Yearly Archives: 2003

A Little Bit About Libel Law (Inspired by the Atrios affair)

Posted on October 30, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

I'm a regular reader of Eschaton, but I had a busy day, so it was something of a shock to discover this evening that he's gotten a cease-and-desist letter from some poor deluded soul who claims he's being libeled both by Atrios and by commentators on the Eschaton blog, and that half the blogs in the world have weighed in on it.

Plenty has been said about the merits, and I won't add to it. (See here for one roundup of links.)

But it might be useful to summarize some of the relevant cyber-law principles, which differ slightly from ordinary libel law. In what follows I treat the cyber-law aspects (only) of three issues: (1) Libel by a blogger; (2) libel by a commentator to a blog; (3) whether a lawsuit can force an ISP to reveal the name of an anonymous blogger.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blogs | 2 Comments

Amazing Leftist AM Radio

Posted on October 29, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Just after dropping off the kids this morning, I hit the wrong button on the car radio this morning — wait! there's a point to this story! it's not just pointless self-indulgent diaristic blogging! — and the radio flips from NPR, where it usually lives, to AM, where I never go. And I find something strange.

Local AM radio around here usually is below awful. But instead of shock jocks, or wall-to-wall ads, or mindless sports talk, or crime-and-wrecks, what I hear is a calm, measured voice, speaking in long sentences, expressing complex ideas. And the voice….the voice is saying things I thought you didn't get to say on the radio. Especially not in Florida.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miami | Comments Off on Amazing Leftist AM Radio

Welcome to the USA – Leave Your Privacy Home

Posted on October 28, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The Practical Nomad blog: USA visitor fingerprint and photo database to include travel data

Bad news for many international visitors to the USA: Most visitors to the USA, arriving at airports or seaports, who require visas

… — apparently including all transit passengers changing planes in the USA en route between other countries — will have digital photographs and fingerprint scans enterred into their “travel record” in a new database, the “Arrival/Departure Information System (ADIS)”.

It's still not clear whether any of the data the DHS is now obtaining from international airlines (in violation of European Union and other countries' laws) will be included with fingerprints and photos in the ADIS database of travel records —

Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on Welcome to the USA – Leave Your Privacy Home

Old Fashioned Politics — Throw Money To Your Friends

Posted on October 28, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

There's been a little bit of headscratching about why why the government would spend $32 million to promote the new $20 bill (noted via Eugene Volokh).

The Slate article notes the ostensible justification, “the campaign … [is] really designed to put everyone on notice that a change in currency is afoot: The new bill has some different color and design elements (to deter counterfeiters), but it's real, so don't freak out,” althought in fact free media do a fine job of that.

Funny thing is, when our city and county governments down here buy lots of ads in the local media we know exactly what's going on: they are throwing money to their friends and encouraging them to stay friendly. Naturally that could never happen at the national level.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on Old Fashioned Politics — Throw Money To Your Friends

‘Knee Defender’ Is Actually Air Aggression

Posted on October 28, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The next air war will not be over Iraq. It will be over the Knee Defender which advertises itself as a way to “protect against reclining seatbacks on airplanes – save more legroom – can help you guard against economy class syndrome – thrombosis – DV”. It's a little piece of plastic that air passengers can slip on the seat in front of them, and freeze it in place — turning every seat potentially into one of those awful immobile ones sometimes found just in front of the exit row.

Already, one airline has banned it in response to traveler complaints. What drives people to carry a plastic block onto a plane to reduce the comfort of the folks in front of them? I'd wager that in most cases it is not a concern with proper posture, nor the supposed health advantages. Rather, it's to make room for that laptop—on which it so often seems the business traveler plays solitaire and watches movies…

Actually, this would make a decent law school exam question: does the deployment of Knee Defender in order to prevent the other passenger's seat's from reclining amount to the commission of any sort of tort? [I'll bet there are no contract claims against the airlines—they have their boilerplate down to an art form.]

[PS: this lawtechguru site is worth a visit.]

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 129 Comments

Readers Shower Joshua Marshall With Donations

Posted on October 28, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Joshua Micah Marshall writes a great political blog complete with actual original ideas and investigative reporting called Talking Points Memo. The other day he posted an item asking for financial support in order to take his blogging on the road to cover the New Hampshire primary. Readers responded so generously, that in less then 24 hours Mr. Marshall was saying “I never thought I’d say this, but: No More Contributions!”. Gentleman that he is, he then started describing how he'd give some of the money above what he actually need back to the later contributors.

Now, we're only talking about $4864.00 here; I don't think this is a sustainable business model for the starving artists of the world (although things like it have been suggested), nor is it the next shot (after open source?) in an ongoing transition towards a gift-exchange model amidst a culture of satisfaction and plenty.

But it's pretty cool whatever it is.

Posted in Blogs | 1 Comment