Legal

bfwebster on March 12th, 2008

[UPDATED 03/14/08: In fairness to Gov. Spitzer, I'll note that this article in the New York Times today says that Spitzer has claimed to his aides this week that he used prostitutes "only in the past eight months", which directly contradicts the press reports citing sources that claim that Spitzer had been using prostitutes either [...]

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bfwebster on March 8th, 2008

Here in Colorado, we’ve had on-going trials involving the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front (ALF and ELF — how cute!), a group that practices domestic terrorism in support of their environmental goals. The coverage of the trial reads as though it were taken from the plotline for a mediocre contemporary novel or [...]

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bfwebster on February 28th, 2008

In case you’re not aware, Microsoft is being sued for allegedly setting misleading levels of hardware compatibility for “Vista Capable” computers. In other words, the suit claims that Microsoft knowingly set low levels of Vista-compatibility for hardware, even though many of the computer models so designated would not be able to run anything above Vista [...]

Continue reading about The Vista fiasco, continued

bfwebster on December 18th, 2007

Drew Carey (yes, that Drew Carey) does a penetrating look at the use of eminent domain to push out established businesses for developers — and one city (Anaheim) that it taking a very different approach: Hat tip to OpinionJournal.com. ..bruce w..

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bfwebster on November 20th, 2007

“Space for all people” may sound nice, but who establishes (and enforces) the rule of law? I’m a very simple man, and here’s my simple understanding of property law: say I’m a solar-farmer on the moon, just selling my electrical output to them city-folk across the ridge at the spaceport. Pirates, who’ve mutinied against the [...]

Continue reading about Thinking seriously about space piracy

bfwebster on August 24th, 2007

OK, I don’t drink (at least, not alcohol), but as a long-time fan of Law and Order, I found this proposed drinking game both funny and dead-on. Example: The Defense serves Jack or Cute Assistant DA with a Motion to Dismiss – Another very common one. Honestly, I’m a little shocked if I don’t see [...]

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bfwebster on July 30th, 2007

The best war journalism going on right now is not being done by the major news organizations, but by independent journalists such as Michael Yon and Michael Totten. Here’s Totten out with US troops in Baghdad, trying to find a person of interest: The area did appear to be nice, billowing plastic bags notwithstanding. Every [...]

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bfwebster on June 22nd, 2007

I just ran across this article by Annalee Newitz about an on-going intellectual property lawsuit (Columbia v. Bunnel) involving peer-to-peer downloads. In this suit, Judge Jacqueline Chooljian has ruled that anything that exists in computer memory (“RAM”) has left an historical record, however briefly, and is therefore subject to discovery: Here’s where things get hairy. [...]

Continue reading about The Demolished Firm

bfwebster on June 9th, 2007

The Honorable Gregory R. Todd corrects a thief’s spelling and then gives him a dose of his own medicine. Hat tip to the Volokh Conspiracy. ..bruce..

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bfwebster on March 5th, 2007

The always-erudite and readable Mark Steyn traces the surprising and convoluted history of one of the best-known songs of the 20th century: The third take almost collapsed at the outset as the unrehearsed musicians dithered and fished for the key, but once they started cooking, the song was glory bound. ‘Mbube’ wasn’t the most remarkable [...]

Continue reading about The Lion Sleeps Tonight