However, his other 169 MySpace friends did NOT link to porn

As one commenter noted, this is just one more reason Florida should be kicked out of the Union.

From Wired:

"School Cop Investigated for Porn Link on Friend's MySpace Profile

"In the goofiest waste of law enforcement time we've seen in weeks, an on-campus police officer for a Florida middle school is facing a criminal investigation over his MySpace account. Why? It turns out one of the people on his friends list had a link on his or her profile to an internet porn site.

"Or, as the St. Peterburg Times puts it, "kids could navigate from Officer John's page on the social networking site to 'Amateur Match Free Sex' in just three clicks.""

Via Doc Searls

    Technorati : gulf middle school, john nohejl, new port richey

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 02:02pm in Bizarre but Expected, Civil Liberty, Law, Social Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

More reasons to own your identity

From Stuart Bruce comes the chilling news that your boss might own your Facebook profile... in some instances. He cites Pinsent-Mason's Out-Law blog (which I am glad to have discovered).

Here's a snip:

"Employers could have grounds to demand ownership of employees' social networking profiles, such as those generated on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo, according to a leading intellectual property lawyer.

The news comes in the wake of a court ruling which forced a journalist to hand over the contents of his contacts list to his former employer after he left that company.

Employers could insist on gaining ownership of some social networking content, though only in limited circumstances, according to IP law expert Catrin Turner of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM.

"If a social networking site is used to hold any information which relates to your employment, if that information is prepared in the course of your employment you are dealing with company property," said Turner.

The profile, or the elements of it that are work related, would belong to the employer despite the fact that it was created and is hosted in a virtual environment primarily designed for personal interaction."

About a year and a half ago, I wrote Don't mix your identity with your employer's. Here's a snip:

• "Own your books and subscriptions. If you use books and trade journals as you should, you know these are the intellectual ballast for your work and career. Make them your own. When you are at professional conferences, buy your own books and manuals.
• Own your professional network. Enlightened companies recognize the value of professional networks and associations and often offer to spring for memberships. Just make sure it's your network, not theirs. IABC, for example, openly states that memberships are personal, even if paid for by the employer. Insist on it.
• Own your side of the game. Were I going back into corporate life, I'd tell my employer that a) I have a blog that I intend to continue and that is equipped with my CV and personal contact information and b) my LinkedIn profile will continue to say I am seeking inquiries about opportunities."

Neville Hobson, Tom Foremski and Mitch Ratcliffe all had wise things to say on the subject then, but perhaps it's time for PR bloggers to revisit the issue.

Some questions begging for answers:

• Are blogs written by employed bloggers owned in any way by the employer if the blogger is writing about the profession? If a Facebook profile can be the employer's property, can't a blog (after all, there's little intrinsic difference?)
• And what about Twitter networks? And tweets produced at work?
• LinkedIn networks?`

Others?

Technorati : employee rights, facebook, identity, intellectual property, personal identity, social networks

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:36pm in Career management, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

12 important US laws every blogger should know

Aviva Directory has published a list of 12 important US laws every blogger should know. Some topics include: "Is deep linking legal?," "Laws that protect you from stolen content," and "the duty to monitor your blog comments, and liability."

Really good stuff. Plus links to additional resources.

I snip one part:

Who Owns User-Developed Content and Can You Delete It:

For those of you who have opened your sites up to user-driven content, be it comments, reviews, or a bulletin board, the question of who legally owns the content is an important one for deciding what you can and cannot do with it. Thankfully, the answer is pretty straightforward, and so are the solutions for dealing with it.

What is the law?

it may come as a surprise to many bloggers, but you do not actually own the user-driven content on your site. Instead, it is actually the copyrighted property of the author. The analysis is pretty straightforward; copyright law only requires that an author create an original work and write it out in order to grant that person a copyright. The fact that you do not own the user-driven content on your site can create a number of headaches for bloggers, such as an obligation to remove a comment whenever the author requests.

But by including a terms of service which spells out that you will have a license in all content posted in the site and more specifically that you will not have a duty to modify or withdraw posts but you may do so if you choose, you can ensure that you have effective control over the user-driven content on your site even if you do not have actual ownership of the content.

