<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329</id><updated>2026-02-14T00:52:49.697-08:00</updated><category term="Law"/><category term="Schadenfreude"/><category term="Blawg Review"/><category term="Current Events"/><category term="Crime"/><category term="Defies Classification"/><category term="Technology"/><category term="Sports"/><category term="A Round Tuit"/><category term="Random Thoughts"/><category term="Worthy Causes"/><category term="Unsilent Partners"/><title type='text'>Infamy or Praise</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;redirect=false'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;start-index=26&amp;max-results=25&amp;redirect=false'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>1274</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-873084799056967152</id><published>2013-11-03T21:01:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2013-11-03T21:28:33.590-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Blawg Review"/><title type='text'>Blawg Review #325.12</title><content type='html'>I was a fairly new blogger when Blawg Review #1 linked to one of my posts. Soon afterward, I began suggesting posts for and promoting each week&#39;s edition. Ed. asked me to host and I politely declined, noting that I had a fraction of the blogging experience most of his hosts had, and none of their intellect. Ed.&#39;s next message informed me -- even more politely -- that I was scheduled for the following February, allowing me a few months to develop both experience and intellect. It was the shape of things to come, as in the three years or so that we worked together on Blawg Review, he never took any of my no&#39;s as anything but an invitation to convince me.&lt;br /&gt;
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As February neared, Ed. thoughtfully bumped me up to December, figuring that my experience and intellect were about as good as they were going to get by that point. I quickly demonstrated otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
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While the pixels on the previous week&#39;s Blawg Review were still warm, Ed. began sending me posts to read, prompting me for the theme of my Blawg Review, and encouraging me to get started composing it. I told him that I was having trouble deciding between two equally-awesome themes -- should my Blawg Review be about obscure holidays or holiday parades? Perhaps because he was unable to find a less hopeless host on such short notice, Ed. suggested that I instead consider a Dante-themed Blawg Review, in keeping with my blog&#39;s title.&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#39;m sure that wasn&#39;t the first time Ed. rescued a host from the perils of his own folly; I know that it wasn&#39;t the last.&lt;br /&gt;
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As &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt; approached its first anniversary, it had already outlived most of the other blog carnivals which began around the same time. Most had petered-out after a few editions when pools of hosts and contributors dried-up, or descended into rank self-promotion as hosts elevated themselves above their blogging communities. Ed. didn&#39;t want either to happen to &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt;, so in addition to doggedly seeking new hosts and continuing to shepherd the posts each week, he asked a few people to join him as &quot;Regular Contributors&quot;; I agreed to become one of them. Thus we continued for nearly another year, until the survivors amongst us became &quot;Sherpas&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
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Feeling a bit nostalgic at the moment, I&#39;d like to return to those early days when I was a &quot;Regular Contributor&quot;. We were tasked with finding and summarizing at least five links relevant to the host&#39;s theme, or which were otherwise worthy of Blawg Review treatment. Here goes, then, one last time:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.popehat.com/2013/10/24/cathy-gellis-wins-pro-bono-victory-against-u-k-defamation-subpoena/&quot;&gt;Cathy Gellis Wins Pro Bono Victory Against U.K. Defamation Subpoena&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/2013/10/part-of-texas-online-solicitation-of-a-minor-statute-unconstitutional.html&quot;&gt;Part of Texas Online Solicitation of a Minor Statute Unconstitutional&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/sexting-a-minor-isnt-a-crime-in-texas.htm&quot;&gt;Sexting a Minor Isn’t a Crime in Texas&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, and &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/10/31/to-tell-the-truth-1st-amendment-edition/&quot;&gt;To Tell The Truth, 1st Amendment Edition&lt;/a&gt;&quot;:&lt;br /&gt;
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Several posts this week celebrated the achievements of practitioner-bloggers -- those who don&#39;t just talk, they &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt;. Ken White commended Cathy Gellis, who, on a pro bono basis, successfully quashed a subpoena by which a libel tourist, Gobat, sought to unmask an anonymous critic. White wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;Mr. Gobat&#39;s lawyers&#39; response was a model of blustering entitled outrage, demanding sanctions against Cathy and excoriating her. How &lt;i&gt;dare&lt;/i&gt; she!&lt;br /&gt;
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She dared, and she won. After Cathy&#39;s reply, and a lengthy hearing at which the judge (to quote Cathy) &quot;took the better part of the hour expounding on all the due process problems requiring him to quash the subpoena,&quot; the judge quashed the subpoena. Far from granting Mr. Gobat&#39;s attorneys&#39; demand for sanctions, the judge granted fees and costs to Cathy.&lt;/blockquote&gt;As a fellow Bay Area resident, I&#39;m very glad that she&#39;s helping to keep our fair shores hostile to &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; particular form of tourism.&lt;br /&gt;
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Mark Bennett did what many other Texas defense attorneys didn&#39;t think to do for their clients charged under the &quot;dirty talking&quot; portion of their state &quot;online solicitation of a minor&quot; statute -- he challenged the constitutionality of the provision and won:&lt;blockquote&gt;The uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ity of the statute is a no-brainer. In fact, in light of &lt;i&gt;Edwards&lt;/i&gt; the Court of Crim­i­nal Appeals (and I, in my briefs) arguably gave the State too much lee­way by apply­ing strict scrutiny rather than a purely cat­e­gor­i­cal test.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Amongst many other bloggers and journalists, Venkat Balasubramani noted Bennett&#39;s advocacy and lauded the court&#39;s decision:&lt;blockquote&gt;This is a very careful and thorough opinion that should go on the reading list of any state legislator or staffer working on this type of legislation. It’s a good illustration of the proposition that if other statutes already cover the problem you are seeking to target, you may not have an easy time justifying a new overlapping statute against a First Amendment attack.  Also, post-Alvarez, if content does not fit within a category of traditionally unprotected speech, legislators face challenges regulating it. Particularly when there are criminal penalties involved, courts will rightly scrutinize the statute carefully. Statutes directed at many online torts of recent vintage are probably susceptible to this type of a challenge, in particular those directed at online harassment and revenge porn.&lt;br /&gt;
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The ruling strikes a chord in that it permits sexualized communications between an adult and minor that are not obscene or solicitative, even if there is some intent to arouse on the part of the adult-sender. Perhaps the transmission of this type of information alone is harmful, but as this case shows, that justification will not necessarily fly with a court that is vigilant on First Amendment issues.&lt;/blockquote&gt;The First Amendment has been at the heart of an ongoing debate between a law professor, Mary Anne Franks, and her many critics in the legal blogosphere. Franks has been a leading advocate for &quot;revenge porn&quot; laws, which would criminalize a particular form of &quot;bad&quot; speech she finds especially distasteful. In her view, prohibiting such &quot;bad&quot; speech isn&#39;t repugnant to the First Amendment; a considerable number of well-known legal bloggers vehemently disagree. As Scott Greenfield notes, many of those critics -- including the aforementioned Mark Bennett and Ken White, Eugene Volokh, Marc Randazza, and Greenfield himself -- &quot;are all lawyers who have actually practiced law, fought First Amendment cases, and won&quot;, unlike, it seems, Ms. Franks. Greenfield writes:&lt;blockquote&gt;When you read and consider arguments, and find yourself being swayed by the free use of words like “scholarship” to convince you that someone who puts professor before their name must know what they’re talking about, consider whether someone’s intellectual abilities and reasoning have been tested by the crucible of the legal system or whether they just write stuff to fill the empty pages of hundreds of unread law reviews.&lt;br /&gt;
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To tell the truth, would you rather rely on the opinion of a lawyer who has actually fought and won First Amendment cases, or someone who has accomplished nothing and relies solely on the attributed credibility that comes with claiming to be a scholar while telling the lawyers who actually win cases that they are idiots compared to her brilliance?&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://koehlerlaw.net/2013/10/relevant-material-probative/&quot;&gt;Relevant = Material + Probative&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://windypundit.com/2013/10/physical-reality-and-the-federal-rules-of-evidence/&quot;&gt;Physical Reality and the Federal Rules of Evidence&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, and &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://koehlerlaw.net/2013/10/why-the-truth-doesnt-matter-at-trial/&quot;&gt;Why The Truth Doesn’t Matter At Trial&lt;/a&gt;&quot;: Prompted by a post by Jamison Koehler on materiality and probative value under the Federal Rules of Evidence, Mark Draughn and Jeff Gamso discussed the seeming incongruities between &quot;facts&quot; as these are in the real world and the &quot;facts&quot; argued in courtrooms. Draughn proposed a more scientific approach:&lt;blockquote&gt;The idea is that the jurors should examine the factual assertion in question — “John shot James” for example — and then construct its logical negation (called the “null hypothesis” in science) that John did not shoot James, and assume for the moment that it is true. Now, for all the evidence presented at trial, they should consider how likely it is that that evidence could exist if their null hypothesis “John did not shoot James” was true.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
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So perhaps it would be more scientifically accurate to say that evidence is probative only if its the probability of its existence would be higher or lower depending on the truth or falsehood of the fact in question.&lt;br /&gt;
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I can’t help noticing that this bears a similarity to the theoretical definition of the information content of a message....&lt;br /&gt;
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So maybe we could say that evidence is probative only to the extent that it is surprising or unexpected in the context of the facts in dispute. For example, if John lives next door to James, the eyewitness who saw him driving by James’s house is a lot less unexpected, and so has less probative value. And the music selection on John’s iPod is no more or less surprising regardless of whether John killed James, so it’s probably irrelevant.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Gamso suggested that at the heart of the perceived disconnect may be the rules&#39; terminology choices:&lt;blockquote&gt;The trouble with “fact” is that it’s conclusory. That is, every fact is true. If a fact were false, it would not be a fact. Therefore, the existence (whether present, past, or future) of every fact is true....&lt;br /&gt;
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What Rule 401 is actually addressing is whether one or another piece of evidence makes more or less likely that something which must be proved to the satisfaction of the “finder of fact” (that is, the believer in chief) will be proved to the believer’s satisfaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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The rule as written would make far more sense if instead of “fact” it referenced the particular thing at issue.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Having prompted the kerfuffle, Koehler returned to add his thoughts:&lt;blockquote&gt;Whenever criminal charges are brought, there is always an objective and presumably knowable truth as to what really happened.  If you had superpowers, you could turn back time and hover above the events as they took place and learn for yourself what really happened....&lt;br /&gt;
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But that objective truth is rarely, if ever, introduced at trial.  The finder-of-fact – be it a judge or a jury — learns what happened not through direct observation but through the imperfect testimony of equally imperfect human beings.  Memories fade.  Perceptions skew.  Minds rationalize.  People have agendas.  And everything the fact-finder learns is shaped through manipulation by the lawyers, with each side attempting to push the finder-of-fact toward its version of the truth. There are degrees of truth, and variations of the truth.&lt;br /&gt;
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The objective truth tends to yield to the more believable truth, and, because to the winner go the spoils, that believable truth then becomes the accepted truth when the verdict is delivered....&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/10/new-conflict-on-ru-486-abortions/&quot;&gt;New conflict on RU-486 abortions&lt;/a&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/11/a-split-ruling-on-birth-control-mandate/&quot;&gt;A split ruling on birth-control mandate&lt;/a&gt;&quot;: Though this week&#39;s Blawg Review is a celebration of Ed.&#39;s contributions to the legal blogosphere, I&#39;d like to digress for a moment to celebrate Lyle Denniston&#39;s contributions as well. I&#39;ve done so on a few occasions and he very considerately -- and unnecessarily -- thanked me for my words of praise. The fact is that he&#39;s one of the few reporters, online or off, who both understands the workings of our highest court and can explain these to lawyers and laymen alike with remarkable clarity. To say that the man&#39;s a treasure to the online legal community understates both his value and his audience; he&#39;s simply indispensable, and not only to legal folks, but to anyone who wants to know what the Supreme Court&#39;s words &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; mean. In a pair of posts this week, Denniston discussed cases addressing different aspects of this nation&#39;s unending debate over abortion. One post concerned a ruling on a Texas law limiting the use of the RU-486 drug:&lt;blockquote&gt;That ruling conflicts directly with a decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday that it would be unconstitutional to bar doctors from using the simpler and less expensive method of medical abortions throughout the first nine weeks of pregnancy.  The Oklahoma court ruling was filed with the Supreme Court Tuesday night, responding to questions that the Justices had raised last June in agreeing to hear a case on the constitutionality of a 2011 abortion-regulating law in Oklahoma.&lt;/blockquote&gt;In a second post, Denniston reported a DC Circuit decision which may add another case to the Court&#39;s increasingly-crowded docket of health care mandate challenges:&lt;blockquote&gt;Taking a split approach, the D.C. Circuit ruled on Friday that profit-making corporations cannot make a religious challenge to the new health care law’s mandate that workers get birth-control and related medical coverage; however, if the firm is owned by only a few individuals, they can challenge it to defend their own religious objections, and they may well win.  The two major parts of the ruling split the three judges in differing ways.&lt;br /&gt;
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The Supreme Court already has three cases awaiting its attention on the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate — with differing outcomes in lower courts — and the somewhat unusual approach taken by the D.C. Circuit on Friday may simply add an additional impetus for the Court to take on the issue in the current Term.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://&quot;&gt;If They Violate Your Privacy in the Woods, Do You Make a Sound?&lt;/a&gt;&quot;: Drama is often represented by Greek masks of tragedy and comedy. While the proceedings of a Congressional hearing are often dramatic, it&#39;s sometimes hard to tell whether a particular one is more tragic or comedic. Kevin Underhill tends to focus his blogging on the comedic side of the law, but a recent exchange during hearings on the NSA&#39;s appallingly-extensive online domestic spying is tragic in many ways. Representative Mike Rodgers, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a leading NSA apologist, argued that &quot;Somebody whose privacy was violated. You can&#39;t have your privacy violated if you don&#39;t know your privacy is violated.&quot; Professor Stephen Vladeck, on the panel being questioned by the Committee, couldn&#39;t just play along with his co-panelists and let the idiot have his say; he replied, &quot;I disagree with that. If a tree falls in the forest, it makes a noise whether you&#39;re there to [hear] it or not.&quot; Underhill had this to say about Rodgers:&lt;blockquote&gt;So the fact that no one has complained about their privacy being violated means that no one&#39;s privacy is being violated, and if they aren&#39;t complaining because they don&#39;t know it&#39;s being violated then they have nothing to complain about, do they?&lt;br /&gt;
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Again, this guy is in charge of an &quot;intelligence committee.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;Underhill felt it necessary to embed a C-SPAN excerpt of the exchange &quot;to prove it actually happened&quot;, which suggests that this particular Congressional drama was neither comedy nor tragedy, but farce.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;Ed. always played-down his own role in &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt;, preferring to highlight the many bloggers who linked to each week&#39;s edition, those who suggested posts to guest hosts, and, of course, those hosts themselves. He was justifiably proud of the 324 Blawg Reviews published under his watch, and probably would&#39;ve loathed Blawg Review #325 because it focuses on him. Despite the recognition of the legal community for his achievement in creating &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt;, he sometimes suggested that &quot;someone&quot; would&#39;ve done this if he hadn&#39;t. I don&#39;t think anyone would have, frankly. &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt; was what it was for as long as it was because of Ed.&#39;s character.&lt;br /&gt;
