Say Kerry is elected, but on Jan. 20, the Inauguration gets bombed, and Kerry and Edwards are both killed. Even if the Speaker of the House or the President Pro Tem of the Senate step aside (perhaps because they’re of the opposite party, and conclude they have no mandate to govern), the rest of the […]
Archive | July, 2004
What happens if the Inauguration gets bombed?
Say Kerry is elected, but on Jan. 20, the Inauguration gets bombed, and Kerry and Edwards are both killed. Even if the Speaker of the House or the President Pro Tem of the Senate step aside (perhaps because they’re of the opposite party, and conclude they have no mandate to govern), the rest of the […]
Copyright remedies:
Beldar asks: Am I correct in assuming that even if Jibjab violated the rights of the owners of the original song copyright, they still would have to prove damages — presumably, lost sales, licensing revenues, etc. — to prevail? Wouldn’t that require a witness who could come in and say, “I was on the brink […]
“Effect on market” in fair use:
How could JibJab’s use of This Land Is Your Land be anything but fair?, some have asked. After all, probably the most important aspect of the fair use analysis is whether the new work harms the market for the old work (for instance, by competing with it). Surely there’s no such effect here, when the […]
Mocking the original vs. using original to mock others:
Several people e-mailed me about the
Copyright in government records:
An interesting article by Virginia journalist Becky Dale. Federal government works are public domain (17 U.S.C. sec. 105), but at least in theory state and local government works may be protected by copyright. I’m pretty sure that’s not a good idea, at least in most situations, and perhaps courts will find very broad fair use […]
More on the Moral Foundations of Libertarianism:
In his essay, Understanding Political Libertarianism, on Tech Central Station, Will Wilkinson offers his reply to Edward Feser’s The Trouble with Libertarianism. Will’s approach is quite similar to that which I defend in my new paper, The Moral Foundations of Modern Libertarianism (which he generously cites). As I was trying to capture and defend how […]
Some Responses to Libertarianism & Foreign Policy:
As usual I have received some thoughtful comments on my post, Libertarianism and Foreign Policy–not all of which I have had the time to acknowledge personally given that I am still squeezing blogging in between lectures and other activities here in Gummersbach. Thomas at Liberty Corner blogged about this both before and after I did […]
Obama vs the rest
A number of commentators have linked this passage from Barack Obama’s speech: t’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one. Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and […]
Don’t blame the lawyers:
Someone e-mailed me about the This Song Is My Song controversy, pointing to this as the latest example of unethical lawyers undermining American creativity (and, more broadly, economic development) through excessive litigation. I don’t think that’s so. As I mentioned in my original post, the This Land Is My Land copyright owners have a decent […]
Lithwick on Democrats and Judges:
Dahlia Lithwick has an article up on Slate asking why Democratic candidates are not talking more about the importance of who appoints judges. Lithwick seems genuinely puzzled. She reports on various theories floated at a recent American Constitution Society panel that included several distinguished legal scholars. The theories ranged from the observation that most people […]
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love GM Food:
The National Academy of Sciences has issued yet another report reaffirming the basic scientific consensus about genetically engineered food: It’s safe. The NAS has (once again) concluded that what matters is the product, not how it was produced. This means that for regulatory purposes it should be irrelevant whether a given food product was produced […]
“First ‘black’ drug nears approval”:
A heart drug being tested in black patients is on course to become the first medicine approved for use in a specific ethnic group, challenging those scientists who believe that race is a bad basis for prescriptions. . . . [The drug] revives controversy about whether, and how, race should be used to prescribe medicines. […]
New Article of Mine Up on SSRN:
I have a new law review article up on SSRN, entitled The Fourth Amendment and New Technologies: Constitutional Myths and the Case for Caution. It is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review, and likely will be published in September or October. (I have had an early version of the abstract up for some time, but […]
The Patriot Act and Criminal Law:
Alex Tabarrok responds to my analysis of his Patriot Act criticism. Alex concludes that I have committed “the lawyer’s vice,” namely, “to miss the forest for trees.” He writes: The point is that laws passed for one purpose are often used for other purposes not originally intended (RICO, anyone?). . . . In this case, […]