The Archives
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A Day in the Life
New for 2010: Self-Mocking Lawyers
This is an actual law firm; they take personal injury cases and advertise on the New York City subway system, and probably on TV and the radio, too. I’m glad someone finally understands my pain.
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The News
A Magical Wonderland
The internet is a funny place. In the very first days, when it included computers at all of four universities, the internet was very clearly an extension of the “real world.” For a great number of years, people just used their actual names on the internet: see the 1982 Usenet discussion of the creation of the emoticon. (This discussion quickly deteriorated into arch-nerdery, because the guys on the internet in 1982 were arch-nerds.)
At some point, (perhaps the Eternal September?) the internet took a turn for the anonymous.
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The News
Legal Jujitsu
11.18.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsThe record companies have made headlines for threatening extremely high-stakes and time-consuming litigation against people who have illegally downloaded songs on the internet. The maximum statutory penalty is $150,000 per song you downloaded. At that rate, the record company’s offer to settle the whole kerfuffle at $4,000 seems positively like a bargain.
This strategy relies on the threat of a horrible outcome (downloading a single 12 song album leaves you open to as much as $1.8 million in liability) to prevent these pirates of the internet from attempting to defend their dastardly digital deeds in court. Do note that the record companies, despite the fact that roughly 800% of all albums in America are downloaded illegally, still have enough collective resources to make defending such a lawsuit extremely expensive.
But what if the tables were turned, and the record companies were staring down the business end of a high-stakes and painfully drawn-out lawsuit?
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The News
Only In America (or Turkey)
This one comes from the “less than ideal litigation” department. The city of Batman, Turkey, is suing the movie studio responsible for the Batman movies. If you’re anything like me, your first reaction was likely “there’s a city named Batman?” And apparently there is, in the Kurdish section of Turkey. Your second reaction is “holy smokes, Batman! Whatever for?” if you’re a gigantic dork.
The lawsuit claims that using the town’s name without permission has led to psychological trauma for the town’s citizens, which has caused a high female suicide rate, as well as a number of unsolved murders. I’m interested to see how this works out. (Mostly because I’ve never actually seen a judge fall off her bench from laughing so hard.)
So the next time you’re feeling down, just think to yourself that it could be worse: you could be Batman.
Almost Legally
Will work for Evidence outlines
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I don't know what's worse. Being too sick to make it to school to turn in your homework, or having to hand-write it in 2010.
