Of Supreme Interest

A couple of tech industry issues are headed (in the first instance) and potentially headed (in the second) to the U.S. Supreme Court:

Intel v. AMD:

In this case, AMD seeks to use 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 to compel discovery of documents for use in an investigation currently being conducted in Europe for alleged antitrust violations. [SCOTUSBlog]

Intel, the world's biggest computer chip maker, is trying to beat back an attempt by rival AMD to get its hands on confidential Intel documents and pass them along to antitrust enforcers at the European Commission. [¶] AMD says the documents will bolster its claim that Intel uses anti-competitive tactics — such as illegal rebates, withholding technical information and threatening computer makers that use AMD products — to protect its market share in Europe. [the L.A. Times]

In re Aimster:

[T]he issues of law presented are:

1. Whether, under the Copyright Act and this Court's decision in Sony, Petitioner's provision of Internet service, obviously capable of noninfringing use, constitutes per se contributory infringement if there is some evidence of infringing use; and

2. If so, whether, or to what extent, a court may use its power under the Copyright Act's injunction clause to order Petitioner affirmatively to monitor and prohibit Internet communications and file attachments (encrypted by the sender and decrypted by the recipient), consistent with the Copyright Act's fair-use clause, and also with: (a) the First Amendment's speech, press and association clauses; (b) the Fifth Amendment's takings clause; and (c) the safe harbor clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. [Petition for Writ of Certiorari of John Deep, link added; via Ernest Miller and Derek Slater]

Today's New Blawg

The BlogBloke is a former litigator turned mediator, advocate, and "part-time journalist/geek." [Via the Blawg Ring] BB is also a Blogcritics contributor and has instructions for anyone seeking to add an RSS feed to a Blogger blog.

Shades Of Lexis And Westlaw

Penn State is among the first colleges to consider offering students "free" Napster access, by building the cost into a per-term technology fee. ("Getting in tune with colleges: Music services hope free downloads will lure students;" syndicated from the L.A. Times, Jon Healey) I guess law students should be happy there's no Kazaa equivalent for legal research; if there were, Lexis and Westlaw might not be so willing to underwrite student access in reliance on the paying customers they stand to gain with each graduating class.

Bring In 'Da Nuge, Bring In 'Da Funk

From the "off the deep end" department: "If voters can elect a wrestler and an actor as governor, why can't they elect a rock and roll guitar player, too? The Motor City Madman says there's a 50-50 chance he'll run." (Via the Oakland Press; link added. Don't forget your copy of Kill It & Grill It!)

Riverside Dining, Dashing

Hooray for Amazon's two new beta services: Gourmet Foods and Sporting Goods. Here's a related L.A. Times article. One of the participating vendors is Dan's Chocolates, with whom I've had good gift ordering experiences before. A few cool things about Dan's:

• Customize a chocolate box with a photo of your choice


• Send chocolate and flowers in one fell swoop


• Every sale results in a donation (percentage unspecified, unfortunately) to a charitable partner of your choice

Another great participating vendor: Mendocino Mustard.