Tim Parks has an interesting article on copyright over at the New York Review of Books Blog. (Parks concentrates almost exclusively on copyright for literary works and does not mention movies or software executables.) There are some interesting observations in it, which lead up to a puzzling conclusion. Roughly, copyright law is indispensable because itContinue reading “Tim Parks Overrates the Indispensability of Copyright Regimes”
Category Archives: Law and Legal Theory
Richard Epstein’s Overdetermined Critique of the Roberts Ruling
Richard Epstein offers an interesting critique–based on the alleged inseparability of the power to regulate commerce and the power to tax–of John Roberts’ ruling in the ACA case. If it’s not an activity the government can regulate, then it’s not something the government can tax either. Thus, Justice Roberts should have struck down the individualContinue reading “Richard Epstein’s Overdetermined Critique of the Roberts Ruling”
Bill Keller and Some Elementary Confusions About Technology and Privacy
Bill Keller argues for a national identification card, urging Americans to ‘get over’ their fears about its abuse: You might start with the Social Security card. You would issue a plastic version, and in it you would embed a chip containing biometric information: a fingerprint, an eye scan or a digital photo. The employer wouldContinue reading “Bill Keller and Some Elementary Confusions About Technology and Privacy”
Justice Roberts is Playing a Long Game
Time now to tabulate the damage done by yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in National Federation of Independent Business et al. vs Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services et al. While Justice Roberts has made himself look extremely distinguished, statesmanlike, non-partisan, and touchingly concerned about his place in posterity, an appraisal that I’m sure he was soakingContinue reading “Justice Roberts is Playing a Long Game”
Posner, Apple v. Motorola, James Watt, and the Steam Engine That Couldn’t
Having brought up ‘intellectual property’ yesterday, I figured it might be a good idea to follow-up with a couple of related notes today. First, some interesting news: Judge Richard Posner has ruled that the Apple v. Motorola patent infringement case be dismissed in its entirety. Apple had accused Motorola of violating four of its patents; Motorola hadContinue reading “Posner, Apple v. Motorola, James Watt, and the Steam Engine That Couldn’t”
Nietzsche’s ‘Robber-Genius,’ the Public Domain, and Intellectual Property
‘Intellectual property‘–and its rather ludicrous understanding of it by our modern legal and political regimes–is often a concern of mine on this blog. To this end, I have, for instance, noted David Mitchell’s recounting of the provenance of his novel Cloud Atlas and Schopenhauer’s caustic remarks on the influence of copyright on writing. My choiceContinue reading “Nietzsche’s ‘Robber-Genius,’ the Public Domain, and Intellectual Property”
Geertz on Comparative Anthropology and the Law-Fact Distinction
(Continuing my series of notes on Clifford Geertz’s Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, Basic Books, New York, 1983; earlier notes appear here and here.) Geertz’s Local Knowledge: Fact and Law in Comparative Perspective (first presented as the Storrs Lectures for 1981 at Yale Law School; an online version is available) should be essential reading for philosophers of law.Continue reading “Geertz on Comparative Anthropology and the Law-Fact Distinction”
Should Latin America End the War on Drugs?
Should it? That’s the question asked in today’s ‘Room for Debate’ over at the New York Times. Well, depends. Only if it does not want to persist in its present commitment to the expensive, counterproductive and catastrophic-to-civil-liberties course of action that the United States is currently pursuing. The real question–as most would acknowledge–is not whetherContinue reading “Should Latin America End the War on Drugs?”
Leave the Sports Fans Alone, Go Get the Protesters
In writing on Quebec’s heavy-handed crackdown on the continuing student protests (“Our Not So Friendly Northern Neighbor”, International Herald Tribune, May 23 2012), Laurence Bherer and Pascale Dufour note the generally well-behaved demeanor of the protesters: Since the beginning of the student strike, leaders have told protesters to avoid violence. Protesters even condemned the small minority of troublemakers whoContinue reading “Leave the Sports Fans Alone, Go Get the Protesters”
The Scandal of Closed Access to Taxpayer Funded Research
On January 21, Timothy Gowers of Cambridge announced he would no longer publish papers in Elsevier’s journals or serve as a referee or editor for them. This boycott has now been joined by thousands of other researchers. (I don’t referee any more for Elsevier, though I have in the past, and I certainly won’t be sending any papersContinue reading “The Scandal of Closed Access to Taxpayer Funded Research”
Samir Chopra 