Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Blogshares: Not Dead, Only Sleeping?

Posted on December 9, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Back from the dead? BlogShares :: Coming BACK Soon. “BlogShares should be back sometime today — DNS propogation will delay this a couple days for some users.”

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Posted in Blogs | Comments Off on Blogshares: Not Dead, Only Sleeping?

Why Gore’s Endorsement is Canny and Statesmanlike

Posted on December 9, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

All the bloggers I read are so busy finding deep meanings in the Gore endorsement of Dean that they don't give enough weight to the obvious aspects of the timing. The past 7-10 days of the Democratic contest have seen the candidates begin to go overtly negative about each other, even in TV ads. That helps Bush and hurts the eventual nominee whoever he is.

If you are Al Gore, the thing you want most out of this next election is for Bush to lose. Preferably to lose big. If Bush were to win, it could have some retrospective legitimating effect on the 2000 election. If Bush loses, and especially if he loses big, history will be brutal. If I were Gore that is what I would most want.

By endorsing now, Gore helps cement Dean's frontrunner status and cuts down on (nothing short of a Clinton endorsement can eliminate) the internecine sparring that is grist for the Republican mill in the general election. That's canny. It's also statesmanlike.

The only part of this I don't understand is the failure to make at least a courtesy call to Lieberman. One would think he was owed that, unless there is some hidden bad blood somewhere. Lieberman was not very helpful to Gore during the period after the election, while Florida was in doubt, and perhaps that has something to do with it?

Posted in Politics: US | 3 Comments

Judge Holds SCO’s Feet to the Fire

Posted on December 9, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Old news I'm just catching up on…
Sounds like justice grinding slowly forward to me: SCO Loses First Legal Round in Linux Battle

A federal [magistrate] judge told SCO it has 30 days to respond to IBM's demands for details about the Linux code SCO claims encroaches on its intellectual property.

Magistrate Brooke C. Wells said that SCO will have to answer IBM interrogatories 12 and 13, which demand that SCO produce “all source code and other material in Linux … to which plaintiff (SCO) has rights” and describe exactly how SCO believes IBM infringed these rights. The judge's order will be put into place on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

In addition, Ogden, Utah-based SCO must reveal all instances in which it has distributed Unix source code in ways that would lead to it being legally added to Linux. This ruling addresses a contention by Linux advocates that any Unix code in Linux was placed there by SCO itself.

In short, SCO will have to show IBM proof that its claimed “million lines of code” are actually in Linux, and that IBM, not SCO, was responsible for illegally placing the code there.

Which, if you've been reading your Groklaw it is exceedingly unlikely that SCO can do…

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA | 1 Comment

Three Spheres of Internet Regulation

Posted on December 8, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

What I'm thinking about today
Broadly speaking, Internet regulation today can be conceived of as involving three related spheres: Direct regulation of the internet infrastructure itself; regulation of activities that can be conducted only over the internet; and, regulation of activities which can be, but need not be, conducted over the Internet.

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Posted in Law: Internet Law | Comments Off on Three Spheres of Internet Regulation

Slashdot and Social Antibodies

Posted on December 8, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

I'm behind schedule on finishing a report, so blogging will be light until I'm done. Meanwhile, you might enjoy, as I did, Many-to-Many: Slashdot Troller and Social Antibodies. Like so much on the cool Corante site, it's interesting.

Posted in Readings | Comments Off on Slashdot and Social Antibodies

Dean’s Supporters Are What’s Best About His Campaign

Posted on December 7, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Stuff like this from Escapable Logic illustrate what's best about the Dean campaign.

I could be a ferverent supporter but for the fear that grips me. Not of “McGovernite” tendencies for they are largely mythical. Not of the possiblity that this or something equally false and dumb will be seized on by the Republican smear machine, because that's inevitable whoever the candidate is, that's been the Bush family M.O. at least since I was campaigning against them in the Republican primaries in Connecticut in 1980.

No, what scares me is that while the candidate has a gift for being quite inspirational, he also has excellent aim for his own feet. The current records flap is a minor example, but a good one….although (on third try) his recovery is not bad….

(Oh yeah, the trade stuff bugs me too, but you can't have everything.)

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on Dean’s Supporters Are What’s Best About His Campaign