavros??
After the pummelling, back to one of the gal-pals' houses in The Valley. There, someone is always the celebrity up the street, and in this urban-forested but nondescript neighborhood it's Kim Basinger. Twighlight swimming with the three, four and six year olds my buddies have been busy turning into little people, followed by a movie so good if you haven't seen it run out and get it NOW: O Brother, Where Art Thou? How did I miss this the first time around? My goal is to watch it enough times to commit the dialogue to memory. (Earlier in the week, at my husband's urging I also watched Imagine: John Lennon. Powerful stuff.)
Finally, a trend spotted: These Italian charm bracelets are on wrists all over Southern California - is this a regional, national or international phenomenon? In any event, it's the gift of the moment. Customize one for your honey and score big points. Nor is this purely the realm of the soccer mom - geekdom is not utterly neglected (see here; I've also seen emoticons and 1's and 0's would work well too ;->).
posted by Denise at 2:43 PM
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Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Denise M. Howell and included in the Bag and Baggage weblog and any related pages, including the weblog's archives, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
