Mad, mad world #894226

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Copyright Now Extends To Cease-And-Desist Letters?
Apparently even the cease-and-desist letters sent to sites to inform them to stop violating copyrights are now - copyrighted. TechDirt is reporting an update to a case they first covered back in October where a lawyer tried to claim his cease-and-desist letters fell under a copyright, and thus no one could legally reprint them without his express permission. The people’s advocacy group, Public Citizen, saw this as a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and moved to stop it. Yet from the look of a press release put out yesterday by the lawyer in question, it seems the judge agreed the man’s claim. The publication of a letter can now result statutory damages for as much as $150,000 per occurrence plus attorneys’ fees that can average $750,000 through trial.

Popularity Culture

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Former New Republic Writer Charges Social Web Users As ‘Destructive’
Lee Siegal talks with Jeffrey Trachtenberg about the “malicious” thuggery with which a sizable segment of the social Web’s population collectively conduct themselves in a “destructive” fashion. The author claims “aspects of the Web…devalue serious though,” and says “popular culture has given way to popularity culture.”



getting off lightly

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Jail terms for Ghana drug girls
Two British girls convicted of trying to smuggle cocaine from Ghana to the UK have been jailed for one year each. Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both 16 and from north London, were arrested at Accra international airport on 2 July 2007. They denied trying to smuggle 6kg (13lbs) of the drug to London.
They were lucky! 12 months for 6 kilos of Charlie (worth around £350k on the street) - I've known people get longer for 6 GRAMS!