We’re now four days away from the Towel Day edition of Blawg Review, #213. Law bloggers and twitterers, I still need your photos with towels! Send them to me at kthompson@cyberlawcentral.com. Time is running out. Don’t complain to me about your lack of time to enter, the plans have been posted at the local planning…
T-5 days to Towel Day Edition – Wolfram Alpha style
We’re now 5 days away from the Towel Day edition of Blawg Review. I still need your pictures with your towels for inclusion in the Review with a link back. Please send the pictures to kthompson@cyberlawcentral.com, G or PG rated only please! Have you seen the new Wolfram Alpha computational engine? You can type in…
T-6 days to Towel Day Edition of Blawg Review
As a reminder, the Towel Day Edition of Blawg Review is coming on May 25, 2009. Towel Day is an annual day held in memory of Douglas Adams, the author of many fine works including the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series. On that day, all the hoopy froods carry a towel in his honor….
Blawg Review #213 pre-announcement
I’ll be hosting Blawg Review #213 one week from today, on May 25, 2009. I’m preannouncing the theme because I need your help. Yes, you there! My first Blawg Review #42 was in honor of Douglas Adams, one of my favorite authors who suffered a permanent existence failure in 2001. May 25th has been designated…
Fan Generated Content on the Internet
Here are the slides from my presentation to the Chicago Bar Association’s Cyber Law and Data Privacy committee on February 17, 2009 entitled “Fan Generated Content on the Internet.” I talked about the Harry Potter Lexicon case, including the changes to the book which were made in order for it to be publishable. Then, we…
Bits and Bytes
Welcome to 2009! Postings here have been light at the end of 2008 due to other considerations, such as work and sleep. 🙂 Let’s see if 2009 brings the planned regular posting schedule. I’ve still been active online, just not here. You can follow me on Twitter at @cyberlaw. The most interesting link to share…
What does “search incident to arrest” mean today?
A good article over at the Wall Street Journal on the recent controversy over warrantless searches of laptops was pointed out to me by Venkat Balasubramani. Thanks, Venkat! The article is worth reading as it discusses the recent cases involving searches of electronic items at the border (based upon a “reasonable suspicion” test), and contrasts…
10 years of the DMCA
It’s been 10 years today since President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law. Wired has put together a nice retrospective, available here. They call it a misunderstood law that created the Internet commerce as we know it today. Public Knowledge’s take on the act is here. David Robinson at Freedom To Tinker…
McCain campaign finding unsympathetic ear from YouTube
The McCain campaign’s efforts to have YouTube deal with DMCA takedown notices directed to its commercials uploaded to the video sharing site differently from other content owners have been rebuffed. Recent commercials have featured clips taken from CBS News and other news sources, which the campaign argues is a fair use of the material. Rather…
Professor Lessig on copyright reform
Here’s a link to a great article by Professor Lessig on the need for copyright reform. Despite the article’s title, he’s really not defending piracy per se, but merely noting that the law criminalizes certain behaviors that he believes should instead be encouraged. It’s well worth a read. Posting here on the blog has been…