I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
The Patent Troll Lawyer Business Model
It’s no secret that patent infringement is one of the hottest areas in which to practice law these days. The inventor-friendly principles that governed the original United States Patent Office back when Thomas Jefferson ran it (though he personally wasn't too much a fan of patents) are still the law today, even though the scope of prior art in most industries has expanded far beyond the point where any patent examiner could reasonably review it, much less ensure an inventor in an ex parte proceeding fairly describes it. These days, if an inventor has enough determination, or enough funds to ... Continue Reading
Is Apple’s Dismal iBooks Author Software License Even Enforceable?
[UPDATE, February 3, 2012: Adam Reid points out via Twitter that Apple has substantially re-written their EULA addressing the concerns raised in my post. (Reid characterizes them as merely "clarifying" the EULA). Now, the EULA asserts that "If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, you may only sell or distribute such work through Apple, and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple." That puts Apple on far steadier ground — they no longer claim an exclusive license to author's works at all, but rather restrict ... Continue Reading
Blame The Supreme Court, Too, For SOPA and PIPA
Yesterday, many of the largest and most influential websites on the Internet exercised their power in our attention economy by either going entirely dark (like Wikipedia and reddit) or by prominently displaying calls to action that recommended users contact their representatives and senators about the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA") in the House and the Protect IP Act ("PIPA") in the Senate. The effort apparently worked, with support for both bills collapsing, particularly in the Senate, where even seven of the former co-sponsors of the bill renounced their support. Of course, there's a good chance some of the more dubious ... Continue Reading
Erica Simone vs Zappos: Nudity Can’t Be Copyrighted
There's an interesting dichotomy in artistic fields like photography and music in which the audience often describes art as having ineffable qualities arising from inspiration, creativity, and talent, while artists describe art like work as being the product of persistence, experimentation, and drive. Great art looks effortless but never is. Erica Simone is a photographer in New York who put together a project, “Nue York,” involving an unusual sort of self-portrait: All of the photos are of her doing every day New York activities from riding the subway, buying a hot dog from a food cart, window shopping, shoveling snow, ... Continue Reading
The America Invents Act’s Patent Reform Might Strengthen Patent Trolls
[Update: the America Invents Act passed. Interesting passage from one of the reports: "Companies like Google, Dell, IBM, Apple, Cisco, and others also applauded the bill's passage. Innovation Alliance, which represents smaller tech companies, was more muted in its response. The bill was criticized by some in Congress for favoring larger businesses." Indeed. The primary change to "first to file" and the secondary change allowing more administrative appeals benefits large companies with large budgets for patent filings. It doesn't do anything at all to help small businesses; it puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Update II: Freakonomics has a post ... Continue Reading
Examining The Outrageous Aaron Swartz Indictment For Computer Fraud
The New York Times reports: Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old programmer and online political activist, has been indicted in Boston on charges that he stole more than four million documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, an archive of scientific journals and academic papers. (Read the full indictment below.) Mr. Swartz was indicted last Thursday by the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Carmen M. Ortiz, and the indictment was unsealed Tuesday. The charges could result in up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. JSTOR's press statement is here. One of Swartz's companies, Infogami, was funded by Y Combinator ... Continue Reading
“Kind of Bloop” Gets “Kind of Screwed” By Copyright’s Statutory Damages
It's old hat to blog about the problems of copyright law (e.g., here's some of my thoughts on copyright trolls). There are over a quarter million pages discussing Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" idea. Summed up in a quote: There has never been a time in history when more of our 'culture' was as 'owned' as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now. Which brings us to Miles Davis. No poetic license is needed to say that Miles ... Continue Reading
More Selective Statutory Interpretation By The United States Supreme Court
One of the nice things about the being a Justice of the United States Supreme Court is that you never have to explain yourself. You don't have to ask questions at oral argument. You don't have to read the briefs filed by the parties, not really, because you can interpret the facts stated and arguments raised however you want. You certainly don't have to be consistent across your own opinions. In one case, you can make an argument inconsistent with the argument you made in another case. Few people will notice and, worse, fewer will care, because caring about the ... Continue Reading
Coal Cares Hoax: Free Speech & Satire vs. Trademark Liability
It was quite funny, if you're into dark humor. Yesterday a group affiliated with the prankster Yes Men set up a "Coal Cares" website which, while falsely claiming affiliation with the very real coal company Peabody Coal, offered free children’s-themed asthma inhalers to any family living within a 200 mile radius of a coal plant. They then offered up such compelling facts in "favor" of coal as: Wind Kills Wind turbines can kill up to 70,000 birds per year, or 4.27 birds per turbine per year. Coal particulate pollution, on the other hand, kills fewer than 13,000 people per year. ... Continue Reading
The HuffingtonPost Bloggers Class Action Lawsuit Won’t Go Anywhere
Writing has always been a tough business, one dependent upon unorthodox forms of compensation. Charles Dickens' novels used to come with advertisements for alpaca umbrellas and quack medical treatments. One of Toni Morrison's books was loaded with ads for cigarettes, the New York Times just put up an expensive but easily avoided paywall. Which brings us to the Huffington Post, long despised by other writers who resented its obsession with search engine optimization and by SEO professionals who resented its success in repackaging other's content. But nobody hated the Huffington Post as much as its own bloggers, the folks who generated a ton of its content ... Continue Reading
