StephanKinsella.com

Nymex Suit Pushes Copyright Envelope explains that Nymex claims it has copyright in its prices–despite the fact that prices are simply exchange ratios–that is, facts–and copyright protects original expressions of ideas, not mere facts.

“Right and Wrong: The copy-right infringement,” by John Bloom, Nov. 22, 2002, National Review Online, makes a decent argument that the Bono copyright law’s extension of copyright terms is unconstutional because this violates the Constitution’s provision that Congress can grant copyright for “limited times”. I’m still doubtul the Supremes will overturn the law, but if they buy reasoning like Bloom’s, maybe they will. Who knows.

It might benefit journalists who write on IP issues to ask an IP attorney to read over their final draft, however. Bloom writes that copyright means this: “Whoever creates something that has never been created before has the exclusive right to copy it. […] It’s not the person who registers it with the Library of Congress. It’s the person who does it first. Just the act of creation makes the right kick in.”

Bloom is quite right that there need be no registration to obtain a copyright; it is granted automatically to the author of an “original work,” the moment the work is “fixed” in a “tangible medium of expression. But he is wrong to imply that “doing it first” is really relevant for purposes of copyright. He seems to be confusing patent law with copyright law. A patent to an invention is awarded only if the inventor applies for it. It is not granted automatically. And, two independent inventors of the same invention cannot both receive a patent on it: the first inventor (with certain technical exceptions) is the one who wins, in case of a dispute.

But nothing in copyright law requires that one be the first author of an original work; the only requirement is that one be an actual author of an original work, and that one did not simply copy it from someone else. In theory, if two people were to independently create the same work, at different times, each has a copyright in it. Now this is extremely unlikely, so the “first” person to create it is usually the only copyright owner. But it is not his being first that matters, but simply that he is a creator of an original work that is fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

“Soi-disant” and “manque” (both terms pretentiously used in recent blog posts on Ex Parte, the Weblog maintained by the Harvard Law School Federalist Society). Gimme a break. More annoying/pretentious words.

Or so says Fred Reed, in a column of the same title in the Washington Times.

From Challengers hope to beat three incumbent judges, Houston Chronicle, Oct. 20, 2002:

Three incumbent Republicans are being challenged in their bids for re-election to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest appellate court for criminal cases.

[…]In Place 1, incumbent Tom Price faces Democrat John W. Bull, Libertarian Stephan Kinsella and Green Party nominee Robert C. “Rob” Owen.

[…] Kinsella, a Houston attorney, said there should be no hesitancy by appeals judges to overturn unconstitutional laws. He said the current court often “sides with the state because it’s run by mainstream (political party) judges.”

From Court candidates could steer path of criminal justice: 3 posts contested on court weighing life or death decisions, Dallas Morning News:

The Place 1 race pits incumbent Judge Tom Price against Democratic Municipal Court Judge John W. Bull of San Antonio. Also on the Place 1 ballot are Libertarian candidate Stephan Kinsella and Green Party candidate Robert C. Owen.

Judge Price said he didn’t want to lose a close race between the two major parties because of votes going to third-party candidates. He is focusing his efforts on personal appearances and direct mailings to those on voting lists from the Green Party and the Libertarians.

More info here.

Patent Absurdity: Ending a drug company scam, by Ronald Bailey (ReasonOnline, October 23, 2002) describes the clever manipulation of the patent and federal drug regulatory system by drug manufacturers to fend off competition from manufactuers of generics. Other IP articles and resources available here.

Nothing political catches my eye lately for me to comment on–so I’ll pass along a fantastic recipe, Chicken Big Mamou Pasta. This is a great dish I had many times from the now-defunct Magnolia Cafe cajun restaurant in Philly (yes, Philly). The recipe was published in a local paper and I have used it many times. The copy linked above has a few of my own modifications I’ve made to the recipe over the years.

1. GoToMyPC.com: lets you access your home (or work) PC from any other PC having an internet connection; works very well, and is faster than PCAnywhere. About $20/month.

2. mail2web.com: A great (and free) way to access your email on the road. Again, all you need is Internet access, your email address, and your email password. Mail2web figures out the POP3 etc. stuff.

3. j2.com: For emailable/web-accessible faxing. You can get a free fax number on which to receive faxes (which are then instantly emailed to you as an attachement). The free service gives you an out-of-area-code fax number, but who cares? If you pay about $5/month for j2lite, you can send faxes too, from email, from the web, or from the “print” function of most applications. It’s great.

Steve Gillmor’s latest InfoWorld “Ahead of the Curve” column, We the People …, contains some provocative thoughts on the legitimacy of intellectual property–comparing it, in some ways, to Prohibition. IP has outlived any usefulness it once had, the author quoted by Gillmor argues.

LEAGUE TABLE OF HUMOUR “We asked everyone participating in LaughLab to tell us which country they were from. We analysed the data from the ten countries that rated the highest number of jokes. The following ‘league table’ lists the countries, in the order of how funny they found the [following] jokes […]”. My favorite: “A patient says: ‘Doctor, last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my mother-in-law and wanted to say: “Could you please pass the butter.” But instead I said: “You silly cow, you have completely ruined my life”.'”

There’s No Stopping Them: Perpetual motion is alive and well at the U.S. patent office, October 2002 Scientific American.