Stirring The Legal Pot
The Internet acts like spring cleaning for hoary legal doctrines, which must be pulled of the shelf, dusted off and looked at anew to see if they still fit this context. Several current articles illustrate the point:

The Georgia Internet libel case discussed on Law.com. The case considers whether someone "involuntarily drawn into a controversy" becomes a public figure for defamation purposes, and whether online retractions are equivalent to print ones. [Case Over Internet Insults Spurs Court's Interest]

The InfoWorld article about the Pavlovich decision pending before the California Supreme Court, tying in the ElcomSoft and Yahoo cases as further examples of Web activities forming the basis for jurisdiction in a court far from a party's physical residence or primary place of business. [via llrx]

Anita Ramasatry's commentary on FindLaw's Writ about The Constitution And Spam: Is There A Constitutional Right To Send Unsolicited Faxes And Email? Anita notes that most state anti-spam legislation appears Constitutionally sound, especially given the costs and burdens of spam:

"The burdens of spam may be much greater than those of junk faxes, for example. Sending bulk email is incredibly cheap. With a dialup connection and a PC, a spammer can send hundreds of thousands of messages per hour at only a tiny cost per email. Yet every person who receives the spam pays, in reading time, the annoyance of a clogged mailbox, and increased ISP costs."

Blawgs, In Texas
Katie points to a blog piece on the State Bar of Texas site by Chuck Lanehart. Katie is quoted about her blog and her plans for it as she embarks on her legal career. And, some highlighted bloggers from Sugar Land (Stephan Kinsella, an in-house IP specialist) and Dallas (SixDifferentWays - "I'm desperately seeking a way to merge my passion for the web, sex, travel, art, writing, shopping, makeup, film, ideas, coffee, Asian antiques, cats, music, gourmet cooking, eating, good wine, herb, e, and stout into a fierce money making machine. All suggestions appreciated." - great vintage circus graphics, too) join the blawg roll here.

DS-Swell
SBC Pacific Bell does seem to have its DSL act together, at least on the installation/set-up side. The Mac and the PC have taken to their new access like ducks to water (the Mac's so well equipped it didn't even require add-on software - just plug in the ethernet and go). And it really did only take fifteen minutes to get stuff out of the box, plugged in and online. 162 down, 108 up, says dslreports. It does make all those blogs snap to in a peppier fashion.

How I Do Love A Good Workaround
Rick Klau has been busy, figuring out how to make RSS feeds using Radio's Distiller for those who are RSS deprived, including yours truly. He has the feed for this blog available at http://www.rklau.com/tins/RssDistillerChannels/bgbg.xml. It will only update when his copy of Radio is running, which is alot. So, this is a step in the right direction until Blogger moves RSS out of the "coming soon" category. Thanks, Rick!

Airport Security Ate My Tape
Don't send your d.v. camera and tapes through airport security if you can help it. The three tapes I brought to Mexico recently are toast. They'll play in my camera but won't import to the computer. Michael and Mason with Apple were so helpful about all this, and once we figured out what was up even suggested the workaround I hope will save the footage - exporting to VCR tape then back to a good tape in the camera, then to the computer. It's unreal to talk to tech support people who (1) know what they're doing and (2) give a damn. I keep pinching myself.

Sound Advice
Beds: "Any time the judge starts telling you that your typing is flawless and your brief disciplined, suggest a new hearing date. Ask for a continuance. Faint at the counsel table. Something. Just don't let him or her rule on your case after those comments." [From this month's column, "Happy Easter; Case Dismissed," on prison inmate and would-be deity, Chad Gabriel DeKoven]