Dry Parts Of The Earth To Ernie

Ernie, please post something as soon as you possibly can to let us know you're ok and if we can help.

Spotted 'Round Town

Bumper sticker: Talk Nerdy To Me.

Traffic pattern: dead ringers for this car followed by this car. (No way to get rear ended, it'd roll right over.)

Packaging for Diet Snapple Cranberry Raspberry: "One more name and it would sound like a law firm."

An Evident Exception To Takes-One-To-Know-One*

I spent some time yesterday talking with Internetnews.com senior editor Susan Kuchinskas about Perfect 10's preliminary injunction motion against Google filed this week. The result is her article today, A Perfect Storm of Infringement.

(*Meaning me, not Susan, who no doubt requires no exception.)

Taking Grokster To Google

Perfect 10 (Wendy Seltzer has more background and a copy of the complaint) moved for preliminary injunction against Google yesterday, arguing that Kelly v. Arriba Soft (earlier analysis) is distinguishable, and/or trumped in light of MGM v. Grokster (PDF) and related authorities. (Anyone still unclear on whether Grokster has broad ramifications beyond P2P?)

Bonus linkage.

Walk The Grok

Lawrence Lessig in Wired Magazine 13.09, A Rotten Ruling:

The real issue in the lawsuit, for those who care about innovation, was not whether Grokster was run by a bunch of angels, nor even whether the company should be allowed to continue its business. The real question was, Who gets to decide whether the file-sharing technology it promoted should make Grokster liable for copyright infringement - Congress or the courts? If the answer is Congress, then innovators at least know their enemy. Wars about liability get voted on; any resulting liability is usually prospective. But if the answer is the courts, then innovators are forever at the mercy of enterprising lawyers. It takes nothing to ensnarl a startup in death-inducing legal bills, at least when the legal standard is uncertain.

Also, Brad Hill has word of what promises to be an excellent MGM v. Grokster panel at the Future of Music Policy Summit, September 11-13 in Washington, DC.

Bonus link: Warner Music Group's Edgar Bronfman, Jr., as reported by CNN, on his company's new, online "elabel:" "We usually associate innovation with technology companies, but they aren't the only ones who must innovate. To survive and prosper, content companies must do so as well. And even our very concept of copyright must innovate."