October 12 roundup

In Scotland, car repair shop faces music royalty suit because its employees listen to radios on the job [BBC] Pediatricians grill kids about their parents’ drinking, gun ownership and antisocial habits — what, weren’t the hairdressers reporting back enough dirt for the authorities to work with? [Malkin, Szwarc] Watch out for the new ADA Restoration […]

  • In Scotland, car repair shop faces music royalty suit because its employees listen to radios on the job [BBC]
  • Pediatricians grill kids about their parents’ drinking, gun ownership and antisocial habits — what, weren’t the hairdressers reporting back enough dirt for the authorities to work with? [Malkin, Szwarc]
  • Watch out for the new ADA Restoration Act of 2007, which would reverse several Supreme Court precedents with the aim of making it easier to file and win suits [Bader]
  • Don’t confuse Hollywood’s idea of lawyering, as in Clooney’s “Michael Clayton”, with the real kind [Lundegaard, MSNBC]
  • “It costs millions of dollars in litigation fees to show that a patent should not have been granted, and most big corporations have learned that the hard way.” [Chachkes @ CNet]
  • Banning all uses of lead from metal assemblies can result in “tin whiskers” leading to catastrophic failures in electronic devices — lucky those aren’t dangerous or anything [AP]
  • Armenian-American writer Garin Hovannisian isn’t an admirer of the Congressional genocide resolution [Boaz @ Cato-at-Liberty; see also Jul. 27]
  • Lynchburg, Va. woman: hey, I invented those pre-moistened cleaning wipes [News Advance via VLW]
  • Don’t listen to trolls like this Olson fellow [Mark Thoma comments]
  • Another round of coverage on libel tourism, SLAPPs and terror-support research [Broyde & Lipstadt @ NYT; Miller @ City Journal, Levitt @ The New Republic]
  • New at Point of Law: Ted on yet another iPhone suit, this time demanding a billion plus; further coverage of the Hofstra/Lynne Stewart affair; after many failures, lawyers score a $143 million verdict against Wyeth over hormone replacement drug Prempro/Premarin; more on the U.S. Navy, WWII and asbestos disease; new Irvine law school’s in the money; and much more.

6 Comments

  • Says the Armenian-American writer, “Truth does not need a permission slip from the state.”

    Not so in many European countries, where (Jewish) Holocaust denial laws forbid open discourse on that topic. The permission slip is only granted for certain versions.

  • i wish we didnt have any lawyers and could just settle all of our disputes with guns and rocks.

  • So, in Scotland, playing a radio where anyone could hear it is a copyright violation?

    Wish all those with rolling boom boxes here in the states could be so charged…

    A lot of bass response actually makes me feel ill.

  • Regarding the Armenian matter, why is it the US government’s responsibility to care? Even the World Court has no real jurisdiction, why should a national legislative body from a nation that wasn’t even at war with either Armenia or the Ottoman Empire have any?

    This is one of those debates that makes me ask whether they have anything better to do. Isn’t there some Texas judge they could debate impeaching that day?

  • Re-BBC Radio Story: If this is music broadcast over the radio, hasn’t the radio station already paid the royalties for public performance?

    Sounds like the UK version of RIAA wants to double dip.

    Man, I thought RIAA was greedy. OY!

  • If the only option besides mutual agreement was Guns or Rocks, we would reach mutual agreement more often.