Recently, several UES elders have called for a revision of intellectual property laws. While the range of opinions varies from outright abolition of intellectual property (Vakenhobbes, Admiral) to the reduction in the length and scope of protection (Monocrat, Matt), all seem to agree that reform is the name of the game. But hey, we are [...]
Archive for the 'Law' Category
The Devil is in the DNA
Published by December 19th, 2007 in Economics, Law and Technology & Innovation. 0 CommentsTolerance is a concept that requires balance. Taken to its extreme, the doctrine of tolerance can encompass any act, no matter how heinous. We don’t want a society that tolerant. Rather, in the United States, we want tolerance of viewpoints, ideas, discussions. Our tolerance doesn’t mean we have to like those viewpoints. It doesn’t even [...]
Meeting Overview 11/27/07
Published by November 28th, 2007 in Law, Meeting Records and Technology & Innovation. 3 CommentsThis week’s topic: Intellectual Property Rights & Music Piracy
AB: Anybody who illegally downloads [here, d/l's] music should have his computer forfeited and be sent to jail. Without a trial.
MM: That’s a bit harsh. Lawsuits count the songs people have illegally distributed and fine them that way. That sounds good, although it overstates their losses.
SC: The [...]
The estate tax repeal is “off the table” apparently.
America’s Prisoner Dilemma
Published by November 19th, 2007 in Economics, Law, Miscellaneous and Policy. 0 CommentsThere is a study that has just been published by the JFA Institute on America’s prison/incarceration dilemma. It cites a report by PEW Charitable Trust which states that “under current sentencing policies the state and prison population will grow by another 192,000 prisoners over the next five years. The incarceration rate will grow from 491 [...]
Funniest Tax Avoidance Story I Read Today
Published by November 18th, 2007 in Law and Policy. 0 CommentsFrom a new paper (”Reforming the Gift Tax and Making it Enforceable“) by Mitchell Gans and Jay Soled that mostly heaps a lot of love on the Gift Tax and wants to stick it to all those rich people who “deserve” to be punished for avoiding it (emphasis added and comments in brackets):
Some commentators, however, [...]
Criminally Negligent in Legal Education
Published by November 18th, 2007 in Economics and Law. 0 CommentsWe spoke briefly after last meeting about how there were somehow criminal penalties for copyright infringement, and I have written recently about the extraordinary lengths the US will no go to in prosecuting such infringement at the behest of the entertainment industries. I then went berserk about how public education is criminally negligent for producing [...]
Constitutional interpretation, Part I: Of queermo rabbits and grocery lists
Published by November 4th, 2007 in Entertainment & Culture and Law. 0 CommentsWhile this is a topic belonging more to Admiral’s formidable legal mind than my layman’s reasoning, I feel compelled to write and take comfort from Locke’s stance on the power of reason over the Law.
In the foofaraw over wizards who ride their brooms sidesaddle and oral-fixated rabbits, one Columbia-based law professor took the opportunity [...]
The Supreme Court: Sources of Law
Published by October 11th, 2007 in Democracy, History and Law. 2 CommentsOne of the issues constantly vexing constitutional scholars is the role that foreign sources of law should play in jurisprudence, especially the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence. These days, it seems that enlightened liberals generally argue that foreign sources can very well be persuasive sources of law. We can imagine examples where they might be persuasive, in [...]
Direct v. Representative Democracy
Published by October 9th, 2007 in Democracy, Law, Policy and Politics. 3 CommentsThis afternoon I attended a cool event hosted by UF’s Graduate Program in Political Campaigning called “Direct Democracy in the Sunshine State,” at which Rod Smith (former Florida State Senator and Jim Davis’s primary opponent in last year’s gubernatorial race), Mark Wilson (Executive VP of the Florida Chamber of Commerce), Mark Herron (a prominent attorney [...]
What Gov’t Can Do, We Can Do Better, Part III: Art Trade
Published by September 27th, 2007 in Economics, Entertainment & Culture and Law. 1 CommentWhile we would not wish to live in a world without laws, and a great deal of them are borne of the best intentions, it seems as though sometimes laws have unintended consequences. Broadly speaking, I suspect that the Import/Export laws of various countries throughout the world may also have some unintended consequences. As examples, [...]
Many UES members have gone into the legal profession, including myself. Here’s an interesting note of some importance for UESers and non-UESers alike from the very popular blog Overlawyered:
The market currently reflects a private-public pay gap reflecting the fact that public jobs are generally considered to have better working conditions and that private-sector law firms [...]
A Little Piece of Australiana, Part I: Electoral System
Published by September 6th, 2007 in Democracy, International Affairs and Law. 1 CommentAustralian politics are in the news. Prime Minister John Howard is trying to keep his Liberal Party afloat, but it looks as if the electorate has decided it is time to go. In every election, Howard has had to come from behind to win. And while it is premature to write the Howard government’s obituary, [...]
Parallels between China and U.S., Part II
Published by August 28th, 2007 in East Asia and Law. 0 CommentsFollowing up on the last post, there’s another terrific post on the China Law blog (linked to China Briefing) that cuts to the same point: it’s difficult to secure property rights if there are huge barriers to acquiring deeds/title or doing business in the country. China Law’s Dan Harris says:
It makes my blood boil because, [...]
Parallels between China and U.S., Part I
Published by August 27th, 2007 in East Asia and Law. 0 CommentsThe “US in 1887 = China in 2007″ meme is rippling through the blogosphere and I thought we should do our part. The idea is basically that these two countries, around the years listed (+/- several decades) are actually very much alike in terms of various consumer protections and intellectual property rights. Stephen Mihm, assistant [...]