How to stay out of trouble:

NEVER treat comments as though you own them by manipulating them or deleting them without having included a terms of service which gives you permission to do so.

ALWAYS include an extensive terms of service that explains all of your rights with respect to user-driven content.

CONSIDER that if you are allowing anonymous posts you will have no way of verifying the true owner of a comment when someone emails you asking for you to take a comment down. Consequently, you should make sure to at least collect basic identifying information before allowing someone to comment or post on your site.

Hat tip to Amy Gahran.

Technorati : avivadirectory, bloggers, comment policies, copyright, domain name law, law, trademarks

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:50pm in Law, Social Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Kathy Sierra death threats are no basis for blogger code of conduct

Kathy Sierra, a prominent blogger, has received what she sees as death threats from other bloggers-- and takes them seriously enough to cancel speaking engagements and call on law enforcement. If you aren't already familiar with the story, I urge you to visit her post, which has attracted 1000+ comments in just a few days. But carry a strong stomach -- this is seriously ugly, offensive, putrid stuff. That some of the offenders -- or facilitators -- may include other famous bloggers simply makes the story worse. I am deliberately not linking to the alleged offenders/facilitators because, quite literally, this is a case for the police.

But the inevitable calls for blogger codes of conduct miss the mark. Tim O'Reilly calls for one in a BBC interview, but with tens of millions of bloggers, in every country, he's farting in a hurricane. No code of conduct will ever be agreeable to all bloggers -- 99% will never hear of the topic, anyway -- and no code would ever be enforceable.

I posted a Code of Blogging Ethics more than two years ago. That code gets a lot of traffic, and I hear, from time to time, that it inspires new bloggers. But I am particularly happy most read why I posted it. In it, I argue that any "code of blogging ethics" is pretty much a contract between the blogger and the reader -- enforceable by the reader's very powerful tool of dismissing the blog on the spot.

At the time, I quoted Jeff Jarvis:

"We don't need a committee. We don't need an authority figure or moral guidepost.

"This is a distributed world, a world owned by the whole. We are ruled by the wisdom of the crowd."

To that, I would add we are also ruled by law, another application of the wisdom of the crowd.

The alleged offenses against Kathy are already covered by law, if they did happen. If I threaten to kill someone on this blog, Danish law is way ahead of any blogging code of conduct. If I let a comment threatening the same stand, the law is ready for me. If I encourage, tacitly or not, an environment where threats are made, the law is ready for me. The possible sanctions of the blogosphere pales in comparison.

For that very reason, supporters of a collective blogger code of conduct overreach. You can legislate, set rules, set standards only in a closed group -- the sanction being punishment by the group or exclusion from it. The blogosphere hasn't the ability and never will.

The sort of thing Kathy reports is disgusting. But there is law in place to punish it, if true, which is something no code of blogging conduct could ever do.

Technorati : allan jenkins, code of blogging ethics, code of conduct, desirable roasted coffee, kathy sierra, online death threats

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:37pm in Blogging, Desirable Roasted Coffee, Ethics, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2)

Citizen journalism not welcome in France?

And have the French lost their minds? You commit a crime if you, a citizen, film a violent crime. "Well, yes sir, officer.... I saw the robbery, the shooting, the getaway car. Can't remember the plate number. I could have had it on my camera, but I didn't want to go to jail."

Another hat top to Fisher.

Technorati : citizen journalism, crime, french justice, sarkozy

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:32pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Law.com's do's and don't of corporate blogging. Excellent overview....

Even seasoned communicators should take a look at As Blogging Grows, So Do Its Do's and Dont's, an article by Alysa N. Zeltzer adn John E. Villafranco at Law.Com. These are corporate blogging guidelines from the point of view of the legal department, and they provide rich insight into the legal issues of blogging. At the very least, understanding the points in this article will prepare communicators for possible objections to blogging raised by corporate or client legal departments. Here are a few samples:

• Do be mindful of intellectual property laws and train your blogging employees on such requirements. Employee postings on a corporate blog that include a third-party's intellectual property, such as copyrighted material or trademarks, may expose the company to allegations of infringement. Given that blogs, by their nature, tend to build off the content of other Web sites and materials through linking and copying, it is critical that such use complies with "fair use" principles (i.e., posted for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research).

