Today's New Blawg

First year law student laloca writes Baggage Carousel 4 [via Catherine Berlin]. Her thought provoking post from September 29 considers "the right to bear... children?" and the fertility effects of DES.

L.A. Times On Music, Broadband

Jon Healey previews the re-release of Napster, scheduled for Thursday, and a proposal due out tomorrow from the Distributed Computing Industry Association designed to pay the music industry for works shared over P2P networks. ("New Napster to Play by Music Industry's Rules")

Jube Shiver Jr. analyzes the 9th Circuit's decision yesterday in Brand X Internet Services v. FCC (PDF), which struck down FCC rules preventing other Internet service providers from selling high speed access over cable networks. ("ISPs to Get a Crack at Cable Broadband")

Happy Election Day!

Bicoastal perspectives on the Golden State:

• Nick Denton: "Some territorial units are just not meant to be."


• Bill Maher: "We're home to Disney and Hustler, the Partridge Family and the Manson Family. [laughter] We can drink a Mudslide and a Sex on the Beach during an actual mudslide while having sex on the beach!" ([Update]: I know; unsexy.)

Courts On A Subscription Model

Why are there user fees for PACER?

In 1988, the Judiciary sought funding through the appropriation process to establish the capability to provide electronic public access services. Rather than appropriating additional funds for this purpose, Congress specifically directed the Judiciary to fund that initiative through the collection of user fees. As a result, the program relies exclusively on fee revenue.

[Link added, from the FAQ for Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), the case and docket information retrieval service for Federal Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy courts.] At $.60 per minute OR $.07 per page, I wonder if the PACER system loses money, breaks even, or turns a profit? (I'm sure this information is available somewhere...?) Regardless, I'm guessing that because a system is in place at the Federal level—even if it may not be the least cumbersome and/or least expensive available given current technology—state courts may wind up leading the way in the use of RSS as a streamlined information distribution format. Rory Perry (Clerk of the Court, Supreme Court of Appeals for West Virginia) has been at the vanguard of movements in this direction, and now offers an early draft of a resource page for courts on weblogs and syndication. [Via Ernie Svenson] Bravo Rory, I'm pointing friends in the California court system your way.

(Note too that according to Rory's sidebar, as of 10/03/03 the top Google result for courts public access is the PACER Service Center Home Page.)

October's Real Sporting Challenge

With everyone in the US singularly obsessed with baseball at the moment, a reminder seems in order that Canada has the legitimate action this month. The Rock Paper Scissors 2003 International Championships will go down on October 25 in Koolhaus, Toronto. About 1,000 of the world's best players, including athletes from the UK, six US states, and Canada, will compete for $5,000.00 (CDN) and the coveted RPS Champion of the World title (2nd place $1,500.00, 3rd $500.00). Video clips available at the site provide a preview of the drama to come. It's not too late to take a run at the title; rules and strategies are available here.