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Many years ago, Ed. wrote to me:&lt;blockquote&gt;It&#39;s been fun working with all the interesting lawyers, law students and professors who blog. I feel like a concert conductor who&#39;s been given the best orchestra in the world to conduct. I just stand up there and wave my arms around, and it comes out pretty good -- considering I can&#39;t even read music.&lt;/blockquote&gt;There is no &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt; without its conductor and though lawyers, law students, and professors will continue to blog and discuss the law online, Ed.&#39;s passing marks the day our music died.&lt;br /&gt;
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Now we&#39;ve had our say and, in keeping with tradition, I&#39;ll conclude Blawg Review #325 with &lt;a href=&quot;http://blawgreview.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-memoriam-final-blawg-review.html&quot;&gt;a link back to the &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt; site&lt;/a&gt;, where this all began.&lt;br /&gt;
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Thank you, Ed., for everything.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/873084799056967152/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/873084799056967152' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/873084799056967152'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/873084799056967152'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2013/11/blawg-review-32512.html' title='Blawg Review #325.12'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-8285187993944271070</id><published>2013-10-30T10:50:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2013-10-31T13:36:01.637-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Blawg Review"/><title type='text'>Farewell to Virgil&#39;s Virgil</title><content type='html'>This morning, a cursory glance at the sites and Twitter feeds of what remains of the once-vibrant legal blogosphere conveys not only some very sad news -- the passing of the anonymous Editor of &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt; -- but also some indication of the tremendous impact he had on the legal blogging community.&lt;br /&gt;
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It&#39;s fair to say that my own blogging was inextricably linked with &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt;, that &quot;Carnival of Legal Blogging&quot; which Ed. established and nurtured for many years. I was privileged to not only write several Blawg Reviews, but to work with Ed. for much of &lt;i&gt;Blawg Review&lt;/i&gt;&#39;s run to source material for guest editors and to manage the upkeep of the carnival&#39;s main site. As a guest editor, I was deeply honored to have been given four &quot;Blawg Review of Year&quot; awards. Ed. was unfailingly generous with praise not only for my posts, but for many others&#39;. To the extent my reviews were somehow more notable than the dozens of others who contributed throughout each year, that wasn&#39;t because Ed. deemed them to be so in his end-of-year awards, but because he made them so through his behind-the-scenes contributions, guidance, and encouragement.&lt;br /&gt;
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He was as charming (and challenging) in person as he was online. I had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions over the years and will treasure those memories. My condolences go out to his family and my thanks, as always, go to Ed. I acted as &quot;Virgil&quot; in guiding readers through my Dante-themed Blawg Reviews; in the shadows, anonymously and without fanfare, Ed. was Virgil&#39;s Virgil. Farewell, Ed.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/8285187993944271070/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/8285187993944271070' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8285187993944271070'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8285187993944271070'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2013/10/farewell-to-virgils-virgil.html' title='Farewell to Virgil&#39;s Virgil'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-1027748379441410027</id><published>2012-03-04T15:30:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2012-03-04T15:36:04.000-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Defies Classification"/><title type='text'>George Rises (and Falls)</title><content type='html'>As my good friend Charon QC noted this morning, he and I have written and recorded another in our occasional series of &quot;West London Man&quot; satires. You can hear the recording of the latest episode, &lt;a href=&quot;http://charonqc.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/west-london-man-26-the-adventure-of-the-final-problem/&quot;&gt;&quot;The Adventure of the Final Problem&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, at his site.&lt;br /&gt;
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As you might suspect from the title, this edition of George&#39;s escapades is an homage to the famous Sherlock Holmes story of the same name. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle&#39;s Holmes stories have been popular since their publication and the character is even more popular at the moment, what with the outstanding BBC &lt;i&gt;Sherlock&lt;/i&gt; series and not-quite-so-outstanding Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law movies. Of course, West London Man (26) will probably end this Holmes Golden Age. Regardless, it was a distinct pleasure to write and record once again with my friends Charon and George; I hope that you enjoy &quot;The Adventure of the Final Problem&quot; as much.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Charon posted a link to this episode&#39;s script along with the recording. I&#39;ve included a link to that script below, together with links to the other three episodes he and I co-wrote:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/YBNNi&quot;&gt;West London Man (23): Half-Baked Alaska&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/7Uvaa&quot;&gt;West London Man (24): Diamonds Are Not Forever&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/JVXtB&quot;&gt;West London Man (25): The La Guardia Archipelago&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/LJqBo&quot;&gt;West London Man (26): The Adventure of the Final Problem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/1027748379441410027/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/1027748379441410027' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1027748379441410027'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1027748379441410027'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2012/03/george-rises-and-falls.html' title='George Rises (and Falls)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6631393650190783409</id><published>2011-11-08T17:00:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2011-11-08T17:00:02.891-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Defies Classification"/><title type='text'>Review: Law &amp; Peace: The BabyBarista Files</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvOBkuF0bhLkHNnPZpcuNQlgBiR2S9bsq3mMYR_JIDoKOWVXo3xqxs87gCeQHUA6qzajolVS1hMS-tyA2xEj9U8qjPmrEGTZheu_G485XT75RzMPNT9mKMTiSaThGiX3-ktVVcw/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;LawAndPeace.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;604&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
A couple of years ago, I reviewed and recommended Tim Kevan&#39;s first BabyBarista novel, &lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-babybarista-and-art-of-war.html&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;BabyBarista and the Art of War&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;blockquote&gt;This is a book worth reading; it&#39;s entertaining and insightful, building upon the best aspects of the much-praised BabyBarista blog and providing greater depth and color (or should that be colour?) to its characters and stories. It&#39;s not a flawless novel, but it&#39;s well worth your time.&lt;/blockquote&gt;In the second volume of &quot;The BabyBarista Files&quot;, entitled &lt;i&gt;Law &amp; Peace: The BabyBarista Files&lt;/i&gt;, Kevan demonstrates his growth as a novelist. &lt;i&gt;Law &amp; Peace&lt;/i&gt; is as engaging as &lt;i&gt;Art of War&lt;/i&gt; and its crisper plotting will likely make it more enjoyable for those who are less familiar with the idiosyncracies of the English bar&#39;s pupillage and tenancy system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While readers of his earlier work will already be acquainted with the motley crew of supporting characters around protagonist BabyBarista, those who haven&#39;t read &lt;i&gt;BabyBarista and the Art of War&lt;/i&gt; (or as it was retitled later, &lt;i&gt;Law and DisOrder&lt;/i&gt;) and don&#39;t follow BabyB&#39;s adventures online at either &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/baby-barista-blog&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Guardian&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or Kevan&#39;s own &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.babybarista.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;BabyBarista&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; site shouldn&#39;t be deterred. His convention of referring to all but a few characters by nicknames allows us to follow the story without referring back to the character descriptions preceding the first chapter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As before, BabyB is an earnest figure who often does the wrong things for the right reasons. Struggling with the debts accumulated in putting him through his schooling and pupillage, this time out he becomes entangled in the unscrupulous schemes of a greedy solicitor, SlipperySlope, and of OldSmoothie, a barrister in his own chambers. As he finds himself out of his depth in their self-dealing and cynical plotting and targeted by TopFirst, a rival whom he bested in &lt;i&gt;Art of War&lt;/i&gt;, BabyB relies on his wits to see him through. Ultimately, however, it&#39;s his at times discounted, if never entirely discarded moral character which both enables his success and makes it worth cheering.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As was the case with the first novel, &lt;i&gt;Law &amp; Peace&lt;/i&gt; is, in essence, a morality play. Various figures embody ideals whereas others are evils who tempt or persecute BabyB in this allegorical story. That and the novel&#39;s point-of-view narration allow BabyB to always remain the focus of this story, but it necessarily shortchanges characterization for many of the supporting players. We learn more about some of the characters from the earlier novel and learn enough about those introduced in this one, but none of them are especially deep. They represent types, characteristics, and challenges, but they have little existence beyond acting upon BabyB for good or ill. The continuing adventures of BabyBarista are a &lt;i&gt;Pilgrim&#39;s Progress&lt;/i&gt; for the legal set; unlike that famous work, thankfully, BabyB&#39;s progress is never a humorless slog.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In reviewing &lt;i&gt;Art of War&lt;/i&gt;, I wrote that its ending was &quot;a bit too abrupt and convenient&quot;. &lt;i&gt;Law &amp; Peace&lt;/i&gt; builds to a sudden, sweeping resolution of its various plotlines, but the result is much more in keeping with the narrative to that point and thus is more satisfying. As before, Kevan was kind enough to send me a copy of his novel for review and, as before, I&#39;m glad to send another copy on my own dime to a friend, an expat Geordie lawyer, rather than part with my own.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;m looking forward to BabyB&#39;s next novel-length adventure, though I think Kevan will be hard-pressed to come up with a fiction to rival some real shenanigans involving the English bar. Anyone who reads BabyB&#39;s stories of his own and others&#39; misfeasance and malfeasance and thinks that these are simply unbelievable need look no further than today&#39;s newspapers. If, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/07/news-world-investigator-spy-lawyers&quot;&gt;as is alleged&lt;/a&gt;, a prominent lawyer for the now-defunct &lt;i&gt;News of the World&lt;/i&gt; had a hand in the hiring of investigators to gather dirt on the private lives of lawyers representing phone hacking victims, can BabyB&#39;s next adventure possibly be &lt;i&gt;outrageous enough&lt;/i&gt; to rival reality?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Law &amp; Peace&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
By Tim Kevan&lt;br /&gt;
Bloomsbury Publishing (2011)&lt;br /&gt;
Paperback (300 pages)&lt;br /&gt;
£6.95 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.co.uk/Law-Peace-BabyBarista-Tim-Kevan/dp/1408814218/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320772907&amp;sr=8-2&quot;&gt;Amazon.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;)</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6631393650190783409/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6631393650190783409' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6631393650190783409'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6631393650190783409'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/11/review-law-peace-babybarista-files.html' title='Review: Law &amp; Peace: The BabyBarista Files'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvOBkuF0bhLkHNnPZpcuNQlgBiR2S9bsq3mMYR_JIDoKOWVXo3xqxs87gCeQHUA6qzajolVS1hMS-tyA2xEj9U8qjPmrEGTZheu_G485XT75RzMPNT9mKMTiSaThGiX3-ktVVcw/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-1271250216142095151</id><published>2011-11-03T12:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-11-03T12:00:27.104-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="A Round Tuit"/><title type='text'>Drowned</title><content type='html'>For several weeks now, I&#39;ve anticipated writing this post. One would think that amidst that anticipation would be a touch more preparation. There wasn&#39;t, so I&#39;ll apologize in advance for the stream-of-consciousness which follows.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three months ago today, I posted &lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/gone-fishing.html&quot;&gt;a &quot;Gone Fishing&quot; message&lt;/a&gt; in place of what should have been the sixty-fourth edition of my supposed-to-be-weekly &quot;A Round Tuit&quot; series of legal blogging reviews. At the time, it was a combination of a spike in workload, a flurry of family obligations, and a blogging malaise which prompted me to take what I figured would be a one- or two-weeks-long break from the series. As workload has eased (most weeks) and those family obligations have also become more manageable (most weeks), only that malaise has persisted. It&#39;s overdue for me to acknowledge that Round Tuit drowned on his fishing trip.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In years past, the legal blogosphere has been characterized by quality commentary and insight (&lt;i&gt;Infamy or Praise&lt;/i&gt; notwithstanding, of course). Recently, however, I and others have noted that it&#39;s become more difficult to find the wheat amongst the chaff. I wrote at some length about it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2010/09/round-tuit-43.html&quot;&gt;A Round Tuit (43)&lt;/a&gt;, around a year ago:&lt;blockquote&gt;Whereas earlier entrants were driven by their desire to communicate their own ideas and experiences and engage with others, most newer entrants are driven by other concerns. The marketeers weren&#39;t here in the beginning; the legal blogs built to maximize SEO values and composed of scraped content or content written by non-lawyers weren&#39;t here in the beginning; the BigLaw blogs, which ably summarize current legal issues but usually don&#39;t offer much perspective and don&#39;t attempt to engage with other bloggers, weren&#39;t here in the beginning. They&#39;re all here now, and their sheer numbers have diluted the legal blogosphere to the point that, on the whole, it&#39;s no longer characterized by the substance and engagement it once was. It&#39;s a Happysphere because a significant portion of it is comprised of blogs without substance, disengaged bloggers, and happy marketeers. Criticism is absent because it gains these players nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;ll admit to more than a little frustration of late with the state of things. Is this a thing worth continuing? Into my sixth year of doing this, one would think that I have some answers, but I don&#39;t. I honestly don&#39;t. Part of my frustration stems from my somewhat vested interest in a healthy legal blogosphere. I&#39;ve spent a number of years here trying to do what I could to see that new readers could find bloggers who had something meaningful to say, a clear voice with which to say it, and enough backbone to criticize and be criticized in return. There are still many, many bloggers who fit that bill, but it seems that neither they nor I can hope to hold back the tide. With a vested interest comes a loss of perspective, I fear.&lt;/blockquote&gt;This morning, &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/11/03/the-third-wave-of-blogging-isolation.aspx?ref=rss&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; wrote about some of those same challenges and, as always, did it better than me. He identifies a &quot;First Wave&quot; of legal blogging pioneers and places himself within the &quot;Second Wave&quot; &amp;#8212; those who started blogging later but added considerably to what was established by their predecessors. He wonders about the &quot;Third Wave&quot; of legal bloggers &amp;#8212; those aforementioned Happyspherers, by and large &amp;#8212; and suggests that if they don&#39;t learn to speak to one another and to us, the legal blogosphere is finished:&lt;blockquote&gt;It&#39;s begun to feel more like punditry than a conversation.  While those who can&#39;t withstand scrutiny like it that way, real lawyers don&#39;t.  It&#39;s all about the conversation, whether happy, angry, or just pleasantly disagreeable.  Without it, this place is a bore.  At least for me.  And if it&#39;s boring, then it&#39;s not worth the effort.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like Kevin [O&#39;Keefe], I&#39;ve tried to nudge others to take stands, do something meaningful, write as if they give a damn, engage with the larger blawgosphere, and tell the marketing gurus to shove their lies where the sun doesn&#39;t shine.  But the question remains, will the third wave want to join the blawgosphere, or is this only about existing in their marketing isolation.  If the latter, then the blawgosphere will not survive.&lt;/blockquote&gt;This struck a chord with me. As a Blawg Review Sherpa and in my Round Tuit series, what I enjoyed was highlighting the links amongst the participants in distributed conversations on interesting topics. In most cases, the connections were already there in some form and I simply reiterated them and added a few thoughts of my own. Sometimes, on my better days, I could see connections which the participants hadn&#39;t and was able to link together a range of views on a particular topic. So much of what&#39;s written now is &amp;#8212; as Greenfield points-out &amp;#8212; isolated by design and is difficult to connect to something larger. Several times in writing a Round Tuit, I&#39;ve skipped-over what was undeniably a major event because most of the blogging amounted to the same summary of facts. No opinion. No analysis. No connections. No value added.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Week after week, as I winnowed the links I&#39;d collected to identify the better posts, I began to find that the quality posts were generally from the same dozen or so bloggers. Of the more than 150 feeds I followed, only these few consistently and a few others reliably added anything of value. Unfortunately for the &quot;Round Tuit&quot; concept, recommending the same people nearly every time is not a review of the legal blogosphere&#39;s voice on major events; it&#39;s a blogroll of the dwindling number of people worth reading each week.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When I read back through this post sometime after I hit the &quot;Publish&quot; button, I&#39;m sure that I&#39;ll be dismayed by how petty, peevish, and bitter this all sounds. I&#39;ll be dismayed because that&#39;s not at all an accurate reflection of how I feel. I&#39;m glad to have found the best of the legal blogosphere over the past several years and to have discovered that these people are also amongst the best in my profession.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
