Civ Pro / Fed Courts Blog

My colleague and friend Robin Effron, along with Adam Steinman (a colleague of Tim’s) and Cynthia Fountaine of Texas Wesleyan, has launched the Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog. Not only is Robin an expert on civ pro, but she also has the only set of major philosopher action figures I’ve ever seen…
Update: The action [...]

Is $22,500 Per Song Unconstitutional?

The guns in RIAA v. Tenenbaum have gone temporarily silent; now, there’s post-game analysis and preparations for the next phase: challenging the jury’s award of $675,000 in damages ($22,500 per song, at 30 songs). Ben Sheffner’s Billboard column gives a great summary of the fight. Tenenbaum’s side will claim that the Copyright Act’s statutory damages [...]

Mickey Kaus Discovers Section 230

Yep, it’s all Section 230, all the time here at Info/Law! Makes for a nice change from filtering. Mickey Kaus writes about the threat by Sarah Palin’s attorney to sue anyone defaming her, and also those who republish such defamation. He’s astonished to learn that Section 230 could shield him and other bloggers. (I’d presume [...]

Minnesota Backs Down

Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety has withdrawn its effort to compel the state’s ISPs to filter ~200 gambling Web sites, in the face of a lawsuit filed by iMEGA. State officials are maintaining a brave (poker) face, along with some bad analogies – they claim not to have “folded their hand.”  John Willems – the [...]

How Drunk Can You Be and Still Drive a Supertanker?

Pretty drunk, apparently. The key issue is whether you’ll drive it well, or instead plow into a reef and spill millions of gallons of oil into a fragile ecosystem.
My friend and colleague Colette Routel has written an amicus brief on the Exxon case (that’s the Exxon Valdez case). She’s also explained the case to the [...]

Another Nasty Divorce: Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia, and Big-Time Football

The Detroit Free Press’s Shawn Windsor has written a great piece on the nasty contract dispute between Rich Rodriguez, the new football coach at the University of Michigan, and his former employer, West Virginia University. (Disclaimer: he talked with me about the contract dispute, and kindly sent me the current set of filings in the [...]

Failed Marriages, Round Two: If At First You Don’t Succeed…

8 April 2008: The Berkman Center’s Citizen Media Law Project has kindly posted a description of this dispute.
then try contacting my boss! [See analysis of the latest order in the case, above.]
Recently, I wrote a post on Garrido v. Krasnansky, where a Vermont family court judge ordered the husband in a divorce case to take [...]

More Thoughts on Facebook’s “Social Ads”

My post from yesterday on Facebook’s Social Ads program got picked up by bloggers at the New York Times and CNet, so I’ve heard some more feedback than usual. Here’s a few more thoughts on the issue in response to themes emerging from the conversation:

All Eyes on Duluth

[UPDATE: As expected, the jury found liability for copyright infringement and awarded the recording industry $222,000. That is considerably less than the $3.6 million in damages theoretically available, but still represents a win for the RIAA. It will be interesting to see if this discourages other defendants from fighting through to trial.]
The [...]

DiMeo v. Max Affirmed

Earlier this week I taught the case of DiMeo v. Max in civil procedure. As Derek explained the district court ruling last year in this space , it was both a funny opinion and also a clear explanation of the federal-law immunity that certain web sites enjoy for user-generated content that might otherwise give [...]

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