• Do implement a clear policy on employee blogs, especially those in which senior executives contribute. Chances are, a number of your employees already have a blog that prominently features their association with the business, and many are saying plenty of things (and sharing images) relating to the company. Some of that content may be innocuous; other types may be embarrassing or come back to haunt the company in litigation. Implementing and enforcing a clear policy that provides reasonable parameters for such postings can save you headaches down the road.

• Don't employ consumer bloggers to say positive things about your company's products or services without ensuring that they disclose their affiliations with the company. Endorsements and testimonials by word of mouth have always been a popular form of marketing, but the blogging world has made them even more so, thereby making content that crosses the line an attractive target for regulators.

• Don't terminate employees for posting inappropriate content to corporate blogs without considering the risk of wrongful termination claims, especially where the company does not have a consistent practice on how it treats employees who post content online. Employees may claim that the employer authorized the posting, and is now discriminating against them for exercising their right to organize.

What's refreshing here is seeing corporate lawyers saying "By all means... blog!" instead of taking the knee-jerk "better not!" stance.

Technorati : alysa zeltzer, blogging guidelines, corporate blogging, john villafranco, law.com

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:45pm in Business, Communication, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

I wonder how UCLA is going to cover this PR problem?

UCLA student gets tasered for not carrying his university ID... then the cops threaten to taser other students who ask for their badge numbers.

On YouTube. But watch it on an empty stomach. You'll watch the cops taser him once -- this can render the victim powerless to walk for 5 to 15 minutes -- then taser him a few more times for not getting up.

There's no doubt the guy was a loudmouth. But seeing him get tasered over and over during a six minute period has got to give you pause for thought. For not having an ID card in the college library? I'm sure that's a major security risk right up there with checking the containers at Long Beach.

Via Declan at Politech, whose article says in part (about taser-happy cops):

"They have been used against unruly schoolchildren... and people who
argue with police or fail to comply immediately with a command. Cases
described in this report include the stunning of a 15-year-old
schoolgirl in Florida, following a dispute on a bus, and a 13- year-old
girl in Arizona, who threw a book in a public library."

I'll just note here for the record that any cop who tasered my daughter would have to be packing a lot more heat when I caught up with him.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:55pm in Civil Liberty, Is Tedious in the House?, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3)

Further evidence the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to kids

I don't know about you, but when I was 14, I wrote reams of the most mawkish, overwrought, eager poetry and prose you can imagine. Just dripping with the most obvious symbols and hackneyed metaphors. All of it crammed into iambic pentameter (my forays into choriambic septameter always failed, for reasons that only later became clear).  And lots of lyrics -- inspired almost entirely by Foghat, Kansas, and Lynyrd Skynyrd (Rush was waaay beyond my talents, and the lyrics of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin inspired my interest in cryptography).

I assure you it is no loss to literature that all my writings as an adolescent have been lost. Even at that tender, naive age, I realized my stuff was so bad that I never showed it to anyone.

And, yet, it was mine. My creation. My attempt to wrap teenage angst in words. Catharsis.

Catharsis was certainly pretty much what Rachel Boim, a 14 year old honors student in Georgia USA, was looking for when she wrote a story in her journal about a dream in which a student shoots her math teacher.

Rachel's mistake was to take the journal to school, where it was confiscated by a teacher. She was expelled for threatening bodily harm against school personnel.

That was in 2003. Since then, ridiculed in the press, the Fulton County school board backed off a bit. But a US District Court has dismissed Boim's plea that her First Amendment rights had been violated, despite the testimony of Georgia poet laureate David Bottoms.

You can read the full story here. It'll sicken you if freedom of expression means anything to you.