At the start of every Round Tuit post, I wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;When it comes to legal blogging, there seems to be no shortage of writing worth reading once one gets around to it.&lt;/blockquote&gt;That&#39;s still true, but that &quot;writing worth reading&quot; is less representative of the increasingly-frivolous legal blogosphere. Such a situation would seem to make a review like Round Tuit &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; valuable rather than less. After all, we need guides when the sights are harder to find amongst the sprawl and blight, not when they&#39;re apparent wherever you go. The fact that I can&#39;t motivate myself to continue speaks more to the character of the blawgosphere reviewer than to the blawgosphere itself. It&#39;s not you, in other words, it&#39;s me.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you made it to A Round Tuit (63), I&#39;m deeply appreciative and I&#39;m sorry that there will be no A Round Tuit (64). There&#39;s certainly still writing worth reading out there. You don&#39;t need me to remind you to keep reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/&quot;&gt;Greenfield&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/&quot;&gt;Bennett&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://thetrialwarrior.com/&quot;&gt;Pribetic&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/&quot;&gt;Turkewitz&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://charonqc.wordpress.com/&quot;&gt;Charon&lt;/a&gt;, the guys at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.popehat.com/&quot;&gt;Popehat&lt;/a&gt;, and others who write with passion, offer opinions and insight, spare you the hard sell, and link to those who do similarly. For as long as &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; legal blogosphere continues to exist, I&#39;ll continue to follow it and perhaps to find a way to remain a part of it.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/1271250216142095151/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/1271250216142095151' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1271250216142095151'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1271250216142095151'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/11/drowned.html' title='Drowned'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-2894129319837614333</id><published>2011-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-10-28T07:00:05.703-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (343)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8845693/Teenager-evicted-for-all-night-vuvuzela-parties.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Monday, October 24; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;A teenager, Toni Nicholson, has been evicted from her flat after holding all night vuvuzela parties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After a string of complaints from neighbours, her landlords Town and County Housing decided to take legal action to force the mum-of-one out after she repeatedly ignored requests to stop the wild parties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among the complaints from neighbours included party guests blowing vuvuzelas &#39;en masse&#39;, fighting in the stairwell, damaging property and throwing things of the first-floor balcony.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Errol Harris, a boss at Town and Country Housing, said his team had tried to persuade Miss Nicholson to stop her parties and be a &#39;good neighbour&#39;, but that the problems lasted more than one year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He confirmed that a number of complaints had mentioned &#39;ear-splitting noise&#39; from vuvuzelas and that the repossession of the flat was the &#39;only option&#39; left after Miss Nicholson continually breached an injunction to stop the parties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nicholson refused to comment about her eviction, but on her Facebook page she states: &quot;I don&#39;t care if it&#39;s 4am - I don&#39;t consider it tomorrow until I wake up.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-342.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/2894129319837614333/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/2894129319837614333' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/2894129319837614333'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/2894129319837614333'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-343.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (343)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-3527052318200084644</id><published>2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-10-21T07:00:07.430-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Law"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (342)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://abovethelaw.com/2011/10/1ls-hold-tryouts-for-study-group-slots-charge-application-fee/&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Above the Law&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; blog (from Tuesday, October 18; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;[T]he whole sad experience of getting a legal education in America suddenly has a new mascot.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Today we have a flyer from a group of three 1Ls who want to hold “tryouts” for the other two members of their study group. We’ve seen this type of thing before — remember the study group at a top-ten law school that required a transcript? — but this latest application process takes things to another level.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This study group wants to charge people $20 for the opportunity to try out….&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I really hope that after this flyer gets publicized, the 1Ls hastily put together some kind of “ha ha, we were only joking, aren’t we so clever” message or something. Because I can contemplate the tools that would put this together, but I’d never want to meet the psychos who would stand behind this after public scrutiny. Here’s the flyer:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J434_KfNVbM/TqBxKE31TwI/AAAAAAAAA2A/G8HPvBjdxbs/s1600/Georgia-State-study-tryouts.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J434_KfNVbM/TqBxKE31TwI/AAAAAAAAA2A/G8HPvBjdxbs/s320/Georgia-State-study-tryouts.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;They misspell the word “SUCCEED.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-341.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/3527052318200084644/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/3527052318200084644' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3527052318200084644'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3527052318200084644'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-342.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (342)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J434_KfNVbM/TqBxKE31TwI/AAAAAAAAA2A/G8HPvBjdxbs/s72-c/Georgia-State-study-tryouts.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-9156329665508531251</id><published>2011-10-14T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-10-14T07:00:01.759-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (341)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8816635/BBCs-mangled-subtitles-anger-viewers.html&quot;&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/a&gt; (from Monday, October 10; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;The BBC has been criticised by deaf groups over &quot;ludicrous&quot; computer-generated subtitles which have labelled the Labour leader &quot;Ed Miller Band&quot; and announced &quot;a moment&#39;s violence&quot; for the Queen Mother.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Deaf people have expressed their shock at being told a town was expecting a visit from the &quot;Arch b**** of Canterbury&quot; during one local BBC news broadcast.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In another embarrassing faux pas, a reporter visiting a farm spoke of how the pigs &quot;love to nibble anything that comes into the shed, like our wellies.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unfortunately the subtitles alongside the report changed the last word to to a rather childish homophone. After one viewer captured it on screen the error became an internet sensation.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
During the Queen Mother&#39;s funeral, the solemn words &quot;We&#39;ll now have a moment&#39;s silence for the Queen Mother&quot; became &quot;We&#39;ll now have a moment&#39;s violence for the Queen Mother&quot; in one BBC broadcast.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The blunders have become so regular that a dedicated website has been set up by bemused viewers.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-340.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/9156329665508531251/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/9156329665508531251' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/9156329665508531251'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/9156329665508531251'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-341.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (341)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6715900046027406499</id><published>2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-10-07T08:03:13.915-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Current Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (340)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/weird/Kansas-Church-Announces-Picket-of-Jos-Funeral---Via-iPhone-131214489.html&quot;&gt;NBC Washington&lt;/a&gt; (from Thursday, October 6; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based congregation infamous for picketing the burials of slain soldiers, said it will demonstrate at Apple founder Steve Jobs&#39; funeral - and made the announcement using an iPhone.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Margie Phelps, daughter of pastor Fred Phelps, tweeted that the church will attend Jobs&#39; so far unannounced funeral. Apparently unaware of the irony, Phelps used an iPhone to issue the Twitter message, reported Web pro News.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-339.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6715900046027406499/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6715900046027406499' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6715900046027406499'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6715900046027406499'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/10/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-340.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (340)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6603867157710423377</id><published>2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-09-30T07:00:00.577-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (339)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8796031/Christine-Hemming-CCTV-captures-MPs-wife-stealing-love-rivals-kitten.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Thursday, September 29; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;An MP&#39;s wife, Christine Hemming, accused of stealing a kitten from the home of her husband&#39;s long-term lover was captured on CCTV carrying the moggy away from the scene, a court heard.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Prosecutors say the grainy image proves the spouse of Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming leaving the home at 7.46pm with the animal in her left hand.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Mrs Hemming, denies burgling Ms Cox&#39;s home and told jurors on Wednesday that she had &quot;no recollection&quot; of taking the kitten from the home of her husband&#39;s long – term lover.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The defendant... acknowledged that she did go to Ms Cox&#39;s house on the night the kitten, named Beauty, was last seen but claimed she &#39;&#39;had no intention&#39;&#39; of taking the animal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
She had been at the house to drop off post for her husband, the member for Yardley.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;I don&#39;t recall taking the cat,&quot; she told the court. &quot;I don&#39;t recall picking up the cat.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The case continues.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-338.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6603867157710423377/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6603867157710423377' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6603867157710423377'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6603867157710423377'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-339.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (339)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6274428829956361726</id><published>2011-09-23T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2012-03-05T09:24:59.846-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (338)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &quot;Internet sales &amp; marketing professional&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/#!/MarkDavidson&quot;&gt;Mark Davidson&lt;/a&gt;, who writes &quot;deep thoughts&quot; on Twitter (from Thursday, September 22; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnOWUPKvT5sp4I4IhPYenYCi_ByhLCqRS3QKX4kAFZlkUHAlwtX4QqYg9X_jx25kfssJQAYhEbHFkyqiQ8L2HrJMIcZxIYF_amH2pFBRuxW0MSY4PcQSl8qLXLb7rWMl9VQOMYmA/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;TGIS.png&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;547&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-337.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6274428829956361726/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6274428829956361726' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6274428829956361726'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6274428829956361726'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-338.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (338)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnOWUPKvT5sp4I4IhPYenYCi_ByhLCqRS3QKX4kAFZlkUHAlwtX4QqYg9X_jx25kfssJQAYhEbHFkyqiQ8L2HrJMIcZxIYF_amH2pFBRuxW0MSY4PcQSl8qLXLb7rWMl9VQOMYmA/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-836526466005693801</id><published>2011-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-09-16T07:00:11.435-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (337)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8759126/Tourists-stranded-after-booking-hotel-on-wrong-side-of-the-world.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Tuesday, September 13; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;South African holidaymakers searching for their hotel with &quot;splendid views&quot; of the pier in Eastbourne, Sussex, had one problem. They were 12,000 miles away in Eastbourne, New Zealand.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Michael and Sunette Adendorff thought something was wrong with their hire car&#39;s GPS as they drove around in circles in the Wellington suburb, looking for the £90-a-night Majestic Hotel on Royal Parade.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When they pulled into the local chemist&#39;s shop to ask directions, they were shocked to discover that Eastbourne (population 4,600), New Zealand, does not even have a hotel.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shop assistant Linda Burke said: &quot;They just walked in and asked me where Royal Parade was, with the Majestic Hotel.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;I said: Oh no, there&#39;s no hotel here.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;I looked at it and said: That&#39;s in the UK, that&#39;s in England.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;He checked on the internet and said he did think it was funny they charged him in pounds.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-336.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/836526466005693801/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/836526466005693801' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/836526466005693801'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/836526466005693801'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-337.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (337)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-4827649608415454828</id><published>2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-09-09T07:00:01.385-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (336)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/us-crime-gumby-idUSTRE7874A120110908?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FoddlyEnoughNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Oddly+Enough%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader&quot;&gt;Reuters&lt;/a&gt; (from Thursday, September 8; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;[A] man clad in a full-figured Gumby costume has made a botched attempt to rob a 7-Eleven store in California, and authorities are looking for the suspect, police said on Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It happened early on Monday when the man came into the San Diego store dressed as the green claymation figure, accompanied by an ordinarily dressed accomplice, San Diego Police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The costumed man announced he was robbing the store, but the clerk thought it was a joke, police said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;Gumby said, &#39;You don&#39;t think it&#39;s a robbery? Let me show you my gun,&#39;&quot; Hassen said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The suspect then tried to reach into his Gumby outfit but experienced a &quot;costume malfunction&quot; and could not fit his hand in a pocket, he said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Instead of a gun, the costumed suspect pulled out 26 cents in change which he dropped on the floor, police said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The accomplice, who had left the store and gotten into a minivan, honked at the man dressed as Gumby. He, too, walked out of the store without managing to take any money, police said. Both men left in the minivan.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After their getaway, the store clerk was still not certain an attempted robbery had occurred and did not call police. The store manager, who arrived later that morning, reported the incident.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-weeks-joy-in-misfortune-of-others.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/4827649608415454828/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/4827649608415454828' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/4827649608415454828'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/4827649608415454828'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-336.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (336)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-3594199290962954161</id><published>2011-09-02T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-09-08T14:20:35.771-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (335)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8727175/Customers-revolt-as-Twinings-changes-the-flavour-of-its-Earl-Grey-tea.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Sunday, August 28; link good at time of posting):
&lt;blockquote&gt;It is the ultimate storm in a teacup. Earl Grey drinkers are rising in revolt against a producer that has dared to change the flavour of the popular hot drink.

