“Five point plan” “It’s a one point plan” “Keep taxes low” “Ask the rich to pay more” “You lie” “No, you lie” “I know business” “You are sooooo rich” “Gas prices are high” “Because the economy is doing better” “It’s your fault” “It’s Bush’s fault” “We can do better” “We have done better” “You lie” […]
Archive | October, 2012
The Knockoff Economy in Finance, Football, and More
By Prof. Christopher Sprigman (Virginia), guest-blogging on October 17, 2012 8:00 am in Copyright, Patent Law
In our first two posts, we wrote a bit about how two important creative industries, fashion and cuisine, do very well without much intellectual property. Notice that we wrote “without much” IP, and not “without any”. That’s because there is some IP that’s relevant to both. The fashion industry makes heavy use of trademark law […]
Snap Polls After the 2d Debate Report that Obama Won
Nate Silver reviews the post debate polls, which show President Obama as the narrow winner, a result that more or less accords with my view: Scientific polls conducted after Tuesday night’s presidential debate in New York give a modest edge to President Obama. A CBS News/Knowledge networks poll of undecided voters who watched the debate […]
2d Debate: Audience Questions Were Balanced, Time Allowed Was Not
In the Second Presidential Debate, I thought that the choice of questions was pretty even-handed. I counted 5 questions that in my opinion a priori favored President Obama: 3. Mr. Romney’s tax plan; 4. Female wages; 5. Romney as Bush; 7. Immigration; and 10. Outsourcing. I counted at least 3 questions that favored Romney – […]
Yet Another Debate that Ignores Judicial Nominations
After the first presidential debate and again after the debate between the VP candidates, I lamented the fact that the candidates and moderators had almost completely ignored judicial nominations. This is one of the areas where presidents have their biggest impact, and there are big differences between the two parties on a variety of major […]
Katherine vs. Catherine
In his post below, co-blogger Jim Lindgren speculates that the Katherine Fenton who asked a question at the Presidential debate might be the same Catherine Fenton who apparently was involved with CodePink and has written for sites like Truth-Out and Counterpunch — and is thus presumably was not really an undecided voter. I’m not sure, […]
Was “Undecided” Questioner Catherine Fenton Former Media Coordinator of CodePink Long Island? [UPDATE: Probably not]
How good was Gallup’s vetting of the questioners at the 2d Presidential debate held at Hofstra on Long Island? One explicitly feminist question was asked by undecided voter Catherine Fenton: And it’s Katherine Fenton, who has a question for you. QUESTION: In what new ways to [do] you intend to rectify the inequalities in the […]
The Legality of Counterhacking: Baker’s Last Post
Now the debate with Orin is actually getting somewhere. Sort of. Here’s a scorecard: 1. Does authorization depend exclusively on ownership? Orin’s latest post does a good job of showing that the CFAA often draws a coherent distinction between rights in data and rights in a computer, and that rights in the computer are the statute’s […]
Thoughts on the Virginia Eminent Domain Reform Referendum Question
By Ilya Somin on October 16, 2012 4:24 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Various people have asked me what I think of Virginia Question 1, the eminent domain reform referendum question that will be on the ballot in November. Question 1 is one of many eminent domain reform referendum questions developed as part of the political backlash against the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New […]
More on Hacking Back: Kerr Replies to Baker
In Stewart Baker’s latest post for why hacking is lawful if someone else did it first, he makes a textual argument and a policy argument. I find both extremely weak. Stewart’s first argument is that it’s possible to read the statute as giving authorization rights to people who have rights in data rather than rights […]
French President Wants to Ban Homework
Story here.
“101 Corporate Haiku”
I’ve long liked this little book by William Warriner; here’s a sample: Twice the light comes to a corner office; I wait for twice the vision.
D.C. Circuit Panel Reverses Conviction of Bin Laden’s Driver
The case is Hamdan v. United States (D.C. Cir. Oct. 16, 2012), and it’s noteworthy that the panel is quite conservative — the opinion is written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, joined almost in its entirety by Judges David Sentelle and Douglas Ginsburg. The conclusion: Because we read the Military Commissions Act not to sanction retroactive […]
Review of Atlas Shrugged II
My wife and I recently saw Atlas Shrugged, Part II. Overall, I thought it was much better than Part I, which I assessed here. The acting was significantly better, and the movie did a better job of conveying the message of Ayn Rand’s book. There are still some problems in translating a 1950s novel into […]
New Hampshire Attorney General Declines to Investigate Related-Party Investments of Dartmouth’s Endowment
I noted the letter to the New Hampshire AG from some anonymous whistle-blowers a few months back. The New Hampshire AG has decided not to investigate. Joe Asch has the documents and extensive analysis here. According to the AG’s office, about 13.5% of Dartmouth’s endowment is invested in related-party investments (about $459 million). Asch notes one […]