And if you are 14? Write whatever you want, everything you want. But the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to you. Not in Georgia, anyway. So lock it up.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:03am in Civil Liberty, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (8)

Judge Pendleton Gaines orders lawyers to cut crap, go to lunch

In what I can only admire as a remarkable act of judicial common sense, Arizona Superior Court Judge Pendleton Gaines has ordered Defendant's counsel to accept Plaintiff's counsel's invitation to lunch.

In support of his order (in the case of Physicians Choice of Arizona v. Miller, et al.,) Judge Gaines quotes Jose Ortega y Gasset ("conversation has been called the 'socializing instrument par excellence'") and John Dryden ("Sweet discourse, the banquet of the mind").

His kind words about Defendant's counsel's rhetorical skills will, I am certain, allay Defendant's counsel's fear of a prandial ambush:

"Defendant's counsel distrusts Plaintiff's counsel's motives and fears that Plaintiff's counsel's purpose is to persuade Defendant's counsel of the lack of merit in the defense case. The Court has no doubt of Defendant's counsel's ability to withstand Plaintiff's counsel's blandishments and to respond sally for sally and barb for barb."

But Gaines isn't to be trifled with. When Defendant's counsel agrees to have lunch with Plaintiff's counsel at "Ruth's Chris" restaurant, the Judge immediately sees through the subterfuge and fires off a footnote:

"Everyone knows that Ruth's Chris, while open for dinner, is not open for lunch. This is a matter of which the Court may take judicial notice."

Whipping out a Zagat's Guide from beneath his robe, Gaines orders the parties to choose from his list of "fine restaurants within easy driving distance...." And he goes on to direct how the bill shall be divided (and, thoughtfully, orders a 20% tip included).

He will brook no delay:

"The lunch must be conducted and concluded not later than August 18, 2006. The Court is aware of the penchant of Plaintiff's counsel to take extended cruises during the summer months."

And finishes helpfully:

"The Court suggests that serious discussion occur after counsel have eaten. The temperaments of the Court's children always improved after a meal."

Having given Plaintiff's counsel what it wanted, Judge Gaines now gives something to Defendant's counsel:

"To demonstrate ... that the Court has more on its mind than lunch, the Court [grants] Defendant's motion to strike Plaintiff's proposed amended complaint.

Plaintiff's proposed amended complaint is ... prolix and discursive in the extreme. It violates the observation of French philosopher Blaise Pascal, who concluded a long letter with an apology, saying "he had not the leisure to make it shorter." Since this is a 2003 case with no end in sight, Plaintiff's counsel has the leisure to make his complaint shorter."

Speaking for myself, Judge Pendleton Gaines gets my support for the next open seat on the US Supreme Court.

Hat tip to Andrea Weckerle.

Update: in a 2002 interview, Judge Gaines talks about the great advantages technology brings to the courtroom. We like His Honor even more, now!

Technorati Tags: pendleton gaines, law, humor, arizona superior court

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:27pm in Bizarre & Amusing, Humor, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Arkansas Governor Pardons Keith Richards

Now, that is good news for Mr. Richards, and good PR for Governor Huckabee. I wonder if Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina would pardon my little indiscretion from back in 1985. I have a feeling I shouldn't hold my breath.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:39pm in Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3)

WikiBios: Recipe for libel, divorce, maiming & bitter recrimination

Here's a stupid idea to end all stupid ideas.

WikiBios believes, in complete denial of the human experience, "that everyone in the world, no matter who they are, has a unique and interesting story that deserves to be told." Now, I want you to think about this. Think of your 20 nearest and dearest. As much as you love them, how many of them have an "interesting story that deserves to be told" (to the rest of the world)? If you came up with even one, your friends are remarkable or you are deluded.

WikiBios, however, believes everyone deserves a story. So it offers a wikispace where anyone can start a biography about anyone else. Here's the catch: the subject of the biography cannot edit his or her own biography:

"While we appreciate that you want to tell the world about yourself, the unique part about this project is that it gives you the opportunity to find out what makes you special in the eyes of those who care about you. Therefore, we have one basic rule of our community that we ask you to abide by. While we encourage you to edit and create new biographies for your friends, we simply ask that you do not edit your own biography and instead allow those who care about you to write about you. Trust us, it's better this way. "

Better for whom? If my friend Lee Hopkins has urges-that-shall-not-be-mentioned (and I am not for a moment saying he does, but he's a handy example), and I find that a "unique and interesting story that deserves to be told," I'm encouraged to write his biography. That Lee might have an opinion about this unauthorized biography is apparently irrelevant.

