Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, an Ohio company, says its website utube.com gets more than 2 million erroneous clicks a month from persons who don’t realize how to spell the name of the hit shared-video site. “The lawsuit asks that YouTube stop using the youtube.com domain name or reimburse Universal Tube for the cost of establishing a new corporate identity.” (Elinor Mills, CNet, Nov. 1; Matthew Sussman, BlogCritics, Nov. 1).
Archive for November, 2006
“City of nannies”
Once Hog Butcher for the World and City of the Big Shoulders, Chicago has suddenly emerged as a hothouse of fussily paternalistic legislation aimed at such things as foie gras, trans fats and smoking in cars. “What did they put in the Chicago water supply?” (Miriam Gottfried, Forbes, Oct. 30).
Two more hot coffee lawsuit data points
Add the Stony Brook University Hospital cafeteria to the list of servers unsuccessfully sued over burns caused by hot coffee. If you recall, the theory of the McDonald’s coffee case (and repeated by such trial lawyer defenders as congressional candidate Bruce Braley) was that McDonald’s, and only McDonald’s, served coffee so hot as to burn. For some reason, the reporter for the New York Law Journal tries to leave the reader with the impression that the original Stella Liebeck case was justifiable (though that opinion is irrelevant to the article itself) which shows how successful trial lawyer propaganda has been within the legal community and press. (John Caher, “N.Y. Judge Cool to Injury Claims Over Spilled Coffee”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 2). We earlier listed other hot coffee lawsuit defendants.
Speaking of which, you may recall the Russian McDonald’s coffee case litigation that we covered a year ago, with identical allegations from a woman who spilled coffee on herself; the press is reporting that the plaintiff has dropped her case. As in the Stella Liebeck case, the Russian McDonald’s had a warning on the coffee cup that the contents were hot. (“Moscow McDonald’s coffee-spill case closed”, RIA Novosti, 1 Nov.).
Snap a picture, break a contract?
You may imagine that you’re buying a Canon EOS-1D camera, but all you’re buying is actually a license to use it part of what you’re buying is a license to use its software, and a fairly restrictive license at that. “If you let anyone outside your immediate family use the camera — if you lend it to a friend for the weekend or even ask a stranger to take a picture of you and your wife — Canon could technically sue you for breach of contract.” (Clay Risen, “Shutter Bug”, The New Republic, Oct. 31).
Casualties of Title IX
They’ve set up a group called the College Sports Council, and are rallying today in Washington, D.C. (Jessica Gavora, National Review “Phi Beta Cons”, Nov. 1; Steve Nearman, “Title IX enforcement hits James Madison hard”, Washington Times, Oct. 29)(more).
Kudos to Judge James T. Warren
Paul Theodore Del Vacchio is the worst kind of gambling addict—the kind that isn’t very good at gambling. He stole $500 thousand from his casino employer, and sought mercy from the court on the grounds that his addiction made him do it to cover gambling losses. (Well, he also bought a $20,000 pool for his 2700-square-foot home.) No dice:
“There are a lot of people addicted to gambling who don’t steal anything. They get themselves in debt, sure. They may lose everything. They may lose their family. They may lose their house. They may lose their cars, but they don’t steal….
“We can’t let everybody who comes in here and wants to use an addiction, whether it be compulsive gambling, whether it be compulsive drinking, whether it be drug addiction, we can’t as a society let them utilize that as a method of getting out of their wrong acts. You know, it’s like my saying I’m addicted to beautiful women and fast cars, so I get to steal from the court’s trust account….
“He’s here because he’s a thief. He’s a thief. That’s the bottom line. He’s a thief. And he needs to acknowledge that, not use the gambling as a crutch. He let down his family. He let down his friends. He let down his employer. He let himself down. But the bottom line is he’s a thief, and he needs to be punished for being a thief.”
Del Vacchio got the maximum sentence of four years. (Ashley Powers, “A gambler with a disorder, or just a plain old thief?”, LA Times, Nov. 1).
Mick Jagger’s sore throat
Following the cancellation of a Rolling Stones concert in Atlantic City, N.J., a would-be class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of a disappointed concertgoer (who is the wife of the attorney, Martin Druyan) demands $51 million for the cost of nonrefundable hotel tickets and the like. The baby-sitters were expensive, too. (Jose Martinez, “Brooklyn Stones fan seeks 51M of satisfaction”, New York Daily News, Oct. 31)(via Lat).
Cheaters’ delight
“We have found that graduate students in general are cheating at an alarming rate and business-school students are cheating even more than others,” concludes a study by the Academy of Management Learning and Education of 5,300 students in the U.S. and Canada. …
However, what’s holding many professors back from taking action on cheaters is the fear of litigation.
(Thomas Kostigen, “Survey: M.B.A.s Are The Biggest Cheaters”, MarketWatch/ CareerJournal.com, Oct. 25; Al Lewis, “Wily MBA students lead cheating pack”, Denver Post, Oct. 2).
Demand to FTC: ban Zillow.com valuations
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a coalition of community activist groups, has charged free-home-valuation site Zillow.com with undervaluing homes in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. “It urged the F.T.C. to start an investigation and permanently restrain Zillow from providing home value estimates.” (Damon Darlin, “A Home Valuation Web Site Is Accused of Discrimination”, New York Times, Oct. 31).