Public Disputes
In addition to my interest in the development of the law around hyperlinks, there was something else I found fascinating about the Dallas Morning News/Barking Dogs exchange, below: that you and I know about it. Litigants and would-be litigants swap correspondence like this all the time, but usually the only people paying attention are the parties, their attorneys and maybe ultimately a court. When attorneys begin to realize that, thanks to the Internet, their dispute-related correspondence may have a broader audience than they thought - even for writings that, unlike legal pleadings, are not part of the public record - this could have a dramatic, and positive, effect on the tenor and content of those missives.

[Later: Ernest was kind enough to email that he picked this up on LawMeme. He's rightly skeptical: people with high-profile cases already try them in the media, and the blogosphere just broadens the potential outlets and audience. I let him know my thought was that more potential exposure=more accountability=less vitriol and more careful research and reasoning. Hopefully.]

Deep Links Defended
Public Citizen has stepped in on behalf of Barking Dogs, with a response (referencing the Kelly and Ticketmaster cases) to a Dallas Morning News demand letter regarding the removal of deep links to news stories.

"[W]hat Adelman is doing seems no different that providing readers with the page number at which a story is located in your print edition. If a reader went to the local public library to find out what Belo had said about the fire, the reader would surely see more advertising if he had to start with page one and turn the pages slowly, looking at every page until reaching the page on which the fire story appears, than if he could turn directly to page 45."

More here. [via Declan McCullagh's Politech]

Visionary
Flash: Blogging Goes Corporate [Wired News, via Dave Winer]

Professor Lessig [via BusinessWeek]:

"Q: Do we need a new definition or vision of copyright and intellectual property in order for e-business to move forward?
A: We don't need a new vision. We just need to recognize what the traditional vision has been. The traditional vision protects copyright owners from unfair competition. It has never been a way to give copyright holders perfect control over how consumers use content. We need to make sure that pirates don't set up CD pressing plants or competing entities to sell identical products. We need to stop worrying about whether you or I use a song on your PC and then transfer it to your MP3 player."

Larry must prompt students to offer to polish the dean's hubcaps to finagle classroom seats. In my day, it was another Larry - Sonsini (probably still is, he had a genius for making an arid topic - securities regulations - gripping).

MSNBAOL
Noticed this morning that AOL is sponsoring The Today Show's "Where In The World Is Matt Lauer."