Trust me... this stupid idea will last about as long as it takes the first attorney to pick up the phone

Technorati Tags: wikibios

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:03am in Bizarre & Unexpected, In Defense of Elitism, Is Tedious in the House?, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (7)

DRC scraped off by Mobitype

[UPDATE: This post was first titled DRC ripped off by Mobitype, a Löic Le Meur venture. At the time of the post, Löic Le Meur was listed as the chairman of Mobitype's board. In the days after this post, both Le Meur and Mobitype denied any connection, and Le Meur was removed from the board list.

Furthermore, after talks with Mobitype's CEO, I believe the scraping is not a cynical attempt at content rip off, but simply an inept effort to bring RSS to mobile devices. ]

Brother Lee Hopkins  interrupted my first Sunday coffee with this email:

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:54pm in Bizarre & Unexpected, Blogging for Benjamins, Intellectual Property, Law, Scams | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (4)

Google Analytics: Holtz and Wackå warning me off...

Yesterday, I posted about Google Analytics' questionable TOS & added that I would wait to install until I saw Shel Holtz's results.

Today, Shel writes he's getting poor mileage with Google Analytics. And Fredrik Wackå writes that Google Analytics cookie policy may put European bloggers on the wrong side of the law.

Scratch that off my list.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:35pm in Law, Technology | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

A democracy of groups: a tremendous article by Beth Simone Noveck

First Monday is one of the few peer-reviewed journals on the Internet, and is, as far as I know, the only one devoted entirely to the Internet.  It was originally Danish, so I started reading it from Issue One, in May 1996, the articles of which were:

Electronic Cash and Monetary Policy by Mark Bernkopf

The Social Life of Documents by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid - introduction by Esther Dyson

Networked-centered is an oxymoron by Rishab Ghosh

Law and Borders - The rise of law in Cyberspace by David R. Johnson and David Post

Corporate Metamorphosis: The Effects of the New Media by Sean Murphy

Yep, in the first warm days of 1996, First Monday writers were looking at topics and ideas that, nine years later, are often just barely creeping into MSM.

The November 2006 issue includes an article I want to recommend to Desirable Roasted Coffee readers. It's A Democracy of Groups, by Beth Simone Noveck at the New York Law School (she's the blogger at The Cairns Blog). It's about 40 pages long, and it's not written in the snappy style of Business 2.0. But it's a excellent examination of one reason why social media is compelling and essential. Here's the abstract:

In groups people can accomplish what they cannot do alone. Now new visual and social technologies are making it possible for people to make decisions and solve complex problems collectively. These technologies are enabling groups not only to create community but also to wield power and create rules to govern their own affairs.

Electronic democracy theorists have either focused on the individual and the state, disregarding the collaborative nature of public life, or they remain wedded to outdated and unrealistic conceptions of deliberation. This article makes two central claims.

First, technology will enable more effective forms of collective action. This is particularly so of the emerging tools for "collective visualization" which will profoundly reshape the ability of people to make decisions, own and dispose of assets, organize, protest, deliberate, dissent and resolve disputes together.

From this argument derives a second, normative claim. We should explore ways to structure the law to defer political and legal decision–making downward to decentralized group–based decision–making. This argument about groups expands upon previous theories of law that recognize a center of power independent of central government: namely, the corporation.

If we take seriously the potential impact of technology on collective action, we ought to think about what it means to give groups body as well as soul — to "incorporate" them. This paper rejects the anti–group arguments of Sunstein, Posner and Netanel and argues for the potential to realize legitimate self–governance at a "lower" and more democratic level. The law has a central role to play in empowering active citizens to take part in this new form of democracy.

