Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Sanctions Order in Prenda Law Case

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Judge Otis Wright issued a doozy of a sanctions order against Prenda Law, the notorious copyright trolls.

I could have done without the Star Trek references, but given the overall context of the case, footnote five did make me laugh long and loud.

Normally, I worry that when Judges try to write creative orders they are reversal bait. In this case, the conduct appears to be so bad, and the punitive sanctions mild in context, so I don’t think that’s a major risk.

Ars Technica has been all over this story if you need background. The transcripts of the hearings are amazing reading.

Update: JT points me to the font of all things Prenda, Popehat.

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA | Comments Off on Sanctions Order in Prenda Law Case

Sears Still Can’t Deliver

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Tung Yin familiar.

Posted in Shopping | 1 Comment

Good Stuff Happens

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Two good things happened yesterday:

• The bill to provide a large public subsidy for the refurbishment of the the Miami Dolphin’s stadium died in Tallahassee. The combination of outrage over the fiasco of the Miami Marlins deal, and the fact that the team’s lead owner is a multi-billionaire seemed to scuttle it.

• Chartwell’s workers (UMiami dining hall workers) voted to unionize.

Posted in Florida, U.Miami | 6 Comments

Kevin Drum Is Shrill

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

House Republicans Have Completely Melted Down:

Apparently there are now two groups of Republicans in the House. First, there’s a group of firebrand conservatives headed by Eric Cantor, which, as near as I can tell, is mostly dedicated to finding slightly more slippery language to sell its usual right-wing agenda of school vouchers, block granting Medicaid, increased tax credits, and gutting labor laws. Second, there’s a group of insane, frothing-at-the-mouth conservatives who think of Cantor as Nancy Pelosi’s lapdog and are basically uninterested in anything other than repealing Obamacare, slashing taxes even more, ending the welfare state, and making speeches about how Obama is destroying America. It’s quite a little group that John Boehner has up there.

What put him over the edge? Could it be this? No, that was about the Senate.

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Kevin Drum Is Shrill

Yet Another Law School Ranking

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Given the source — AbovetheLaw.com — I would have been prepared to dismiss it out of hand. But Brian Leiter, who is a very discerning consumer of rankings, says that that the “ATL Top 50” is “not nuts and contains some useful information”. Coming from him, that is fairly high praise.

U.Miami Law comes in at 49th on the list — considerably higher than our usual US News rank, and right near the middle of the range (41-55) I would put us at if I were Ratings Czar. And Yale is #1, so they got that right too.

Posted in Law School, U.Miami | 1 Comment

Britt Blaser Wins ‘Law Day’

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

The attempted rebranding of May Day as ‘Law Day‘ by anti-communist Cold War legislators never took off. I think the idea of a ‘Law Day’ isn’t bad (although isn’t every day law day?), but as a piece of counter-programming it has always been both too half-hearted and rather tone-deaf.

But in the true spirit of the occasion here’s a vaguely law-related May 1st post from Britt Blaser: Hooray, Hooray, The First of May!.

Posted in Law: Practice | Comments Off on Britt Blaser Wins ‘Law Day’