More Music And Media, In The Times

Both from today's Los Angeles Times business section:

John Healey, "Napster Service to Be Revived by Year-End"

"Napster 2.0 has been built from the ground up to reflect the values of the original Napster brand, which is really all about independence, innovation and consumer choice," [Roxio Chief Executive Chris] Gorog said.

He declined to disclose how much the new service would charge or what specific restrictions would be imposed on the songs it sold, which would be in an encrypted format from Microsoft to deter piracy. But he said the restrictions would be "very liberal, very easy to understand, and most importantly, they will be common throughout" — unlike the patchwork found on the new downloadable music store from BuyMusic.com of Aliso Viejo.

Jube Shiver Jr., "Focus of Media Debate Turns to Congress"

Powell had already put together the votes to pass his agenda for relaxing media ownership rules. So, the strange-bedfellows alliance turned away from the agency and focused its attention elsewhere: If they couldn't stop the deregulation train from leaving the FCC, they might be able to derail it farther down the tracks, in the halls of Congress.

Last week, their strategy paid off.

"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled appellate jurists..."

It's my humble opinion that one of the most remarkable things anyone has yet managed to accomplish with a weblog is Howard Bashman's 20 Questions for the appellate judge, monthly interviews that commenced in February this year with appellate jurists from around the U.S. (and conceivably from around the world). These interviews provide invaluable insights into the appellate lawmaking process and the people who make it work. They're detailed, thorough, and utterly free and freely accessible—no one needs to know you're an Omanian octegenarian before you can take a look.

Howard is willing to keep this up as long as appellate jurists are willing to participate, but he needs to get the word out to keep the volunteers coming. If you are a lawyer, law student, judicial clerk, or anyone who from time to time breaks bread with members of the appellate judiciary, please let them know how much you enjoy Howard's interviews and urge them to participate. I for one would love to see this continue indefinitely.

More from Howard this morning: "One week from today, I will be posting online here the August 2003 installment of '20 questions for the appellate judge.' August's interviewee is Eleventh Circuit Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat. September's interviewee will be Federal Circuit Judge William Curtis Bryson. And October's interviewee will be Eleventh Circuit Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr. [...] I am willing to keep the monthly '20 questions' feature going for as long as there are federal and/or state court appellate judges who are willing to participate as interviewees. However, if a month were to arrive for which there is no interviewee, then the feature will come to a permanent end." Let's not let that happen.

Mmm. Good Blawg.

These folks know something. And they're telling. (As you'll see too, blawgy things seem to be particularly happening in Minnesota for some reason. But then, the Star of the North has been at the vanguard of such things as pop-up toasters, so maybe this is no surprise at all.)

Political

• Ray Cox is a State Representative for Minnesota, and has a fantastic weblog about his work, life and the issues confronting the voters he represents.

Practicing

• Matt Conigliaro is an appellate lawyer with Carlton Fields in St. Petersburg, FL, and his blog is about Florida law and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.


• The authoress of frolic and detour is "an attorney/writer/wonk/critic" in Minneapolis, MN, who maintains a rich and fascinating site. [Via Jack Bogdanski]


• I've really been enjoying C.E. Petit's blog, Scrivenor's Error. (I've also been enjoying the way arcane legal jargon morphs so well into catchy titles for weblogs.) C.E. represents authors (big 'uns), and writes about copyright law from their perspective. He's a fresh voice who gets sarcasm and irony, and ain't afraid to use 'em.


• Jeanne Pi's Texas Elder Law Blawg is " a web portal to federal, state and local web information, resources and services related to Texas Elder Law."


• Mark Smith practices in Lincoln, NB, and writes the Incorporation Blog about legal and tax matters for small business owners. [Via Blawg.org]


• George M. Wallace is an attorney in Pasadena, CA, and he writes of things personal, cultural, and political at A Fool in the Forest.