I have only read the first few pages, and have no choice but to print the whole thing out and read it this weekend. So far, excellent.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:07pm in Civil Liberty, Communication, Ethics, Law, Smart Communities, Social Tools, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Harriet Miers is Blogging!

Well, not really. But within hours of Miers' nomination to be Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, some enterprising wit put up Harriet Miers's Blog!!! The Blog of the #1 Smartest President Ever's #1 Pick to be the Next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

The humor may fade quickly, but so far it's a hoot.

Hat tip to Catallarchy, via Political Calculations, via Drakeview, via BNET.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:43am in Bizarre & Amusing, Current Affairs, Humor, Law, People of Note, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Attention Saudi Dawn & Drew Fans: this Book is for you

My September paper copy of Wired has a spread on "countries that censor Web content  -- and what really offends them (oddly, the article does not appear in the online edition).

The list of offenders isn't surprising, but what scares them can be. Saudi Arabia blocks 100% of porn, for example, but also takes a hard line on humor, making it doubly hard for Saudi fans of Dawn & Drew, I suppose. Uzbekistan doesn't like porn either, and bans gmail. China is soft on porn, but bans Wikipedia. The criminals that run Burma really hate email -- and don't even think about eBay.

With so much thuggish cybercopping out there, it's a relief to see that Reporters sans Frontières has published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents (free pdf download, 1.6MB) to help citizen journalists in benighted countries to get around Big Brother.

"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation."

It's available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:42pm in Books, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law, Online Media, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

On Your Mark (Part 2): Louise Lego Andersen Whips LEGO in Court

Blogger for Benjamins Jaffe recently vented spleen over LEGO's request that we call their toys and bricks "LEGO bricks" or "LEGO toys", rather than simply "Legos".  It was a silly vent, one that illustrated Jaffe knows little about protecting intangible assets, and Jeremy Pepper was quite right to call him out on it.

(To get you up to speed: LEGO is a Danish maker of toys, especially distinctive building bricks. Jaffe practices PR, I believe, somewhere in New England, I believe).

The real LEGO & Intellectual Property story this week is entirely different.

I am a big fan of LEGO. Years ago, they were a client of mine.  I have -- on behalf of two children -- invested heavily in their wonderful products. And, seeing LEGO up-close & local as I do, have nothing but respect for their corporate governance and care for employees.

But even I have to admit they went off the rails when they sued Louise Lego Andersen, an art dealer and gallery owner,  for trademark infringement.

Here in Denmark, the name Andersen is extraordinarily common. As with Jensen, Hansen, Rasmussen, you can't throw a brick down the street without braining an Andersen. So it's common practice for people with common surnames to be known by their middle name -- a sort of surrogate surname. This isn't about vanity; it's just handy. Ask a Dane about Poul Rasmussen and Anders Rasmussen and you will get a blank look. Ask about Poul Nyrop (Rasmussen) and Anders Fogh (Rasmussen), and  she'll know you are talking about the former and present Prime Ministers.

So it's not surprising that Louise Lego Andersen  -- who goes by Louise Lego --  chose to call her gallery  Galleri Lego.

LEGO sued. Trademark infringement. Dropped on her like a jaguar out of a tree.

But... as Berlingske Tidende reports today, Louise Lego whipped LEGO in court yesterday:

"The Admiralty and Commercial Court handed down an preliminary ruling giving Louise Lego Andersen relief in 95% of her case, which is about whether her gallery can be called 'Galleri Lego'."

The ruling becomes a verdict in the next week or so. Either party can appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeals or, in the meantime, agree to a court-proposed settlement. Both parties are weighing their options.

The "5%" that's still in question?

"'The remaining five percent, where the court ruled against us, is about how Louise's name will appear in search engine queries', said attorney Egil Lego Andersen. 'Obviously, we don't agree with that part of the ruling, but that's small stuff.  I believe the court reached the right conclusion.'"

I think Egil Lego knows more about SEO than he lets on.