....

The unlikely rebellion was sparked when Twinings relaunched its Earl Grey.

The company was so confident it would triumph by adding &quot;a dash of lemon and a touch more bergamot&quot; that its website proclaimed: &quot;Even the Earl himself couldn&#39;t have imagined how wonderful his favourite tea could taste. Do you think it&#39;s our best ever?&quot;

They didn&#39;t - in fact they decided it wasn&#39;t their cup of tea, and they weren&#39;t happy.

Among the almost universally damning, but elegant responses now appearing on the Twinings website are remarks including &quot;horrid&quot;, &quot;positively unpleasant&quot; and &quot;vile - like lemon cleaning product.&quot;

&quot;New,&quot; concluded one, &quot;Yes. Improved? Certainly not.&quot;

A Facebook page was launched, demanding: &quot;Bring back the original Twinings Earl Grey tea.&quot; As anger and desperation mounted, one lady, 30 years an Earl Grey drinker, even went so far as to suggest: &quot;I&#39;d rather drink PG Tips.&quot;

Tea drinkers compared the affair to the 1985 &#39;New Coke&#39; debacle, when Coca-Cola changed the flavour for its flagship product, provoking public nationwide outrage in the US and a swift decision to reintroduce the old formula.&lt;/blockquote&gt;
[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-334.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/3594199290962954161/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/3594199290962954161' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3594199290962954161'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3594199290962954161'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-weeks-joy-in-misfortune-of-others.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (335)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-8013711565841459304</id><published>2011-08-26T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-08-26T07:00:11.133-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (334)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8716052/Mastermind-contestant-can-be-called-astoundingly-thick-rules-Ofcom.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Tuesday, August 23; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;By his own admission, the Mastermind appearance was not Simon Curtis’s finest hour.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He notched up the BBC quiz show’s worst specialist subject score when he gave only one correct answer out of a possible 25 on the films of the actor Jim Carrey.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But yesterday Mr Curtis was dealt another blow to his pride when Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, ruled that his performance merited the description “astoundingly thick”. Mr Curtis had complained to Ofcom about a Channel 4 programme, Awfully Good TV, which featured clips of excruciating failures on quiz shows. David Walliams, the comedian, provided a commentary.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Introducing the clip of Mr Curtis’s appearance on Mastermind in 2006, Walliams said: “Sometimes in life, you have to know your limitations. If you’re not, let’s say, very bright, it’s probably not a good idea to go on a quiz show that tests your mental agility. And by &#39;not very bright’ I mean astoundingly thick.”&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Last night Mr Curtis expressed his disappointment at the ruling.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He said: &quot;Channel 4 and David Walliams have never met me and don&#39;t know anything about me, yet they called me astoundingly thick on national television. To me, that denotes general intelligence. How can you say that on the basis of one bad quiz show performance?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;I&#39;ve never minded sending myself up but it never goes away - I&#39;m still remembered as the bloke who only won one point on his specialist subject.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-333.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/8013711565841459304/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/8013711565841459304' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8013711565841459304'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8013711565841459304'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-334.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (334)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-1408507486608331845</id><published>2011-08-19T07:00:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2011-08-19T07:00:03.214-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (333)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/us-bachmann-elvis-idUSTRE77G3OY20110817?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FoddlyEnoughNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Oddly+Enough%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader&quot;&gt;Reuters&lt;/a&gt; (from Wednesday, August 17; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann offered a &quot;happy birthday&quot; message to the late singer Elvis Presley on Monday, even though August 16 is the anniversary of his death in 1977.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;Happy Birthday, Elvis!&quot; Bachmann shouted from the stage at a campaign stop....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After her stump speech, the congresswoman from Minnesota told a group of reporters that she was happy to be in South Carolina &quot;on the anniversary of Elvis Presley&#39;s death.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;He&#39;s still alive. He&#39;s alive in our hearts,&quot; Bachmann said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Later, a campaign organizer who did not want to be identified said with a wink: &quot;You celebrate Elvis because he never died.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-332.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/1408507486608331845/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/1408507486608331845' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1408507486608331845'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/1408507486608331845'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-333.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (333)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-5771167917456813915</id><published>2011-08-12T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-08-12T07:00:07.999-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (332)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wzzm13.com/news/watercooler/174883/82/Arizona-man-hospitalized-after-shooting-penis-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|t&quot;&gt;Associated Press&lt;/a&gt; (from Tuesday, August 9; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;A suburban Phoenix man is recovering after police say he accidentally shot himself in the penis while putting his girlfriend&#39;s gun in the waistband of his pants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Chandler police say 27-year-old Joshua Seto and his fiancee, Cara Christopher, were walking toward a grocery store when the shooting happened last week. The gun fired, striking Seto&#39;s penis and continuing through his left thigh.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the wake of the shooting, [Chandler Police Detective Seth] Tyler warned residents to use holsters, not waistbands, if they&#39;re going to carry a handgun.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-331.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/5771167917456813915/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/5771167917456813915' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/5771167917456813915'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/5771167917456813915'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-332.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (332)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-4068627963115792138</id><published>2011-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-08-05T07:00:13.115-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (331)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/weird/NATL-mayor-wont-step-down-126407173.html&quot;&gt;NBCPhiladelphia.com&lt;/a&gt; (from Monday, August 1; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;Mayor Bob Ryan of Sheboygan, a town of about 51,000 people 50 miles north of Milwaukee, apologized for a wild, boozy weekend in which he passed out in a local tavern. But he said his alcoholism doesn&#39;t affect his job performance and said he would not resign, despite a unanimous vote by a city council committee, according to Reuters.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;Did I pass out on a bar? Yes I did. I&#39;ll admit that. Was I in a scuffle? Yes. Did I start it? No, I did not,&quot; he told a local radio station, WHBL.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Although he&#39;s a self-confessed alcoholic, Ryan said he&#39;s still a good mayor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;Alcohol has affected my personal life greatly,&quot; Ryan said. &quot;I have never walked into a city meeting or council meeting under the influence of alcohol.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Ryan said he would continue to get treatment, but this isn&#39;t the first scandal he&#39;s been hit with. A YouTube video showed Ryan making sexual comments about a relative in a phone call and faces sexual harassment accusations from a female employee he fired, according to WTMJ.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-330.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/4068627963115792138/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/4068627963115792138' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/4068627963115792138'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/4068627963115792138'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-331.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (331)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-84510955670223838</id><published>2011-08-03T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-08-03T07:00:22.142-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="A Round Tuit"/><title type='text'>Gone Fishing</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4_BcGEscKsN85kV37PHcsG7_wcRoK5GVe2tesilND28xItWZs5hwNLyce8AKWvbh2DOpH68zlSRO_AthuE8Zdw-9_lmnd-MlnIrP4_YrVC0sgDhgRhgBkJLT9mJDCLimBYJlZw/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Gone Fishing&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;362&quot; height=&quot;450&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
A Round Tuit will return next week. Probably.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Image: &quot;Gone Fishing&quot; (Norman Rockwell; 1930)</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/84510955670223838/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/84510955670223838' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/84510955670223838'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/84510955670223838'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/08/gone-fishing.html' title='Gone Fishing'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4_BcGEscKsN85kV37PHcsG7_wcRoK5GVe2tesilND28xItWZs5hwNLyce8AKWvbh2DOpH68zlSRO_AthuE8Zdw-9_lmnd-MlnIrP4_YrVC0sgDhgRhgBkJLT9mJDCLimBYJlZw/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-874148015070752864</id><published>2011-07-29T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-29T07:00:05.843-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (330)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/inmate-uses-phone-glitch-to-fund-his-bail/1?csp=34news&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomOffbeat-TopStories+%28News+-+Offbeat+-+Top+Stories%29&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;USA Today&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Thursday, July 28; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;From jail, a Florida county inmate used a glitch in the phone system to pad his inmate trust account with refunds and finance his bail, the &lt;i&gt;Orlando Sentinel&lt;/i&gt; reports.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Larry Stone, 32, discovered the quirk when his first call from the Lake County jail for about $20 didn&#39;t go through but showed up twice in the trust account as a refund, the newspaper&#39;s Arelis R. Hernández writes.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Stone, who was arrested in April on property-crime charges, spent the next four hours making 77 local, long-distance and international calls until he had piled up more than $1,250 -- enough to bond out of jail, according to a sheriff&#39;s office investigation.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Stone faces additional charges of scheming with intent to defraud and grand theft, the &lt;i&gt;Sentinel&lt;/i&gt; says.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-329.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/874148015070752864/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/874148015070752864' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/874148015070752864'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/874148015070752864'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-330.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (330)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-3287986587833521957</id><published>2011-07-27T04:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-27T04:00:02.563-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="A Round Tuit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Law"/><title type='text'>A Round Tuit (63)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnO0-byivXY0Tb7CZ9I1RmxUy6BSYDGImGwaAS4JI3pIQQXOaMeOWA43vS2QNgnyeTth2Pv-vnuAt-Q-qN-x4YTRvCIXN9AR56YEFjeyfm4DVevLpifY-K1DrgRc8s_JKGWT52A/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;A Round Tuit&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When it comes to legal blogging, there seems to be no shortage of writing worth reading once one gets around to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&#39;s that? You have no round tuit? My friend, you are fortunate indeed, for never before in human history have round tuits been so readily available. If you need one, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carbolicsmokeball.com/catalog/4257/A_Round_Tuit/&quot;&gt;Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.&lt;/a&gt; has them in stock.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While you place your order, I&#39;ll share a few posts which are worth your attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAg4w84IPW2deAVC7UeIBKJe-At4zc_0gStJXruVvf-1PwjlFOkNSrwQa2xja5hoJ8QLi585-F__W6WXuOlZZheV14AqQjwCxvol7YKtUwY-L857BVqnLQL5KBDHlFxziy-88uRg/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;231&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Skullduggery and internet celebrity made for a heady combination this past week when it was revealed that Aaron Swartz, who had a hand in authoring the RSS specification and building Reddit by the age of twenty, had surreptitiously downloaded millions of documents from the JSTOR academic publications archive. The story was notable not only because of the individual involved or for the size of the haul, but also for the means used &amp;#8212; breaking-into an MIT network closet and &quot;hard-wiring&quot; unauthorized computers and hard drives into the university&#39;s network &amp;#8212; and for federal prosecutors&#39; reaction (or overreaction) to his acts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Initially, Swartz registered an account on the MIT network using a false name; from that account, he ran a script which began mass-downloading articles from JSTOR. When JSTOR blocked his access, it is alleged that Swartz escalated his efforts. &lt;a href=&quot;http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/reddit-founder-arrested-for-excessive-jstor-downloads.ars?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss&quot;&gt;Timothy Lee&lt;/a&gt; described the facts alleged in the criminal complaint against Swartz:&lt;blockquote&gt;[T]here followed a game of cat and mouse in which Swartz repeatedly changed his IP and MAC address to evade JSTOR and MIT&#39;s efforts to block access. Swartz also bought a second laptop to speed up the downloading process. Finally, on October 9, JSTOR gave up and and blocked the entire MIT campus from using JSTOR.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When JSTOR lifted the block a few weeks later, Swartz started using his downloading script once again.... This time, he entered an MIT network closet, &quot;hard-wired into the network and assigned himself two IP addresses. He hid the Acer laptop and a succession of external storage drives under a box in the closet, so that they would not be obvious to anyone who might enter the closet.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Swartz entered the networking closet for the last time in January. The complaint describes the scene: &quot;As Swartz entered the wiring closet, he held his bicycle helmet like a mask to shield his face, looking through ventilation holes in the helmet. Swartz then removed his computer equipment from the closet, put it in his backpack, and left, again masking his face with the bicycle helmet before peering through a crack in the double doors and cautiously stepping out.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;In a second post, &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.forbes.com/timothylee/2011/07/20/aaron-swartzs-reckless-activism/&quot;&gt;Lee&lt;/a&gt; criticized Swartz&#39; &quot;reckless activism&quot; as counterproductive to his objective &amp;#8212; to bring greater transparency to government and the law:&lt;blockquote&gt;[W]alking into someone’s networking closet and hooking your equipment up to a switch without permission is almost never OK, and it’s definitely not OK if the objective is to evade the network owner’s previous attempts to block you from the network. The conflict between Aaron and JSTOR led to the entire MIT campus being cut off from JSTOR access for several days, doubtless affecting the productivity of hundreds of MIT scholars.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the more lasting cost of Aaron’s actions will likely be to the reputation of the open access movement. Open access advocates have the natural high ground and are gradually winning the debate over the future of academic publishing. Change comes slowly, but things have been changing. Aaron’s actions are likely to slow that progress by allowing the bad guys to lump open access advocates in with malicious clowns like LulzSec. The incident makes JSTOR look like an injured, even magnanimous, party and gives them an excuse to make their policies more restrictive.