Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

State of Play III

Posted on October 6, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Caroline and I will be speaking at the State of Play III conference that begins tomorrow, so we — and the boys too — are off to New York until Sunday. Caroline is talking about financial markets in virtual worlds. My role is more in the entertainment line, as I’ve been asked to play the role of judge in “The Great Debate” — a mock trial format concerning the role of terrestrial law in virtual worlds. (Since I have rather violent views on that subject, it’s at once flattering and frustrating to be trusted to do a neutral summing up and to rule on who made better arguments. Worse, I have good friends on both sides of the debate.)

State of Play I was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended; I had to miss SoP II, so I’m looking forward to this very much. [I blogged an amusing incident from SoP I under the title How Not to Pick Up Women Online. One unanticipated consequence was an absolute horde of visitors to the site who had googled for that phrase minus the “not”.]

For State of Play I, Caroline and I wrote our first joint paper, Virtual Worlds, Real Rules (background and more background). In it we argued that Virtual Worlds would make excellent environments for subjecting various classes of proposed legal rules to near-real-world testing. It was intriguing therefore to hear on NPR this afternoon that sociologists and epidemiologists may run simulations of plague-induced behavior using games such as World of Warcraft (avian flu anyone?) — an idea that alas they do not seem to have gotten from our paper but rather from an actual virtual-life incident.

It will be the first conference in years that Caroline and I have tried to attend together, and just to make it more exciting we are taking the boys with us, also a first since when they were very very small. We have lined up a very small amount of child care, but mostly we’re going to be relying on our own, and the boys’, resources.

Trendy as all get out, State of Play III will be podcast as well as webcast.

Meanwhile, blogging may be sparse…

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 2 Comments

How to Get Ahead in Legal Academe

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Thanks to the valuable career advice in the following letter, which appeared in my mail box, unsigned, I forsee a vast improvement in my rotten citation track record:

Dear fellow law professor,

This letter has been around the world at least seven times. It has been to many major conferences. Now it has come to you. It will bring you good fortune. This is true even if you don’t believe it. But you must follow these instructions:

— Include in your next journal article the citations below.

— Remove the first citation from the list and add a citation to your journal article at the bottom.

— Make ten copies and send them to colleagues.

Within one year, you will be cited up to 10,000 times! This will amaze your fellow faculty, assure your promotion and improve your sex life. In addition, you will bring joy to many colleagues. Do not break the reference loop, but send this letter on today.

Professor H. received this letter, and within a year after passing it on she was elected to the International College of Law Professors. Professor M. threw this letter away and was denied tenure. In Japan, Dr. I. received this letter and put it aside. His article for Transnational Law Journal was rejected. He found the letter and passed it on, and his article was published that year in the International Law Quarterly. In the Midwest, Professor K. failed to pass on the letter, and in a budget cutback his entire department was eliminated. This could happen to you if you break the chain of citations.

1. Schlecht, How High is High?; A Summary of the Law of Usurious Interest Rates in High-volume Drug Trafficking 76 Colum. L. Rev. 47, 62 (1987).

2. Garrelts, Wiley Coyote and the Dynamite Sandwich: Continuing Viability of Reasonable Implied Assumption of the Risk 33 Warner L.J. 1011, 1042 (1964)

3. Ralston, Modern Approaches to Chaotic Heuristic Optimization; Means of Analyzing Non-Linear Intelligent Networks with Emergent Symbolic Structure (doctoral dissertation, University of California at Santa Royale El Camino del Rey Mar Vista by-the-sea) (1968)

4. Danielson, Getting Evidence to Stand up; Behind-the-Scenes Defense Strategies at the John Wavne Bobbitt Trial 54 Trial Defense Counselors Quarterly 127, 131 (1994)

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on How to Get Ahead in Legal Academe

Next Week Is Going to Be Good at UM

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The Padilla Event Monday night will be followed on Tuesday by a debate on “The Future of the Supreme Court” sponsored by People For the American Way and the Miami Chapter of the Federalist Society, in coordination with the University of Miami School of Law and the President’s Office of the University of Miami. Here are the details:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005
12:30-2:00 P.M.
LIMITED LUNCH WILL BE SERVED FREE OF CHARGE

University of Miami Law School,
1311 Miller Drive, Room 352

Welcome Speaker: Donna Shalala, President, University of Miami
Panelists Include:

  • Ralph Neas, President, People For the American Way

  • Edward Whelan III, President, Ethics and Public Policy Center

  • Karen Pearl, Interim President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

  • Wendy Long, Legal Counsel, Judicial Confirmation Network

  • Moderator: Maria Elena Salinas, Univision

For questions and RSVPs please contact Raquel Simon at rsimon@pfaw.org, 850-877-0307, or Clayton Hackney at CH8640@students.law.miami.edu, 305-491-1062.

I suspect the name “Miers” may get mentioned.

And no, I’m not going to turn this blog into a local calendar, it’s just coincidence.

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off on Next Week Is Going to Be Good at UM

‘Concurring Opinions’ Blog Issues a ‘Registration Statement’

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Concurring Opinions, a new blog which so far sports lawprofs Daniel Solove and Kaimi Wenger (strange bedfellows? could be interesting…) has announced itself to the world by publishing a Registration Statement, modeled, rather loosely, on the the ones firms issues when they go public.

I like it.

Posted in Blogs | 1 Comment

Padilla Event at UM Monday Night

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

There’s going to be a particularly interesting event Monday night at our law school. LAFAC and the American Constitution Society have invited Andy Patel, who is Jose Padilla’s lawyer, to speak on “Lawyering Terrorism After September 11th: Litigation Strategy in the Jose Padilla Case”. He’ll be joined by Prof. Stephen Vladeck who is also a member of the Padilla defense team. Prof. Mario Barnes will act as Moderator.

The event will be held Monday, October 10, 5:00 p.m., Room F209 here at UM Law, and there will be a reception afterwards, at 6:30 p.m., in the Faculty Meeting Room.

Posted in U.Miami | 2 Comments

Comment Spam is Getting Weird

Posted on October 5, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Today I deleted some comment spam. A daily task. But this spam, although it carried the traditional link to a commercial web site, was a bit odd. This is what it said:

No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
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No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.
No way. No comments. No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.No way. No comments.

– Sara Corner

I got about half a dozen of them.

More generally, my spam is less of a pain since I turned off trackbacks for everything but the most recent items.

Posted in Discourse.net | Comments Off on Comment Spam is Getting Weird