shouting loudly

On November 3, Malachi Ritscher set himself on fire near a Chicago expressway in protest of the Iraq war. Police couldn’t definitively identify him for days. A friend later got a package in the mail with an explanation, a will, and a key to Ritscher’s apartment. The story hit the AP on November 26, and [...]

You think the credit scoring system isn’t Big Brother enough? Wait until Monday, when the Department of Homeland Security rolls out its “Risk Assessment” scores for travelers. See this EFF link for more on this nefarious plot. Like the “No Fly” list, you’ll be unable to see where you stand (does this post add to [...]

Here’s a new website for the new DMCA exemption for film & communication professors. Hosted by the Annenberg School and Penn Film Studies professor Peter Decherney, the site links to all the official documents concerning the exemption. If you’re reading this blog, the exemption is probably not news to you. Here’s why this new site [...]

The US, along with the UK, is a common law country, meaning the judicial branch has fairly wide powers to interpret the law. This is actually the basis of exemptions for fair use; long before the 1976 Copyright Act, courts had spent decades insisting that copyright didn’t prevent all unauthorized uses. In civil law countries, [...]

First former presidential candidate Mark Warner appeared in the online MMORPG Second Life. Now, Judge Posner will do the same. I’m so wonky that this actually makes me want to join.