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Swartz was previously implicated in a mass-downloading of documents from the PACER legal database. In that instance, federal authorities did not charge him with criminal wrongdoing; though she believes that he should not have been charged in this instance either, &lt;a href=&quot;http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/20/reddit-founder-steals-millions&quot;&gt;Katherine Mangu-Ward&lt;/a&gt; noted the difference in character &amp;#8212; if not in substance &amp;#8212; between the two data grabs:&lt;blockquote&gt;Swartz had to sneak in and out of server closets to do the JSTOR scraping, which makes the whole thing seem seedier and more illegal. But the differences between the PACER grab and the JSTOR grab are less about how he got the data than what kind of data it was, and what he did with it. In both cases, he seems to have done little more than violate the sites&#39; Terms of Service to get the docs....&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2011/07/articles/series/special-comment/aaron-swartz-computer-fraud-indictment/&quot;&gt;Max Kennerly&lt;/a&gt; attempted to deconstruct the charges against Swartz and concluded that the prosecution amounted to &quot;a civil claim that some overly aggressive prosecutor is trying to dress up as a federal crime&quot;:&lt;blockquote&gt;I don’t see what societal interest [prosecutor] Carmen Ortiz think she’s vindicating with the Swartz indictment. According to Demand Progress, &lt;em&gt;JSTOR already settled their claims with him.&lt;/em&gt; What more needs to be done here? The “criminal violation” here arises not from any social duty — like, you know, our society’s communal prohibition on murder — but rather from Swartz “exceeding the authorization” imposed by JSTOR on its servers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4) claim requires the prosecutor show Swartz “knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesse[d] a protected computer without authorization, or exceed[ed] authorized access, and by means of such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value.” The indictment claims the papers were “things of value,” but they’ve got the same problem: &lt;em&gt;no intent to defraud.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(B) claim requires the prosecutor show Swartz “recklessly cause[d] damage.” The CFAA defines “damage” as “any impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information” 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(e)(8).... &lt;em&gt;[S]ome District Courts have imposed an “actual impairment” requirement,&lt;/em&gt; reasoning that Congress did not intend to create liability except where the “damage” to the system was concrete and verifiable. Id. at 1116–1117. The problem for the prosecutor is if Demand Progress is correct that JSTOR &lt;em&gt;“explained they’ve suffered no loss or damage.”&lt;/em&gt; If so, then this claim is likely dead, too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2) claim is probably their best bet. That just requires that Swartz “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains … information from any protected computer.” Most every computer on the internet is a “protected computer,” so they might have something there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Except that “exceeds authorized access” isn’t necessarily the same thing as “more than JSTOR wanted.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The indictment says the Swartz used throw-away email addresses, automated download scripts, IP spoofing, and MAC-address spoofing. Big deal: &lt;em&gt;there’s no dispute that Swartz was permitted to access the information in question.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;I&#39;m certainly not an expert on federal criminal law generally or these statutes particularly, but this all seems to rely on a number of assumptions and to downplay a few key facts. First, Kennerly accepts Swartz&#39; assertions that no fraud was intended and discounts the complaint&#39;s characterization of the copied information as &quot;things of value&quot;. Neither is necessarily correct. In mass-copying the JSTOR-maintained articles, Swartz&#39; primary objective seems to have been to &quot;free&quot; the information for much wider user; to do that, he sought to deprive JSTOR of the revenues they were entitled to receive. Even if one dismisses the value of the information itself, those revenues certainly seem to qualify as value.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, though neither JSTOR nor MIT seem to have suffered any loss of data (Swartz only copied), there &lt;em&gt;was&lt;/em&gt; an actual impairment &amp;#8212; MIT and its students and academics were cut-off from JSTOR for several weeks. One could argue that it was JSTOR which impaired MIT&#39;s access in its effort to stem the mass-copying, but to dismiss that outage out-of-hand seems to overlook a key fact in the case. I&#39;m not sure what the context of JSTOR&#39;s &quot;no loss or damage&quot; statement was, but it seems noteworthy that it&#39;s offered secondhand, via Swartz&#39; own advocacy group, Demand Progress. It&#39;s entirely possible that JSTOR was merely confirming that its database and systems remained intact after Swartz&#39; acts, and was not referring to its lost revenues.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally, while Kennerly notes several of Swartz&#39; acts, he dismisses these as not any &quot;big deal&quot;. In isolation, each of these might indeed be inconsequential, but collectively these are all parts of a well-orchestrated effort. In discussing unauthorized access, to focus on the fact that anyone on the MIT network could access any of the articles in the JSTOR database misses the larger issue that the means of Swartz&#39; access were pretty extraordinary &amp;#8212; he harvested huge portions of that data with multiple computers and scripts &lt;em&gt;and broke into a secured facility to do it.&lt;/em&gt; I don&#39;t see how any of that could be considered within even the broad access allowed by MIT and JSTOR.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fairness, despite the length of Kennerly&#39;s post, a blog post by its nature necessarily tends to simplify complex arguments; there is likely more to his arguments and to the applicable law than I&#39;m reading. Notwithstanding my criticisms, I generally agree with his conclusion &amp;#8212; that this prosecution is misconceived and disproportionate to the harms allegedly caused. &lt;a href=&quot;http://blawgit.com/2011/07/22/copyright-law-the-government-vs-the-people/&quot;&gt;Brett Trout&lt;/a&gt; is, like Kennerly and myself, bothered by this prosecution. He discussed why it serves no worthy purpose and, corrupt or not, is a misuse of prosecutorial authority:&lt;blockquote&gt;Criminals commit hundreds of cybercrimes daily, many involving the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why is the government going after a case involving an academic, involving what appears to be nothing more than speculative damages? According to Swartz’s website, he downloaded the materials to investigate the source of funding for the academic papers. Swartz authored numerous articles investigating the “corrupting influence of big money on institutions, including nonprofits, the media, politics and public opinion.” Knowing that a study was financed by a large entity seeking to sway legislation, would certainly be of interest in weighing the study’s merits. The fact that funding sources may not be readily apparent, may have even more impact on the study’s credibility. Exposing funding sources is, from the public’s perspective, a laudable endeavor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My own experience requesting the federal government to pursue alleged corporate espionage, lead me to believe the agents handling cybercrime matters did not have much interest in pursuing a criminal case, even where hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages were involved. Why single out Swartz? Swartz’s history of investigating corruption may not have played a role in his indictment, but misconduct by federal prosecutors is not unknown, and they are very rarely held accountable for their misdeeds. Are the federal prosecutors in Swartz’s case corrupt? Unlikely. More likely, prosecutors are doing what they are told, prosecuting the case assigned. The real question is who ultimately decided to redirect vast taxpayer resources to this particular academic, and why? The benefit to JSTOR and the &lt;em&gt;in terrorem&lt;/em&gt; benefit to the corporations funding the studies is obvious; the benefit to the American taxpayer is unclear.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Prosecution or persecution, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2011/07/two-stories-about-the-morality-of-copyright.html&quot;&gt;David Fagundes&lt;/a&gt; suggested that the government, in allying with the content industry, has come to regard physical and intellectual property as the same, without regard to the fact that the latter can, as in this instance, be non-destructively copied. Whatever the merits of such a stance, he wrote that with prosecutions like Swartz&#39;, the government isn&#39;t winning the hearts and minds of the general public:&lt;blockquote&gt;The Swartz arrest is just one in a series of episodes that emblematize the growing rift between content industries (who push for, and usually get, legislation expanding and protecting their rights) and groups concerned about internet freedom (who almost always manage to stay a step ahead of attempts by industry and government to create free access to content).  Part of this rift is a war of words—are the Aaron Swartzes of the world dirty thieves or valiant freedom fighters?—but this war of words affects social norms about the morality of intellectual property.  However much government and industry may win legislative battles, these wins may be hollow if they don’t convince the general population that infringement (or, in the Swartz case, other information fraud crimes) are morally important.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://apublicdefender.com/2011/07/19/aaron-swartz-is-the-new-lori-drew-the-tos-misadventures/&quot;&gt;Gideon&lt;/a&gt; characterized the case as &quot;the new Lori Drew&quot;, referring to a 2008 prosecution founded in part upon the defendant&#39;s creation of false credentials on MySpace, in violation of that site&#39;s terms of service. He wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;While the event was tragic, a crime it was not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And here we have essentially the same dilemma. Just how do the Feds have jurisdiction? Swartz was in the JSTOR building while he was “hacking”. It’s like me stealing from your house and being indicted for wire fraud because I took this nice vase that your Aunt Maude sent you from her old person’s home in Peoria.&lt;/blockquote&gt;I think that&#39;s reaching a bit. In the Drew case, the violation of the terms of service &amp;#8212; her &quot;unauthorized access&quot; to MySpace &amp;#8212; was incidental to the acts which led to a tragic result; prosecutors, stretching to find &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; way to charge her seized upon those terms to try to create something from nothing. Here, the unauthorized access was much more egregious and is instrumental to the crimes charged. Perhaps it&#39;s just a matter of degree, but I don&#39;t feel that this is as unsupportable as the Drew prosecution was.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/07/20/swartz-caught-in-a-closet.aspx&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; discussed why he believes the charges have some merit but the prosecution is nonetheless inappropriate:&lt;blockquote&gt;According to the indictment, the plan was to download whatever he could get his hands on so that they could be offered free to the world.  Swartz would take what JSTOR had to sell and give it to all.  Robin Hood of the internet.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the technical point of view, this is a classic, straightforward violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC 1030, with the fact that he had to physically sneak into a closet to gain access to the wires.  Ordinarily, there&#39;s no need to physically break in to manage to digitally break in, putting an IRL cherry on top of the prosecution&#39;s case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Assuming the facts as related are accurate, there is little doubt that Swartz was a very bad boy, and that his conduct was precisely what the CFAA was intended to criminalize.  That some hold dear the belief that theft that doesn&#39;t deprive someone of physical possession isn&#39;t really theft can dispute the merit of the CFAA all they want, but had Swartz gotten away with it, he would have deprived JSTOR the revenue it would earn from its service.  That&#39;s real.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By no stretch of the imagination do I believe that Swartz&#39;s attempt to download the JSTOR content was acceptable or lawful.  He&#39;s no Robin Hood, and the ideologue&#39;s belief that digital content should be free for the taking is nothing more than religious pap, a belief that fails to bear out under rational scrutiny.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the same time, this prosecution seems to be nothing more than a vindictive act by the government, given JSTOR&#39;s agnostic, at worst, stance toward Swartz.  They worked it out and the story should have been over.  It&#39;s just that the government can&#39;t let it go, given that they finally have a case against a targeted individual.  Vindictive prosecution, no matter what the underlying wrong, is a due process violation.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Greenfield suggested that that vindictiveness stems from Swartz&#39; earlier, unpunished mass-copying from the PACER database. As I read commentary on this case this past week, several writers attempted to find a more benign explanation for prosecutors&#39; different treatment of the two matters; some speculated that the contents of the two databases somehow mattered to them. Whereas PACER contains public domain legal documents, the contents of the JSTOR database includes numerous copyrighted works (although the various authors, rather than JSTOR, would own those copyrights). Personally, I don&#39;t think that that&#39;s either a relevant difference or the explanation for the decision to prosecute Swartz this time around. Whether it&#39;s vindictiveness or merely part of a broader trend of overprosecution of relatively inconsequential offenses, I think it&#39;s giving the feds too much credit to presume that their decision was so nuanced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although he doesn&#39;t suggest that the copyright distinction between PACER and JSTOR accounts for the decision to prosecute Swartz, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110719/23592815169/you-know-whats-missing-aaron-swartz-indictment-any-mention-copyright.shtml&quot;&gt;Mike Masnick&lt;/a&gt; wrote that copyright is conspicuous by its absence in the complaint:&lt;blockquote&gt;It&#39;s a standard claim from copyright maximalists that downloading anything without permission is &quot;theft,&quot; even though the law is clear that infringement and theft are two different things. But... in reading and discussing this, we missed out on one very important point, that Mike Wokasch spotted: with all the things in the indictment, one thing that&#39;s missing is any copyright infringement claim. If you&#39;re going to talk up the &quot;theft&quot; angle, why not at least include a copyright infringement claim? Perhaps it&#39;s because the government knows that it would lose on that claim badly. Once you&#39;re on the MIT network, you are allowed to download these works. Thus, there&#39;s no infringement at all. That&#39;s a big problem for much of the case against Swartz, but the feds seem to think they can use the circumstantial evidence unrelated to the actual computer usage to convict Swartz by inference.&lt;/blockquote&gt;I think that there&#39;s something to this. Under copyright law (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#101&quot;&gt;17 USC &amp;#167;101&lt;/a&gt;), &quot;compilation&quot; is defined as &quot;a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.&quot; I&#39;ve never seen, much less used, JSTOR, so I can&#39;t suggest whether or not it &quot;selects, coordinates, or arranges&quot; academic articles sufficiently to merit copyright protection. I&#39;ll allow for the possibility that it does and that the government could take a hard look at whether Swartz infringed the database&#39;s copyright, regardless whether he infringed the copyrights of the articles he downloaded. Why then is there no mention of copyright in the complaint? This inquiring mind wants to know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110721/11122615195/aaron-swartz-indictment-leading-people-to-upload-jstor-research-to-file-sharing-sites.shtml&quot;&gt;Masnick&lt;/a&gt; noted in another post, in this ongoing struggle between copyright maximalists and minimalists, the maximalist-allied government might be facing a Pyrrhic victory with this prosecution. Responding to it, another activist has uploaded a quantity of public domain JSTOR contents, with a lengthy and persuasive explanation of his reasons for doing so:&lt;blockquote&gt;If it&#39;s true that Aaron Swartz&#39;s foray into an MIT computer wiring closet was as part of a project to copy JSTOR research and upload it to file sharing sites for open access, then I imagine part of the government&#39;s rationale for going after him would be the hope that it would act as a deterrent against anyone else doing the same thing. Of course, as I&#39;ve pointed out with the feds&#39; attempt to arrest members of Anonymous, it seems likely that this move will backfire in a big bad way. All it does is draw much more attention to the original goal. Indeed, Adam points us to the news that a guy by the name of Greg Maxwell just released 33GB of JSTOR scientific papers via The Pirate Bay &lt;em&gt;because&lt;/em&gt; of the indictment against Aaron.&lt;/blockquote&gt;And so the struggle continues....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7So5JdMy8YHqy_goMlqJcvTR71n6CD2IyGZaXvKFESSXZDDiuPsCNRBLW3DPYiZU25xortYeP0OQfbdCkH_gKGitdQ4emVTRxf6HwUxot3T3hy5yCuWV6ww76zDOmdwABzTesQ/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;lionel-hutz.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;358&quot; height=&quot;258&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When it comes to these posts, there seems to be no shortage of bad lawyering worth writing about once one gets around to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/07/22/quitter.aspx&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; was unsparing in his criticism of Gerard Marrone, the defense attorney who withdrew this past week from his representation of accused murderer Levi Aron. Aron is charged with the shocking and gruesome murder of Leiby Kletzky earlier this month. In withdrawing, Marrone said that the allegations were &quot;too horrific&quot; and that he could not continue to represent Aron. Greenfield wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;No one could have forced Marrone to be Aron&#39;s lawyer, and few would blame him had he refused the case at the outset.  