Speaking of Islamists, yesterday the fundamentalist formerly known as Cat Stevens caused a London-to-Washington flight to be diverted to Maine: The plane was already in the air when US officials identified that the singer, whose name is now Yusuf Islam, was on one of their “watch lists”. United Airlines Flight …
Read More »Tag Archives: Law and Rights
Lessons From Israel and Terrorists Next Door
I would say this speaks volumes (registration required) about taking the fight to the enemy. When Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov visited Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on September 6, he had planned to complain about the usual litany: the stalled road map, Israel’s security fence, and the recently announced expansion …
Read More »3 Notes and Runnin’: Sample Ruling Protest
Power to the people – right on. Another online protest, and this one I am behind 100%. As I mentioned rather vehemently here, the ruling against NWA for violating copyright in the use of a three-note UNIDENTIFIABLE sample from Funkadelic’s “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” is a disaster. Downhill …
Read More »Judge Tears Discover Card a New One
If I were not an educated, reasonably articulate, pushy asshole who is willing to get on the phone and browbeat these vicious leeches, this could easily have been me at various points in my life, including a credit crunch situation we had not all that long ago: In a six-year …
Read More »A “Sample” of Bad Law
This ruling is foolish, counterproductive, counterintuitive, and shows an egregious lack of understanding of what sampling actually IS: A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that rap artists should pay for every musical sample included in their work — even minor, unrecognizable snippets of music. Lower courts had already ruled that …
Read More »Jacko: When Does Smoke Equal Fire?
At what point – or perhaps the question is, IS there a point at which all this smoke indicates the presence of an underlying fire which must be actually extinguished rather than simply contained? Can all of this really be the result of parasites, gold diggers, and misunderstandings? I find …
Read More »Jacko Denied Bail Reduction
Interesting insight into the Michael Jackson case in the form of a denial from the judge to a petition from Team Jacko to reduce bail: In a written ruling, Judge Rodney Melville cited the pop singer’s vast wealth as the reason for not reducing his bail. He also mentioned a …
Read More »Watching Your Felonious Ass
England is trying out a system of satellite monitoring of repeat offenders and pedophiles, tracking their dead asses as they go about their felonious affairs; well actually hoping to prevent further felonious affairs. While the civil libertarian in us may feel the impulse to leap up and cry “invasion of …
Read More »I’m Telling the Secret Service
The Secret Service is VERY touchy these days about things like political protests, potentially possibly implied threats, and the like. Have you seen this flapdoodle about Indymedia publishing the “Phone numbers, addresses, and e-mails of over 1600 RNC delegates“? Apparently the Secret Service perceives some kind of threat in this …
Read More »JibJab Prevails
We told you about the legal wrestling over the use of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” in JibJab’s presidential election animated film parody. JibJab wins: On Tuesday, Ludlow Music agreed to allow JibJab to distribute its film, which is based on the tune, without interference. Also Tuesday, JibJab …
Read More »