• Travis A. Wise lives in Campbell, CA, and is a corporate tax attorney in the International Corporate Services practice of KPMG in Mountain View. If you're taking the California bar exam next week, it's not too late to pay a visit to his California Bar Exam Primer. [Via Blawg.org]

Learning The Craft

• Ms Anastasia Beaverhousen, aka the Lonestar Expat, is "leaving the old country for law school in the mid-west. . .do they have electricity there yet?" I couldn't say, but I can say with some assurance it's going to be fun to find out. [Via Howard Bashman]


• I certainly hope James at Hilsy Blog is having a hoppy weekend. [Via Jack Bogdanski]


• Joe Gratz is a law student who lives in Minneapolis, MN, and writes about all kinds of interesting stuff, like music sharing and ownership, law school lecture hall "backchanneling," and practicing law in the corporate arena: "[A] good deal of litigation seems to be two corporations fighting over one pile of cash. I see no reason not to help them. One is reminded of a rather cynical T-shirt slogan I once saw, which read, 'Once one understands that all of society is merely an elaborate mechanism for the movement of money from other people to lawyers, many matters which were once obscure become clear.'" [Via Blawg.org]


• Le-Gal is a "50 something mother, wife, grandmother, law student, certified webmaster, decorative artist, who is beginning a whole new life." She also pointed me to the Larval Lawyer, who's taking the Virginia bar next week and along with TCC is one of Le-Gal's faves.


• The writer in residence at Like a Blind Man attends law school at Georgetown. [Via Blawg.org]


• Shannon is gearing up for law school at Queen's University, Canada. [Via Blawg.org]


• The weblogger at Unfashionable Observations is at Stanford and writes great movie reviews, among other things. [Via Blawg.org]


• Alice W. has been expanding her (and our) horizons at Drink Me in addition to her original page for awhile now. "according to my site statistics, drink me is the site that everyone bookmarks, but nobody will link to, or even admit to reading (besides the few faithful, you know who you are)." Let's remedy that: "I'm Denise Howell and I read Drink Me!"

Giving It A Rest

• Ms. Morality is home by choice following the birth of her first child, but it sounds like her law firm sadly did not go out of its way to make that choice a difficult one. Do not miss her Realities of Being Pregnant in a Large Law Firm. ("Upon my return I was given a few short-term assignments (2-3 hours) and otherwise left to surf the internet and attend CLEs.  I researched discrimination laws.") [Via Blawg.org]

Blawgers At Large

• Snowy Blue has an inner optimist. Really! [Via the Blawg Ring]


• The Trial Practice Blog is chock full of good links and information on trial advocacy "with some appellate advocacy thrown in—real, mock, and moot." [Via Blawg.org]

Integrating

• Paul M. Bush's blog is a great resource "for researchers seeking news and information about electronic filing and public record retrieval." [Via Blawg.org]


• EDC Legal Advantage is the weblog of EDC Corporation, which provides information services for the legal field. [Via Blawg.org]

Managing The Chaos

• The paralegal weblogger at Groklaw is doing a bang-up job covering the SCO case. [Via Frank Field] Great writing about the music industry and P2P issues too.

Conglomerates

• The Blawg Review is a group project of Stephanie Tai and friends to provide a wealth of information on current legal topics, articles and discussion. Sounds like a fantastic resource.

Hey, I have a favor to ask. If you stop by here occasionally and are a blawgrollee, let me know if it's time to update where you sit/stand/fall in the massive monster. Often I put folks under Blawgers At Large if they're not yet in law school, or if they don't make it clear on their site just what the heck they're up to professionally. It's getting to be time when some on that list will start school, some in school have moved on, etc. I'll need to go through and try to figure that out soon, but it will be greatly appreciated if you are inclined to help speed the process.

Yesterday And Today In The Los Angeles Times

Today

• "The Internet Is Reshaping Bryant Story:" "Mainstream newspapers, torn between old standards and new fears of losing readers to broadcasters or cyberspace, are split over how much to tell readers about the accuser's past."


• "VeriSign Faces Suit Over Stolen Sex Site:" "The appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that Network Solutions couldn't be held liable for the theft of sex.com because Internet names aren't tangible property. By the lower court's logic, [9th Circuit Judge Alex] Kozinski wrote, the crime of 'torching a company's file room' would be treated differently from the crime of 'hacking into its mainframe and deleting data.'"

Yesterday

"FCC Rule May Bring a Veto Standoff:"

Only a few weeks ago, it appeared the administration would easily overcome the remaining obstacles to a federal rule allowing large communications companies to control a larger share of the nation's television markets.

But a sudden change in political currents, culminating in a House vote Wednesday, has left that outcome in doubt. The turnabout reflects an unanticipated swell of opposition in rural areas to a consolidation of local media and intensive lobbying by liberal and conservative interest groups against the new rule.

Wash Cycle

Rory Perry: "There's been a wash of articles this month that appear to solidify weblogs as a solid online content platform for politics, business and public information. This continued level of acceptance will hopefully enable more conservative institutions (like courts) to embrace the platform more widely." Rory's roundup.