Having undertaken the representation, however, his duty is to see it through.  The time to make the decision of whether the crime is too distasteful is in the beginning, before signing on.  Once in, there is no right to simply walk away when it becomes unpleasant.  This is the life we chose.  This is the path Marrone chose.  It doesn&#39;t include an option of walking away whenever the mood strikes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;His explanation, however, emits an unpleasant odor, and I&#39;m not buying.  My guess is that he signed onto the case because in one respect, it&#39;s every unknown lawyer&#39;s dream, the high profile case that puts your name in all the papers and your face on every television screen.  Oh, how lawyers want celebrity, and high profile cases are the only way to gain it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps Marrone believes that by quitting, by burning his client in the process, by announcing to the world that he has a conscience and love for his own children, that he won&#39;t be permanently tarred by having stood next to Aron.  Maybe he can salvage his reputation, his besmirched humanity, by spinning his withdrawal into a morality play.  If so, this cynical effort won&#39;t work. No one cared about Marrone before his moment in the spotlight, and he&#39;ll be forgotten again soon enough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the bio on Marrone&#39;s website, he calls himself &quot;Gerard &#39;No Fear&#39; Marrone.&quot; He may wish that people think of him that way, but there will be one thing that will follow him, haunt him, for his decision to walk away from this defendant, charged with this horrific crime.  It&#39;s that he&#39;s a quitter, that he cannot be relied upon to stand firm and fulfill the obligations he willingly took on, even though it means that he must steel himself to the challenge of representing the worst among us.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rhdefense.com/2011/07/23/a-lawyers-duty-of-loyalty&quot;&gt;Rick Horowitz&lt;/a&gt; wrote about the duty of loyalty Marrone owed to his client:&lt;blockquote&gt;[American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct] Rule 1.9 makes it clear that while some of a lawyer’s duties to his client may dissipate, or even disappear, with time, the duty of loyalty does not. Obviously, the duty to represent a client competently and zealously no longer exists once you cease to represent the client. The duty of loyalty, however, persists. In fact, as both Mark Bennett and Jeff Gamso point out [in discussing David Martin, who represented Cameron Todd Willingham], the duty of loyalty persists even beyond the death of the client!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The core of the American system of justice relies upon sound legal ethics. As I noted in my own comment on Scott’s blog post,&lt;blockquote&gt;Look at any failure in the system and it is almost always traceable to an ethical failure on the part of a lawyer (defense or prosecution), judge, or juror.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Arguably the most important of these failures is the failure of duties of loyalty. Prosecutors owe a duty of loyalty, first to the Constitution and the laws and secondly to “the People” — frankly, I think there’s a built-in redundancy there. Judges, similarly, owe a duty of loyalty to the Constitution and the laws. Only the defense attorney’s duty differs: defense attorneys owe a specific duty of loyalty to specific individuals first — and to the court, the Constitution and the laws second (or third, or fourth, or ….).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By putting his own interests ahead of his client’s, Marrone has failed in his ethical obligations to all parties and to the American system of justice.&lt;/blockquote&gt;The unpleasant business of separating bad lawyers from the profession might see some questionable changes, in Iowa at least. &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/07/25/iowa-considers-secrecy-proposal-for-lawyer-misconduct/&quot;&gt;Nathan Koppel&lt;/a&gt; reported that the state is considering a change whereby lawyers could avoid having their sanctions (and bad behavior) made public, in exchange for surrendering their licenses to practice:&lt;blockquote&gt;The proposal makes a certain amount of sense in that state bars are notoriously understaffed, making it hard for state bars to vigilantly police lawyer misbehavior, particularly when it comes to more high-profile lawyers, who have the means to fight ethics investigations for years on end.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the flip side is that consumers, particularly those shopping for a lawyer, have an interest in knowing about lawyers’ past ethics transgressions, at least those that have been conclusively established.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mark Bowden, who oversees the discipline of physicians in Iowa, told the [Des Moines] Register that lawyer misconduct should not be kept secret. “I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve by that. Limit the notoriety of cases, I suppose,” Bowden said. “I would think they would have to make that information public.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://truthonthemarket.com/2011/07/25/the-mirage-of-lawyer-discipline/&quot;&gt;Larry Ribstein&lt;/a&gt; is, as most ethical lawyers probably will be, pretty nonplussed by this proposal and the prospect that this &quot;sweep it under the rug&quot; approach might catch on elsewhere. He suggested, however, that it isn&#39;t much worse than the current system and wrote about the &quot;mirage of lawyer discipline&quot;:&lt;blockquote&gt;The bottom line is that under the current setup, once you get your ticket of admission into the bar by graduating from an accredited law school and passing a bar exam you get a lifetime monopoly of purveying legal information with little scrutiny.  Even if the Iowa proposal to trade transparency for speed can be defended by necessity, this necessity is itself created by the inherent inadequacy of state supervision of lawyers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a better way.  In &lt;em&gt;Law’s Information Revolution&lt;/em&gt;... Bruce Kobayashi and I discuss potental reforms in lawyer regulation and intellectual property law to facilitate the sale of legal information. Among other things, we would let software practice law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some folks (mostly lawyers) would respond that markets would be inadequate to cope with the horror of “legal” advice rendered by non-lawyers.  But can this really be worse than forcing all consumers of legal information to rely solely on a lawyer’s shingle behind which any sort of person may lurk?&lt;/blockquote&gt;One bad lawyer who will never be able slink-off into anonymity is Joseph Rakofsky. As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.declarationsandexclusions.com/2011/07/weekend-update-rakofsky-v-internet-week-11as-seen-on-tv-edition.html&quot;&gt;George Wallace&lt;/a&gt; noted in his eighth round-up of &lt;em&gt;Rakofsky v. Internet&lt;/em&gt; news and developments, Rakofsky has now progressed from incompetent lawyer to cautionary tale to Streisand Effect poster child to internet meme.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unlike Rakofsky, there are some bad lawyers who will be missed. Well, one. &lt;a href=&quot;http://badlawyernyc.blogspot.com/2011/07/bad-lawyer-says-goodbye.html&quot;&gt;Bad Lawyer&lt;/a&gt; announced the end of his widely-read namesake legal blog this past week. He wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;In the last two years I documented the course of my disciplinary process... my legal proceedings, my prison sentence for attempted tax evasion, my probation and finally my return to work.  As I write I do not know if I will ever be reinstated as a lawyer.  I don&#39;t want to be grandiose, but I did view the law as a calling, one that I often loved as an advocate, hated as a unwilling businessman, but was privileged to practice from November 1982 till December of 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I liked &quot;blawging&quot; because it offered me a soapbox to try to be socially relevant despite my situation.  You should never doubt that the stories I posted about &quot;bad&quot; lawyers, judges, doctors, drivers, parents, idiots, and morons--these stories, were always about ME.  Likewise, I posted the occasional story about admirable persons in and out of the law, these were stories also about me, as well.  Or rather, I should say the stories were about--who I aspire to be by the grace of God.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have some other things, other projects, and a life with my family to live.  I&#39;m now letting go of the &quot;past&quot; absolutely.&lt;/blockquote&gt;He was a writer with a unique point-of-view on the profession and the justice system. I&#39;ll miss his voice and I&#39;m not alone in that. &lt;a href=&quot;http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2011/07/farewell-to-the-bad-lawyer-blog.html&quot;&gt;Bruce Carton&lt;/a&gt; probably spoke for many when he wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;Bad Lawyer has been a consistent source of interesting and outrageous legal news for [Legal Blog Watch] and for the blogosphere over the past two years. Thank you, BL, for your work on the Bad Lawyer blog over these years and best of luck to you as you move on.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/07/25/the-death-of-bad-lawyer.aspx&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; offered the most insightful tribute I read:&lt;blockquote&gt;Having been around the blawgosphere for a while now, I&#39;ve come to view it as largely destructive.  Too many lawyers spreading too much misinformation sprinkled with self-aggrandizing pap.  Some are too cynical.  Some aren&#39;t cynical enough.  Some reveal that they&#39;re not particularly bright, and most demonstrate a scary lack of grasp of the law.  There&#39;s an awful lot of that, and the public&#39;s ignorance of the law is furthered by lawyers&#39; ignorance of the law. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Very few have the guts to say things that are real for fear of offending someone, whether potential clients, their brethren or the powerful.  When they do, it&#39;s the &quot;approved&quot; enemies, the ones who are universally despised on this side of the table.  Bad Lawyer was astute in his observations and owed no one allegiance.  He wasn&#39;t fishing for clients or trying to make himself look more palatable.  There was no need for him to market himself, and no one&#39;s feelings to be spared.  And yet he was mostly temperate in his commentary, unlike the lawyers with wild agendas molded from bizarre political beliefs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;.... &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s time for Bad Lawyer to die.  It&#39;s time for the man behind Bad Lawyer to live again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the multitude of lawyers who have come to the blawgosphere to claim their fame and glory, the young ones who think their naive thoughts are worthy of recognition, the old lawyers who think their experienced thoughts can be spun into new clients, the amorphous lawyers who have bought into the idea that this is what lawyers should be doing even though they have nothing to say and offer muddled views of the law because they don&#39;t care enough to write something thoughtful, or aren&#39;t good enough to do so, learn from Bad Lawyer.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR36CERx-MJxjns-P6IRjCNjWH3EiJecQ7vp1wzNdbUJ9Fie5JVdV1Jfx03D7f3M-vzl6DP79mrTpqaGqEaMYwCf7ynWTsUVka_3nf-__3fcyQg9QJaQBWnH7JmNtxjfLWJea8XQ/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Odds n Ends Shop&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ll finish this week&#39;s Round Tuit post with a few lighter posts discussing a happy coincidence, an unhappy but entertaining (melo)dramatic interlude, and a consideration of the Beautiful Game.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://abovethelaw.com/2011/07/citizen-kozinski-a-cool-coincidence-and-an-inspiring-story/&quot;&gt;David Lat&lt;/a&gt; related a story told to him (and others) by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski:&lt;blockquote&gt;As the immigration debate continues, let’s keep in mind the important contributions made to our nation by immigrants. For example, one of our most distinguished federal judges — Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — is an immigrant. He was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1950, and he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1962, at the age of 12.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Alexander Kozinski was naturalized in 1968, at the age of 18, by Judge Harry Pregerson — his future colleague on the Ninth Circuit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 1968, when he naturalized Alex Kozinski, Judge Pregerson was a district judge for the Central District of California (Los Angeles). In 1979, President Carter elevated Judge Pregerson to the Ninth Circuit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 1985, President Reagan appointed Alex Kozinski to the Ninth Circuit. At the tender age of 35, Judge Kozinski joined Judge Pregerson — the judge who naturalized him as a U.S. citizen, 17 years earlier — as a life-tenured judge on the nation’s largest federal appeals court.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ain’t America grand? This is a wonderful immigrant success story.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Though I&#39;m not a great fan of mediation, thankfully I&#39;ve never had one like &lt;em&gt;Popehat&lt;/em&gt;&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.popehat.com/2011/07/21/cassandra-esq-a-play-in-one-act/&quot;&gt;Ken&lt;/a&gt; did recently. He memorialized his misadventure in a one-act play and it&#39;s well-worth a quick read.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2011/07/diving-soccer-and-cultural-differences-about-the-morality-of-rulebreaking.html&quot;&gt;David Fagundes&lt;/a&gt; is, like me, a fan of the Beautiful Game. He has, unlike me, thought about what diving (exaggerating contact to draw a foul) says about different cultures&#39; beliefs concerning the morality of rule-breaking:&lt;blockquote&gt;What interests me about this reaction to diving is how pronounced it is among some sports fans, and how subdued it is in others.  Some soccer cultures regard simulation as the sporting equivalent of murder (morally reprehensible regardless of whether you’re caught doing it), while others regard it as the sporting equivalent of jaywalking (illegal, and not a good idea, but something you might do every so often if you think you can get away with it and it gains you some advantage).  I examine this puzzle in more detail, and pose some conjectures about resolving it, after the break.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many Americans actively dislike soccer, for reasons that have something to do with a vision of anti-globalist national exceptionalism that I don’t think makes any sense.  But even among Americans who do like soccer, the act of diving inspires a level of ire that has always puzzled me.  Soccer-hating Americans have told me that diving is the primary reason they can’t tolerate the sport.  Soccer-loving Americans were apoplectic when a member of the US Men’s National Team was suspected (wrongly, it turns out) of simulating a foul in order to gain advantage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This moral outrage over diving is not limited to the U.S.  Diving in British soccer is regarded as an attack on the game itself.  Man U manager Alex Ferguson recently stated that “Players who cheat are killing the game.”  And British fans often express the same righteous fury as Americans do when players from South America or southern Europe (or anywhere, really) simulate injuries or fouls in international competition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This same moral outrage does not seem to characterize soccer fans from South America or southern Europe (disclaimer:  I’m well aware that I’m making massive generalizations when speaking about these phenomena at a national level; my claim is only that they are true in my experience and at a very high level of generality).  People from these countries don’t seem to love it when opposing players seek to gain advantage from diving, and I’ve seen them express frustration at particularly egregious instances of simulation, but neither do they treat it as the ethical abomination that Anglo-American soccer fans tend to.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Finally, while we&#39;re speaking of soccer-related abominations, I&#39;ll throw in a self-serving plug for the English Premiership fantasy league I&#39;m organizing for the coming season (which begins on 13 August). Our league will be a head-to-head one and to ensure some robust competition, I&#39;m hoping to add a couple more to the group already assembled. To get a sense of what the game will involve, you can visit the &lt;a href=&quot;http://fantasy.premierleague.com/&quot;&gt;EPL&#39;s fantasy game&lt;/a&gt; site, through which our league will be run. The group thus far is a nice mix of lawyer and non-lawyer football aficionados; if you enjoy the Beautiful Game (the English professional version of it, anyhow) and are interested in joining us, drop me a line at colin@infamyorpraise.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There will be no Round Tuit post next Wednesday, as I&#39;ll be traveling over the weekend and much of next week. Please don&#39;t write anything interesting until after I return.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Header pictures used in this post were obtained from (top to bottom) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carbolicsmokeball.com/catalog/4257/A_Round_Tuit/&quot;&gt;Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg&quot;&gt;Wikipedia.org&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/lionschasetigers/?action=view&amp;current=lionel-hutz.gif&amp;newest=1&quot;&gt;Photobucket.com&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.silentbid.ca/garage/?page_id=7&quot;&gt;Paris Odds n Ends Thrift Store&lt;/a&gt;.