Archive | July, 2007

The Ninth Circuit says “no,” in Perfect 10 v. Visa Int’l, in an opinion written by Judge Smith and joined by Judge Reinhardt; Judge Kozinski dissents. I think Judge Kozinski’s opinion is more persuasive as a matter of current law (whatever one thinks the law ought to be), at least as to contributory liability. As […]

Consider a generally applicable law that is being applied to speech, but that on its face doesn

President Bush, yesterday afternoon:   I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.  My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for […]

The L.A. Times reports: The FBI and the Los Angeles Fire Department are investigating an anonymous claim that animal rights extremists placed an unexploded incendiary device found under the car of a prominent UCLA eye doctor last weekend. The incident was similar to one last year in which another UCLA researcher was the intended target. […]

A popular argument for why Scooter Libby should never have been prosecuted is that Patrick Fitzgerald knew early on in the investigation that Richard Armitage at the State Department was the leaker. If Fitzgerald knew Armitage was the leaker, why didn’t he stop the investigation right away? Why did he continue? For some people, Fitzgerald’s […]

The Scooter Libby case has triggered some very weird commentary around the blogosphere; perhaps the weirdest claim is that the case against Libby was “purely political.”   I find this argument seriously bizarre. As I understand it, Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. […]

I share Orin’s disapproval of this, and his reasons for the disapproval.

Wow, that was fast: President Bush set Scooter Libby free today, just hours after the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.   Bush “commuted” Libby’s sentence, which means that Libby doesn’t have to go to jail but he still has to be on probation for two years and still must pay the fine imposed by the District Court. In […]

When my beloved Panasonic W2 laptop started crashing upon boot-up after 5 years of trouble-free use all over the globe, I initially thought (hoped) it might be a defective memory card. When that wasn’t it, I figured it was the hard drive. I found a company called Lapfix in Falls Church, Virginia who was willing […]

Though I am a frequent early adopter of new technology (e.g. Tivo, Treo, etc.) I have not been remotely tempted by the Apple iPhone. This review pithily explains why: I have a sweet device – a beloved Treo 680, which retailers give away for free after mail-in rebate – and am not about to shell […]

In recent months, I’ve often run across arguments (including in comments on this blog) that certain kinds of speech ought to be unprotected because they’re really “conduct,” not “speech.” Now these weren’t arguments about expressive conduct, such as flagburning or nude dancing. They focused on speech that was written or spoken words, and the speech […]

A good article on the subject Sunday, apparently prompted by my Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, and Payment for Organs, 120 Harvard L. Rev. 1814.

The Independent (UK) reports: Google … is being sued by a London businessman in a landmark legal action that could hold the US-based company liable for the publication of inaccurate, malicious or damaging material on the internet…. [T]he search engine directed users to web pages that the businessman claims contained “deeply offensive and commercially damaging” […]

The AP has the details here, via How Appealing.

Two excellent analyses on Truth on the Market of the Supreme Court’s decision in Leegin last week that overturned the Dr. Miles case on the practice of retail price maintenance. Josh Wright is here and Thom Lambert is here. Thom’s analysis focuses on the legal issues involved and especially the justification for applying a weaker […]