Technorati tags: lego louise lego

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:39am in Bizarre but Expected, Corporate Governance, Denmark, Intellectual Property, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (1)

Kelo: Americans (and Political PR Types) Should Get Used to the Name

In her post, The Kelo Backlash Continues, Virginia Postrel writes about the Kelo Case -- in which the US Supreme Court said it's ok for the state to expropriate private property to turn over to other private citizens for "development".

"Contrary to popular belief, the Kelo decision, terrible though it was, didn't really make new law. It ratified the status quo. For decades, cities have been taking private property under eminent domain, only to hand it over to private developers. The general public just had no idea how big the problem was until the Supreme Court said the practice was OK."

Coincidentally, this week's issue of The Economist also looks at Kelo and predicts the case will become as inflammatory as Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that decided abortion rights. The Economist notes that abortion was widely available in the US before the decision, and that the decision served mainly to stir up conservative ire. It predicts the Kelo decision, which largely affirms widespread practice, will serve to stir up populist ire.

That ire will raise all sorts of PR issues for local government (who do most of the expropriation), developers, and local grassroots organizations. And hands politicians of all stripes a nice juicy bone.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:09pm in Law, Politics, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Now, Was She the Bank President's Widow or the Dictator's Sister-in-Law?

From CNET comes the word that at least one letter-writer is out of work:

A Nigerian court has sentenced a woman to two and half years in jail after she pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the country's biggest e-mail scam case.

Related Desirable Roasted Coffee post: 419 Spam with a Twist

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 03:10pm in Law, Scams | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Media Law Blog for Journalists and Bloggers

As they more and more often bump up against the law, (US) bloggers might do well to subscribe to the Media Law blog ("A Blog About Freedom of the Press"). Written by journalist/attorney Robert J. Ambrogi, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association & clearly a guy who asked "why be a member of one derided profession when I can choose two?"

Sample post:

The single-best resource on shield laws    

Yesterday's jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to disclose her sources heightens national attention on reporters' shield laws. For anyone wanting to learn more about reporters, subpoenas and shield laws, there is no better resource on the Web than The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Its special section, Reporters and Federal Subpoenas, provides in-depth and frequently updated coverage of efforts to enact a federal shield law as well as of ongoing legal controversies involving reporters' subpoenas. A separate section, The Reporter's Privilege, is a detailed examination, written in 2002, of the law regarding the reporter's privilege in every state and federal circuit. It provides statutes and cases and discusses both substantive and procedural issues.

Hat tip to Cyberjournalist.net.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:37pm in Citizen Journalism, Journalism, Law, Online Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

EU Considers Net-TV Regulation; Implications for Podcasters?

Via MarketingVOX comes this Times article: EU seeks to regulate television on the net.

Since the technology that makes Internet-TV possible is not dissimilar from the technology that makes  Internet-radio possible, I wonder if podcasting will come under regulatory scrutiny?`

After all, if Internet-TV stations can be held to "fairness" and "equal time" standards, couldn't podcasters? And, if podcasters can be, why not bloggers?

Is this a slippery slope or am I paranoid?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 12:15pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Communication, Law, Podcasting, Regulation | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Google Should Jump (Joyfully) on this Story

Edwin Soto at Gear Live uses Google Maps to get out of a traffic ticket:

"...So it came time for my testimony and I stated that I was in mid-turn when an oncoming vehicle was coming toward me very quickly and I had decided not to make the turn until that SUV passed me.  The Judge stopped and asked me how could there be an oncoming vehicle if the street was only one way.  I stated that it was indeed a two way street.  The officer reiterated that it was only a one way.  So who was the judge to believe? I was desperate for proof so I did the unthinkable: I whipped out my notebook.  I was very lucky to find an extremely bad connection via Wi-Fi. I pulled up Firefox and when to maps.google.com.  I typed up the intersection and zoomed in as close as possible..."

Fun story!