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/3287986587833521957/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/3287986587833521957' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3287986587833521957'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/3287986587833521957'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/round-tuit-63.html' title='A Round Tuit (63)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnO0-byivXY0Tb7CZ9I1RmxUy6BSYDGImGwaAS4JI3pIQQXOaMeOWA43vS2QNgnyeTth2Pv-vnuAt-Q-qN-x4YTRvCIXN9AR56YEFjeyfm4DVevLpifY-K1DrgRc8s_JKGWT52A/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6687945481130674577</id><published>2011-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-22T07:00:11.874-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (329)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/man-charged-with-bike-theft-in-front-of-courthouse-after-a-hearing/1?csp=34news&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomOffbeat-TopStories+%28News+-+Offbeat+-+Top+Stories%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;USA Today&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Wednesday, July 21; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;A man leaving a hearing on a charge of carrying an open alcohol container in El Monte, Calif., was arrested minutes later for allegedly stealing a bicycle outside the courthouse, the &lt;i&gt;Los Angeles Times&lt;/i&gt; reports.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Police were alerted by a postal worker who said Hector Pineda, 54, had allegedly destroyed a wrought-iron fence to remove the locked bike.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Initially, the newspaper says, Pineda argued that he owned the bicycle and had forgotten his key. But he was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and petty theft after a Covina resident showed up to identify the bike.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schedenfreude-328.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6687945481130674577/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6687945481130674577' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6687945481130674577'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6687945481130674577'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-329.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schadenfreude! (329)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-5569868690329164440</id><published>2011-07-20T04:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-20T04:00:03.030-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="A Round Tuit"/><title type='text'>Gone Fishing</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4_BcGEscKsN85kV37PHcsG7_wcRoK5GVe2tesilND28xItWZs5hwNLyce8AKWvbh2DOpH68zlSRO_AthuE8Zdw-9_lmnd-MlnIrP4_YrVC0sgDhgRhgBkJLT9mJDCLimBYJlZw/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Gone Fishing&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;362&quot; height=&quot;450&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Round Tuit will return next week. Probably.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Image: &quot;Gone Fishing&quot; (Norman Rockwell; 1930)</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/5569868690329164440/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/5569868690329164440' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/5569868690329164440'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/5569868690329164440'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/gone-fishing.html' title='Gone Fishing'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4_BcGEscKsN85kV37PHcsG7_wcRoK5GVe2tesilND28xItWZs5hwNLyce8AKWvbh2DOpH68zlSRO_AthuE8Zdw-9_lmnd-MlnIrP4_YrVC0sgDhgRhgBkJLT9mJDCLimBYJlZw/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-8440884619224659515</id><published>2011-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-15T07:00:02.078-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Current Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Schadenfreude"/><title type='text'>TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schedenfreude! (328)</title><content type='html'>This week&#39;s joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8628690/News-of-the-World-final-crossword-has-a-message-for-catastrophe-Rebekah-Brooks.html&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (from Sunday, July 10; link good at time of posting):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;Departing staff at the News of the World appear to have sent a parting message of disgust to former editor Rebekah Brooks in the crossword of the paper&#39;s final edition.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite orders allegedly given from the top of News International to ensure to &quot;ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive&quot;, staff appear to have found a way of mocking Mrs Brooks one last time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Among the clues in the paper&#39;s Quickie puzzle were: &quot;Brook&quot;, &quot;stink&quot;, &quot;catastrope&quot; and &quot;digital protection&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The clues for the Cryptic Crossword seemed to cut even closer to the bone, with examples including: &quot;criminal enterprise&quot;, &quot;mix in prison&quot;, &quot;string of recordings&quot; and &quot;will fear new security measure&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The clue for 24 Across - which reads &quot;Woman stares wildly at calamity&quot; - is thought to be a reference to a photograph of Mrs Brooks staring furiously from the window of a car as she left News International&#39;s Wapping headquarters following the announcement the News of the World was to be shut down.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The answer to the clue is not one she would appreciate: &quot;disaster&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other answers included: &quot;stench&quot;, &quot;racket&quot; and &quot;tart&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A source at the News of the World told the Daily Mail that Mrs Brooks had ordered two loyal Sun journalists to comb the papers looking for tricks.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
They said: &quot;Rebekah tried everything to stop the staff having the last word and she utterly failed.&lt;/blockquote&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schadenfreude-327.html&quot;&gt;Previous TGIS&lt;/a&gt;]</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/8440884619224659515/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/8440884619224659515' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8440884619224659515'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/8440884619224659515'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/tgis-thank-god-its-schedenfreude-328.html' title='TGIS: Thank God It&#39;s Schedenfreude! (328)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10772329.post-6799788324886737353</id><published>2011-07-13T04:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-07-13T04:00:12.017-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="A Round Tuit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Current Events"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Law"/><title type='text'>A Round Tuit (62)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnO0-byivXY0Tb7CZ9I1RmxUy6BSYDGImGwaAS4JI3pIQQXOaMeOWA43vS2QNgnyeTth2Pv-vnuAt-Q-qN-x4YTRvCIXN9AR56YEFjeyfm4DVevLpifY-K1DrgRc8s_JKGWT52A/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;A Round Tuit&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When it comes to legal blogging, there seems to be no shortage of writing worth reading once one gets around to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&#39;s that? You have no round tuit? My friend, you are fortunate indeed, for never before in human history have round tuits been so readily available. If you need one, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carbolicsmokeball.com/catalog/4257/A_Round_Tuit/&quot;&gt;Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.&lt;/a&gt; has them in stock.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While you place your order, I&#39;ll share a few posts which are worth your attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrD_lhKfr-EganoOCKaColaG4pH1_musC3-NdI0fF3ISVxiYpX2SE2AAVS2-Dv5ZMnsQ8oli3xhyTSazcPm4IhxPoXZa1c8Myg9VoKOizolL3gXXM2rtC4XRIsl3_qFEYvrdvDGA/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Nancy Grace&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;368&quot; height=&quot;278&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I might digress for a moment, I&#39;ll mention that some months ago my family opted to discontinue our cable television subscription. Between Apple TV and streaming Netflix, I&#39;d found that nearly all of our entertainment needs could be satisfied without coughing-up a hunski every month to the fine folks at Comcast. Until a couple weeks ago, I was merely satisfied with that choice; there&#39;s downside &amp;#8212; namely, my limited live sports choices &amp;#8212; but it&#39;s outweighed by the upside &amp;#8212; increased disposable income and fewer hours spent watching drivel, amongst other things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since discovering what I&#39;d missed in all the news coverage of the Casey Anthony trial and verdict, however, I&#39;ve revised my opinion. Going cable-free is an unmitigated good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Friends, you can rid yourself of the social disease that is Nancy Grace and save money while doing so! I&#39;m living proof!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As distasteful as the furor surrounding the trial and disgraceful the unhinged commentary of lawyers (including Grace) on television was, the discussion in the legal blogosphere demonstrated that sane consideration and discussion of emotional legal topics is indeed possible. Shortly after Anthony was acquitted on all but a few misdemeanor counts, &lt;a href=&quot;http://criminaldefenseblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/embarrassment-of-casey-anthony-verdict.html&quot;&gt;Brian Tannebaum&lt;/a&gt; offered some thoughts about the shameful coverage of the trial in the media and reaction to it online:&lt;blockquote&gt;I don&#39;t know what happened to 2-year old Caylee Anthony. Neither do you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The jury of 12 unanimously rejected that the state proved Casey Anthony killed her daughter. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;CNN calls this a &quot;stunning&quot; conclusion. Why?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because the public &lt;em&gt;knew&lt;/em&gt; she was guilty.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the media now doing the typical questioning of their behavior during the trial, save it. You made your bed, you lost your bet that there would be a death sentence, and questioning yourself is the definition of hypocrisy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for the public&#39;s &quot;disgust,&quot; and whiny disastrous attempts at complete sentences on social media - I can&#39;t help you understand the system of American justice. You don&#39;t care. You want what you want, damn the Constitution and jury instructions. All I can say about you is that I will argue for your right to act like complete morons and I will argue for a criminal defendant&#39;s right to a fair trial, which includes the obligation of the state to prove each and every element of the charge(s) beyond and to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The embarrassment of the Casey Anthony verdict is not the verdict, it&#39;s everything surrounding it.&lt;/blockquote&gt;The jury&#39;s verdict of &quot;not guilty&quot; didn&#39;t affect &lt;a href=&quot;http://abovethelaw.com/2011/07/casey-anthony-the-sentence/&quot;&gt;Elie Mystal&lt;/a&gt;&#39;s suspicions about her culpability, but he was as disgusted as anyone by the coverage of and reaction to her case:&lt;blockquote&gt;...I expect lawyers and people with a modicum of legal training to at least be able think about “the justice for Casey Anthony.” Look, the jury found her “not guilty,” but that doesn’t mean I have to believe that she’s “innocent.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just fail to see the outrageous miscarriage of justice here. Was the trial unfair or rigged in some way? Was the jury tampered with? Was there some kind of “smoking gun” evidence that prosecutors were not allowed to present in front of the jury? No? Then STFU, please. The lady beat the rap. It happens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Look, I’m not trying to defend Casey Anthony. I’m not that crazy. I’m just trying to say: “Nothing is f**ked here, dude.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;Amongst those trained attorneys discussing the case anywhere except on television, &quot;nothing is f**ked here, dude&quot; seemed to be the general consensus. As &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/07/06/questions-without-answers.aspx&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; put it, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yuni.com/latin/Stercus-accidit/Shit-happens/1664/&quot;&gt;Stercus accidit&lt;/a&gt;.&quot; He discussed our unease with the jury system when our questions remain unanswered:&lt;blockquote&gt;Before the verdict, everybody had answers, with the loudest voice being Nancy Grace who seized every opportunity to tell the rest of us how much she knew.  After, she was the ugliest person on TV.  Truth is, she was always that ugly, but it didn&#39;t come into focus until her face contorted in disgust.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the hardest things to get used to is reaching an end without having answers.  Tolerance for ambiguity, the variety of things it might have been, isn&#39;t the norm in a world where everything is explained in the final five minutes of the show.  We got a verdict, but we have no answers.  Most people can&#39;t stand it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s never clear what a jury might do. It&#39;s even less clear why.  Sometimes, there is no reason behind it at all, while other times the reason is abundantly sound.  We can&#39;t believe the post-verdict interviews, where they explain their rationale after they&#39;ve had a chance to form one.  The dynamic in the jury room defies normal explanations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The system worked, however.  That much I know.  When the jury reached a verdict, that&#39;s what the system is supposed to do.  What that verdict is, on the other hand, isn&#39;t dictated by the system itself, but by the vicissitudes of trial.  Despite the efforts of all involved, the outcome sometimes comes on its own.  And sometimes the right outcome happens.  The reasons for it, well, don&#39;t really matter.  That&#39;s why juries don&#39;t have to explain themselves and justify their verdict.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wacocriminallawblog.com/2011/07/articles/evidence-and-procedure/the-state-still-has-to-prove-its-case/&quot;&gt;Walter Reaves&lt;/a&gt; wrote that the Anthony verdict serves as a reminder that the State still has to prove its case (and for this we should be thankful):&lt;blockquote&gt;The justice system still requires the State to prove it&#39;s case beyond a reasonable doubt. Basically that means you shouldn&#39;t convict someone because you think they are &quot;probably&quot;guilty. the burden isn&#39;t decreased in serious cases, or when a child is involved. No matter how much you want to see &quot;justice&quot; done, that doesn&#39;t mean you convict someone on less than sufficient evidence. Far to often jurors give in to the urge to want to hold someone accountable. The most convenient &quot;someone&quot; is the defendant on trial.&lt;/blockquote&gt;For &lt;a href=&quot;http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2011/07/several-sentencing-reasons-casey-anthony-should-be-thankful-she-is-not-in-federal-court.html&quot;&gt;Douglas Berman&lt;/a&gt;, Anthony&#39;s sentence for several Florida misdemeanors &amp;#8212; with nearly all of that time already served &amp;#8212; contrasted with and highlighted the failings of the Federal system:&lt;blockquote&gt;...Anthony faces sentencing on only four Florida misdemeanor counts based on her lies to police during the investigation of her daughter&#39;s disappearance.  In the federal system, such lies might have been charged as a felony count of obstruction of justice, and then each conviction would carry a five-year maximum prison term.  In Florida state court, Anthony is looking at a maximum prison term of four years (a one-year max on all four misdemeanor counts of conviction); were this matter in federal court, she could have been facing up to 20 years total imprisonment based on four lies to authorities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most critically, the federal sentencing guidelines would instruct a judge to sentence Anthony based essentially on the crime he believes, based on a preponderance of evidence, she covered up even after a jury has acquitted her of that crime.  In other words, it is not only possible, but surprisingly common, for a federal judge to sentence a defendant for a murder that the defendant has been acquitted of!&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/07/06/proposed-caylees-law-generates-virtual-frenzy/&quot;&gt;Patrick Lee&lt;/a&gt; reported that for many people, Anthony&#39;s case demonstrated another failing of the Federal system &amp;#8212; that her conduct was somehow &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; a violation of a Federal law. In the days after the verdict, more than a million rubes signed-onto an online petition site to fix what isn&#39;t wrong:&lt;blockquote&gt;The petition is the fastest-growing campaign that has ever been hosted on the site and is causing website traffic problems, a spokesman for Change.org told the Law Blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It calls for the creation of a new federal statute called “Caylee’s Law” – named after Anthony’s deceased daughter – that would make it a felony for parents not to report the death of a child to law enforcement within an hour of discovering the incident, or within 24 hours in the case of child disappearance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The proposal stems from details in the Anthony case: Caylee first went missing on June 16, 2008, but her grandmother only notified the police a month later. Trial spectators reacted with anger and disappointment to the jury’s verdict, upset by the prospect that Anthony might soon walk free after spending two and a half years in prison waiting for trial....&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.simplejustice.us/2011/07/06/like-day-follows-night-meet-caylees-law.aspx&quot;&gt;Scott Greenfield&lt;/a&gt; noted that although the specifics of &quot;Caylee&#39;s Law&quot; weren&#39;t necessarily predictable, that someone would propose such a law was a near-certainty:&lt;blockquote&gt;[E]very time a child dies, no matter how bizarre the circumstance, society must prevent it from ever happening again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This compulsion to avenge a tragedy involving a child by crafting yet another law to deal with a situation already fully covered (as in murder) has produced a basic rule that any law named after a dead child is invariably a bad exercise of legislative fiat.  It&#39;s not the intended consequences I fear, but the unintended ones. And there are always unintended ones.