Friday, July 30, 2004

Current Legal Issues

As indicated elsewhere, this blog (probably not qualifying for status as a "blawg") will touch on various legal issues of interest. Although there are a lot of legal issues floating around at the moment (e.g. the SCOTUS Blakely decision, the pending Induce Act, the This Land Is My Land parody/satire JibJab controversy, anything Microsoft related, etc.), nothing really catches my eye. (And please excuse me for not providing more links but a few clicks into any intellectually-oriented legal blog and you'll find more to read than you can shake a stick at.)

Sure, the Induce Act is pure evil and just another means of inherently unbalanced copyright extension. Yes, the Blakely decision left many issues about sentencing guidelines unresolved. Okay, there's a controversy about JibJab's fair use defense in creating their politically-oriented parody/satire. But in all honesty, there's nothing I have to say on any of those points that hasn't been hashed out twelve times over by twelve times twelve other individuals. So if you're looking for more discussion on those issues, feel free to wade through the blawgs.

In the mean time, here's an excellent post by Eugene Volokh describing Copyright Remedies over at The Volokh Conspiracy.

And in non-legal news, here's a wiki at The Red Ferret Journal with 1 Million Free & Legal Music Tracks and a link to one online posting of the uncopyrightable 9/11 Commission Report so you don't have to buy the paperback bestseller over on Amazon. (You can download it, legally, for free!!!!!)