"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

Worth1000.com, home of digital image editing contests, includes this page of Gary Larson's The Far Side cartoons brought to life (also includes several inspired Far Side "inspired" submissions).

More Re DMCA Comment Period

(Because at some point, when enough hours have gone by, I suppose one must stop appending "later" inserts to posts...) Declan McCullagh has a c | net News article today with more background on the DMCA comment period that has just opened.

Putting The "High" In "Higher Courts"

"A visit to Howard's site is like hanging out with the world's most compulsive law librarian and Jay Leno at the same time," says online journalist Dahlia Lithwick, the Supreme Court correspondent for Slate and a Bashman fan. "It goes a long way toward proving that law might actually be interesting and important to people outside the profession."

More well-deserved recognition for Howard Bashman, and also for the SCOTUSblog, is here, from Tony Mauro, who also (only incidentally, of course) does some crystal ball-gazing concerning Justice Antonin Scalia (scroll on past to "Court Blogs").

DMCA Comment

The U.S. Copyright Office wants to know: "whether noninfringing uses of certain classes of works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by [the DMCA's] prohibition on the circumvention of measures that control access to copyrighted works." [Via ILN] Comments may be submitted at this site through December 18.

[T]he initial comment period in this rulemaking specifically seeks the identification of this information [i.e., evidence supporting an exemption for a particular class of works] from proponents of exemptions. First, the commenter should identify the particular class of works that is being proposed as an exemption, followed by a summary of the argument for the exemption. The commenter should then specify the facts and evidence providing a basis for this exemption and any legal arguments in support of the exemption. Finally, the commenter may include in the comment any additional information or documentation which supports the commenter's position.

More here. But, you know, if you can't think of anything...

[Later] MetaFilter thread, with extremely well advised comments about the need for informed, well thought-out submissions, and not "behaving like a pack of howler monkeys."

[Later] More good thoughts and clarifications from Alex MacGillvary, an IP and Internet practitioner at Wilson Sonsini, a GrepLaw editor and a blogger at bricoleur. Via Donna Wentworth (who's now the second to my knowledge, after Gary Turner, to suggest I might be "the Doc Searls of blawgs" -- albeit with a less pronounced moustache. Higher praise there just ain't!). Also, apropos of Cluetrain co-authors and "les bricoleurs:"

In essence, bricolage is what tinkers do -- collecting odd bits of stuff they think may be potentially useful, then using whatever bits seem to work in the context of some later repair job. Simple. And yet profound. Because the bits the bricoleur ends up using were not designed for the use they end up being put to. Figuring out which bits to collect and how to apply them to some task at hand requires a completely different kind of thinking than the procedural algorithmic thought processes business has become so dependent upon. While the Internet may have convinced some businesses to think "out of the box," most are still not even sure what box they’re in, much less which way to turn for emergency egress. If some unprincipled individual were to yell "fire!" right about now, the entire edifice of global commerce might suddenly collapse. [Introduction to Gonzo Marketing, by Christopher Locke]

One Step Closer To A Uniform Federal Rule On Citation Of Unpublished Opinions

The Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules met in San Francisco yesterday to consider an amendment to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure initially proposed by the Department of Justice. The amendment is intended to provide a uniform rule governing citation of unpublished opinions, and was discussed in this U.S. Courts press release, and described to Congress by Committee Chair Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., last June. As mentioned previously here and on Howard Bashman's blog, there is a good deal of debate about whether, when and how parties and courts may refer to and consider unpublished judicial decisions in the process of deciding subsequent cases. (See my entries here and here, and Howard's here.)

Concerning yesterday's proceedings, San Francisco legal newspaper The Recorder reports that while the wording is not final and the amendment still is some two years away from implementation, the Committee has approved the proposed amendment in principle. According to the Recorder, the sole dissenting vote was Sandy Svetcov of Milberg Weiss; Reed Smith's Tom McGough also serves on the Committee. (The full committee roster commences at page 4 of this PDF.)