Via The Map Room.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:27am in Cartography, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

US Supreme Court Nomination Blog

The Supreme Court Nomination Blog is giving news and updates on the Supreme Court nomination in a thoroughly non-partisan fashion.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:27am in Law, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Those Other Folks Write Software, Too

Ben Hammersley offers a needed reminder that the US Supreme Court can make file-sharing apps illegal as much as it wants to. In the United States, that is:

"We would all, both within and without the US, do well to remember this. Declaring filesharing illegal across the net because it’s illegal in the US is like declaring the web broken because it’s censored in China. All it means is that people in the US wanting to write filesharing apps and make money from them will just have to move somewhere warm and cheap and do it from there.

"While developers in the US are being hamstrung by their courts, and their counterparts in Europe are about to have software patents kick the chair out from under them, the developers in the warm and cheap places are getting busy. If you really care that your software was written in the US, then the Grokster case is quite a big deal. If not, you just shrug and move on. The rest of the world’s a big place. They make software there too."

I'm just surprised Grokster wasn't tied to Homeland Security.

Link: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:45am in Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Good. Now Tie Him Down in a Field of Kudzu

Justice can be exceedingly slow, but it's nice to see when it catches up on folks.

Link: Killen found guilty on manslaughter charges.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:41pm in Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cover Your Ass: Who Owns Blog Comments?

Through Amy Gahran's OPML file, I ran across this gem by Charles M. Smith, an attorney and board member of Pheedo (and, no, I am not in any way endorsing Pheedo)..

"Who owns blog comments?

"The question of who owns comments has recently come up several times in conversation. This is a fairly straight-forward copyright issue.... Under copyright law, the blog comment author is the owner of the comment and his/her copyrights are triggered at the moment the comment is added to the blog."

Then, and you have to love Smith's understatement:

"The consequences of this simple analysis could be painful for blog operators."

"Why on Earth", I hear you all asking... Well, Smith lays it out (I've added snide emphasis):

"First, the author of a blog comment could request that his/her comment be removed from a blog. While it is an easy process to remove a comment, the harm to a blog could be substantial. Especially if the comment removed is central to the community discussion/dialogue around a given topic. This could severely impact the value of a blog and reduce its following/readership.

"Second, many blog operators make money by running contextual display ads on the same page as comments. The author of a comment could claim that a portion of the blog’s advertising dollars belongs to him because his comment is helping to generate the ad revenue.

"Third, in the course of performing maintenance on a blog or when a blog is moved to a new server - there is likely an additional copy of blog comments made in the transition. While this can be viewed as a trivial matter, it could technically constitute a copyright violation. This issue becomes the more problematic for companies with deep pockets. Keep in mind that authors may seek compensation from those who make unauthorized copies or reproductions of their works."

Not only do I find this instructive, I find it highly amusing. Now the Blogging for Benjamins crowd needs to worry about whether their revenue will be sucked off by some litigious commenter.

Unfortunately, (and isn't always just so?) Smith gives an out to the B4B folks by posting a Terms of Service clause for bloggers. And it's a piece of work. I can see all sorts of advantages, and I am considering its merits. Is it time for bloggers to Cover Your Ass?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:59am in Blog Management, Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Law, RSS | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3) | TrackBack (0)

Mark Felt, American Hero

Deep Throat -- the critical source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they peered into the morass of Watergate in 1972-74 -- turns out to be Mark Felt, number 2 at the FBI during that time.

I'm glad it's him. I'm glad the second ranking cop in the country looked at reality, realized the justice system was not working -- not at all -- in Watergate, and went to the press.

Nixon-apologists and convicted felons Charles Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, and Jeb Stuart Magruder, all of whom went, deservedly, and not long enough for my money, to prison for Watergate, and Pat Buchanan, who escaped any blot on his record through divine intervention (how else to account for it?), all weigh in on the 91-year old Felt.

Shame.

I believe in the rule of law, and I trust the legal system most of the time. But a White House gone amok makes its own rules, believes itself above the law. Above opinion.

Sometimes it takes a whistleblower to take folks down a peg.

Mark Felt: American Hero

Update: I added Gordon Liddy, and a link to Media Matters.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:24pm in History, Law, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (4) | TrackBack (0)

Becker-Posner See No Need for Blogger Ethics Codes, but Argue for Sales-Tax on E-Commerce

Desirable Roasted Coffee's