Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 9:07AM Meet University of Richmond School of Law student Brandon Rash, author of the EEJD Blog: "The 'EE' stands for electrical engineering, and the 'JD' stands for juris doctorate..."
Monday, February 21, 2005 at 9:04PM If you've been following along at home, then you know:
So, I dropped off a few things to be auctioned, and they're starting to make their way online. The first is a scanner that was highly reviewed by California Lawyer's Sandra Rosenzweig, which is probably why I went overboard and bought two, one for the office and one for home. Though it's a fine product it turned out I didn't need both, so this little item has a starting bid of $9.99, roughly 30x less than its cost. It's a good bargain, have at it, bidding closes in six days.
Perhaps more important and almost certainly more interesting, I continue to be fascinated by what my neighbors are unloading. Hookha, anyone?
Monday, February 21, 2005 at 5:35PM I was listening to Dave Winer's 2/18 Morning Coffee Notes, and he's more than a little exercised about Google's AutoLink. I haven't downloaded the updated toolbar or seen it in action, but I'm getting an idea of what AutoLink does thanks to Dan Gillmor and others. Aside from competition related legal considerations (thanks, Tom, for the pointer), I smell a copyright brouhaha. (Yes, sorry; we see lawsuits, the dead people come later.) Why? Listen to Dave's podcast. He's ticked about his writing being altered without his permission and saying an "opt out" is in order. And read the Rogers Cadenhead post he points to today: "Autolink edits Web pages, making subtle inline changes to text while presenting them at their original URLs, which implies the original author created the transformed work." (That smacks of trademark trouble too, methinks? Yep, as Marty ponders, and he discusses the potential derivative work issue as well.)
I think this is something that hasn't been addressed in the post-Feist linking cases. Linking to a Web page is one thing; adding unauthorized links to a Web page is another. Anil Dash makes the "Rip, Mix, Burn" analogy, which is probably apt on some level and just underscores the copyright issues — 321 Studios, for example, lost at trial and went out of business before it could pursue its appeal.
Monday, February 21, 2005 at 8:30AM I had to laugh when I saw "SpAudio, The World's Greatest Underwater Symphony" on a late night commercial. Sounded like some godawful conflation I might throw out.
(Woah, can you believe that? 299,000 hits for "blawg.")
Friday, February 18, 2005 at 7:57PM An iSold It store opened up about a month ago not far from where I live. Interested in what denizens of the real OC are auctioning off? Here are the store's listings. Unsurprising: lots of golf clubs, a ship in a bottle, BMW headlights, a rhinestone studded evening bag in the shape of Old Glory, The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan on a mug. Must be visiting from L.A.: Rocky Horror Picture Show dolls, Born to Ski trolls.
The concept and ramifications of this kind of business model fascinate me. For starters, it must dramatically increase eBay's inventory. The flipside: it must hurt donation-dependent charitable organizations that might otherwise receive people's cast-off loot. (Not to mention the emotional toll this must take on garage sale junkies.) It also has to be a huge boon to bargain hunters. I have the feeling the sellers using these services are almost always looking to lighten the load with a minimum of effort, and that any return is pure gravy, more than they thought they would realize. Thus, they're probably more willing than most eBay sellers to start the bidding low and not set a reserve.