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a huge promotional opportunity for politicians across the country, to grab all those folks feeling disaffected by the verdict and make a run for their hearts, if not their minds.... This isn&#39;t about an appeal to reason, but an appeal to emotion.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Are legislators so stupid as to believe that enactment of this misguided law will accomplish anything?  Well, no doubt some are. There&#39;s no intelligence test required for election to office.  But others will know that this is just pandering, and will do so with gusto.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://volokh.com/2011/07/11/political-ignorance-and-caylees-law/&quot;&gt;Ilya Somin&lt;/a&gt; also made a political calculation:&lt;blockquote&gt;It seems likely that political ignorance is an important part of the story here. The public sees the high-profile case, and has a knee-jerk desire to “do something about it.” Most voters don’t realize how rare such cases are, and also know very little about the potential downsides of proposals like these. And, because political ignorance is rational, few will take the time and effort to investigate the evidence and deliberate carefully before forming an opinion. For their part, politicians hungry for votes and activists hungry for media attention are more than willing to cater to the public’s demands.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s unrealistic to expect rationally ignorant voters to devote significant time and effort to studying proposals like Caylee’s Law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the wake of a terrible tragedy, it’s much more emotionally satisfying to call for decisive action to save the next Caylee Anthony than to hold back on the grounds that there may be nothing we can do.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://randazza.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/and-the-inevitable-happens/&quot;&gt;Marco Randazza&lt;/a&gt; saw the legislative pandering coming and pleaded for someone to enact &quot;Marco&#39;s Law&quot; before it was too late:&lt;blockquote&gt;Can we please pass “Marco’s Law?” If any legislator proposes a law named after a dead child, the legislator should lose their position, then they should be dragged out into the street, and someone should shove a live cactus up their ass.&lt;/blockquote&gt;No such luck. Within days, &quot;Caylee&#39;s Law&quot; had morphed from misguided online petition to misguided proposed legislation in a few states. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/caylees-law-casey-anthony-_n_893953.html&quot;&gt;Radley Balko&lt;/a&gt; wrote a tremendously-detailed and thoughtful post outlining the many reasons a law along the lines proposed would be &amp;#8212; to put it mildly &amp;#8212; a bad idea:&lt;blockquote&gt;Even as DNA testing continues to exonerate wrongly convicted people, including people who were nearly executed, it&#39;s this rare case -- in which a jury recognized that there was no physical evidence linking Anthony to her daughter&#39;s murder -- that has America questioning its justice system.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a bad way to make public policy. In an interview with CNN, [activist Michelle] Crowder concedes that she didn&#39;t consult with a single law enforcement official before coming up with her 24-hour and 1-hour limits. This raises some questions. How did she come up with those cutoffs? Did she consult with any grief counselors to see if there may be innocuous reasons why an innocent person who just witnessed a child&#39;s death might not immediately report it, such as shock, passing out, or some other sort of mental breakdown? Did she consult with a forensic pathologist to see if it&#39;s even possible to pin down the time of death with the sort of precision you&#39;d need to make Caylee&#39;s Law enforceable? Have any of the lawmakers who have proposed or are planning to propose this law actually consulted with anyone with some knowledge of these issues?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While Caylee&#39;s Law could quite conceivably ensnare innocent grieving parents, it seems unlikely that it will prevent a single child&#39;s death. Consider: Is a father who is depraved enough to kill his own son really going to be dissuaded by a law that says he must notify the authorities of his son&#39;s death within an hour of having killed him? He&#39;s already committing murder. The law isn&#39;t likely to affect a parent who kills a child in a fit of anger or rage, either. By definition, crimes of passion are perpetrated in the heat of the moment, with little consideration of consequences.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a country of 308 million people, bad things are going to happen. We already have laws against murder, child abuse, and child neglect. When you pass laws that make it easier to imprison people in cases where the state doesn&#39;t have enough evidence to prove the crime everyone knows they&#39;re &lt;em&gt;actually&lt;/em&gt; prosecuting, you undermine the integrity of the justice system. The &quot;flaw&quot; that led to the Casey Anthony verdict is pretty straightforward: The state failed to prove its case. And the government &lt;em&gt;must&lt;/em&gt; prove its case, even when all of America is 100 percent certain of the defendant&#39;s guilt, because we want to be sure the state will always also have to prove its case when we aren&#39;t so certain.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rhdefense.com/2011/07/10/hypocrisy-in-the-colosseum&quot;&gt;Rick Horowitz&lt;/a&gt; considered the public spectacle surrounding the Anthony trial and was reminded of an earlier public spectacle:&lt;blockquote&gt;The courtroom is about the closest that I think any &lt;em&gt;civilized&lt;/em&gt; people should ever come to gladiatorial combat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There, the “gladiators” share one thing — and, I hope, pretty much only one thing — in common with those of ancient Rome: they are professionally trained.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our criminal justice system depends — particularly for the right to be called a “justice” system — upon this fundamental principle that neither Truth, nor unarmed prisoners, will be sacrificed to the State’s trained gladiators.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;In no other way is our justice system intended to resemble the Colosseum!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Increasingly, however, it appears that Americans are no more concerned with justice and no less bloodthirsty than those who flocked to the amphitheaters of Rome to watch the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munera_(Roman_contest)&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;munera&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://criminaldefenseblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/casey-anthony-epilogue.html&quot;&gt;Brian Tannebaum&lt;/a&gt; deserved the first word on the Anthony trial in this post and he deserves the last as well:&lt;blockquote&gt;For the lawyers and former judges on TV saying the jury &quot;didn&#39;t understand reasonable doubt?&quot; You disgust me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To all those asking what I think of the verdict? I think a jury of 12 people agreed the state didn&#39;t prove the case, and when 12 people can read instructions and evaluate evidence and come to a unanimous decision, I am happy that the Constitution is still a part of our system, no matter how many politicians and self hating lawyers try to tear it down.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m sorry a little girl is dead. I have two myself. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But I never want the Constitution and our criminal justice system to take a back seat to those who believe the burden of proof is just a technicality.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6JNz7Pmem_KZv6B2w6Y0OvaTYQtp3bttT7Jkqm33q3rR5Bw0Ts5n-_Xv1B6_4ifhfPXyAT-zRDnek89Hk4DL4v76HrTPlUSEx-AMNwPBVK0hdNNnJtTglxZyyQKU2SDRLtxtmQ/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;New of the World&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;248&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past week or two has demonstrated the worst tendencies of the American free press; thankfully, Rupert Murdoch&#39;s &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; was busily demonstrating the worst tendencies of the British free press and distracted a bit from our shame.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Briefly, the background on this long-developing scandal: In 2006-7, a &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; editor and a private investigator whom he&#39;d hired were convicted after they hacked-into the voicemail of several members of the royal family&#39;s staff. News International, the Murdoch company which owns that paper and several others in the UK, claimed that the hacking was the work of those rogue individuals and was neither a common practice elsewhere in the organization nor directed at other targets. Recently, evidence surfaced which indicated that neither representation was true. It&#39;s now believed that thousands of people, including victims of terror attacks and family members of soldiers killed in the Iraq War, may have been targeted by &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; reporters, editors, and investigators. Amongst the voicemail accounts accessed was that of Milly Dowler, the schoolgirl whose disappearance and murder recently resulted in a high-profile trial and conviction; some evidence suggests that messages may have been improperly deleted from her account, creating some concern amongst authorities that their recently-secured conviction might now be subject to challenge.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://beneaththewig.com/i-heard-the-news-today-oh-boy&quot;&gt;Amanda Bancroft&lt;/a&gt; discussed the developing scandal and suggested that stronger regulation than the current Press Complaints Commission was needed:&lt;blockquote&gt;Back in the 19th Century, Alexis de Tocqueville suggested that “in every democracy, the people get the government they deserve”. I’m quite sure he was, and is, right. I wonder though, whether we also get the press we deserve.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some are calling for new law. Some are calling for advertisers to now boycott the News of the World, some are calling for heads on platters, and others are just expressing rage. Some, including the former Deputy Prime Minister, are suggesting that this story is indicative of why Rupert Murdoch shouldn’t own the part of BSkyB which isn’t currently in his control, and Ed Miliband is calling for a public inquiry. Later today there will be an emergency debate in the Commons on the issue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I am interested in is why parts of this phone hacking story are still emerging 9 years after the event.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[I]n 2009, so staunch was the PCC in standing by their 2007 investigation, in particular that there was only 8 hacking victims, Baroness Buscombe accused Mark Lewis, the lawyer now representing the Dowler family, of being misleading in his evidence to the Select Committee in saying there were some 6,000 hacking victims. He launched a libel action, which was settled for an undisclosed sum, and led to an apology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My original pondering was do we get the press we deserve? Given that this story, largely due to the Guardian, is now in the public domain, I believe yes, we undoubtedly do. In our reaction to the criminal activities of one news desk we should not forget that we have a press we can be proud of, who keep a check on the government of the day, any day, when one considers, for example, the Spycatcher affair and more recently, the MP’s expenses investigation. But once we have finished the public inquiries, and once the criminal trials against the proper perpetrators have ended, can we have the regulators we need, please.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/news-international-today&quot;&gt;David Allen Green&lt;/a&gt; wondered that News International&#39;s response to the developing scandal was surprisingly inadequate:&lt;blockquote&gt;For a media organisation who deals with those engaged in reputation management on a daily basis, the reaction of News International was unimpressive. Yesterday&#39;s email from [News International executive and former &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; editor] Rebekah Brooks was barely even literate, with &quot;allegeds&quot; and &quot;allegations&quot; inserted so as to render propositions and sentences almost meaningless. The unfortunate spokesperson put up for interviews on the evening news came across as evasive and hapless.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, this flat-footedness should not be any surprise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tactic of News International at each phase of the scandal is to try and close the matter down by explaining away the available facts. Hence we have had the &quot;lone rogue reporter&quot; theory for the Royal Household hackings; and the dismissive &quot;just media tittle-tattle&quot; excuses for the celebrity hackings. That the hacking have now moved on to ordinary people caught up in events has exposed the limitations of previous narratives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As it stands, News International clearly cannot decide whether to claim it has all the necessary facts (so that it can say that the problem has been dealt with) or that it has not got the necessary facts (so that it cannot comment on what it does not know).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Late last week, the company decided to shut down the 168-years-old, highly profitable &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; in an attempt to stop their legal, political, and financial bleeding. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/legal-news-continue&quot;&gt;Green&lt;/a&gt; wrote that: &quot;Whatever the PR and political merits of the decision to close the &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt;, it makes no legal difference whatsoever in respect of the phone-hacking scandal. The applicable criminal and civil legal obligations are owed by News International and the individuals concerned.&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.forbes.com/kashmirhill/2011/07/07/news-of-the-world-proves-privacy-violations-can-result-in-death-penalty/&quot;&gt;Kashmir Hill&lt;/a&gt; noted that the closure of &lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt; represented the latest in a series of businesses given a &quot;death penalty&quot; for their disregard of personal privacy:&lt;blockquote&gt;There’s a higher threshold for invasion of public figures’ privacy; in the sphere of public opinion, it seems that hacking the voicemail of a 13-year-old girl — a private citizen who became a public only because she went missing — crossed a line, becoming an abuse of journalistic privilege sufficient to demand a sacrifice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[&lt;em&gt;News of the World&lt;/em&gt;&#39;s] closing is proof that privacy is not just a buzzword, but important to a business’s survival. The shuttering of News of the World is probably the most visible death of a business based on privacy violations but it’s not the first.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Many observers suggested that the decision to close the paper so dramatically was intended to salvage News Corporation&#39;s pending effort to acquire the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.headoflegal.com/2011/07/06/can-the-newscorp-bskyb-deal-be-stopped/&quot;&gt;Carl Gardner&lt;/a&gt; watched the maneuvering and discussed whether these new revelations endangered the acquisition:&lt;blockquote&gt;So can the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt now block the planned merger of News Corporation and BSkyB?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He has already said he is minded to allow it, subject to certain undertakings relating in particular to the independence of Sky News, undertakings on which he is consulting the public.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In my view it’s not legally defensible now for Hunt to slam the brakes on this process, let alone put it into reverse. Crucially, the legislation governing the procedure – article 5 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (protection of Legitimate Interests) order 2003 – requires him when deciding now whether to refer the matter to the Competition Commission to take account only of the public interest consideration mentioned in the original European Intervention Notice – the plurality of media ownership. Given his previous indication that he was minded to accept undertakings, and given the Ofcom/OFT advice, in my view a court on judicial review would be bound to conclude that a referral now could only be based on new public interest considerations – and would quash the decision to refer.&lt;/blockquote&gt;In that post, Gardner suggested that the previously-stated government position and the company&#39;s &quot;undertakings&quot; &amp;#8212; its promise to spin-off Sky News as part of the transaction, offered to avoid referral to the UK&#39;s Competition Commission &amp;#8212; made News Corporation&#39;s position a very strong one. When the company unexpectedly withdrew those undertakings, ensuring a referral to the Competition Commission, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.headoflegal.com/2011/07/11/news-corp-withdraws-its-undertakings-but-why/&quot;&gt;Gardner&lt;/a&gt; wrote that, &quot;This changes everything.&quot; He considered what the company &amp;#8212; and the government &amp;#8212; stood to gain from the move and whether this was an arranged deal between them:&lt;blockquote&gt;First, in spite of the strength of their legal position, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp must have feared that, the political temperature on this issue being so high, there was a risk that ministers might feel obliged to “find a way” to block the bid, and try to call Murdoch’s legal bluff, or gamble that they might, just, successfully defend a judicial review in these extreme circumstances.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From News Corporation’s point of view, while today’s move puts the bid on the back burner (as many MPs have been demanding) it does not kill it; it leaves open the possibility that News Corp could once persuade the Competition Commission, as it persuaded the OFT and Ofcome, and that the bid could go through one day, when perhaps the heat has subsided. While we’re used to thinking about Rupert Murdoch’s power over  government, the truth is government has a great deal of power over him. He might well choose to do them a favour rather than raise the stakes yet higher at this moment of danger for his whole empire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From ministers’ point of view, the decision comes like a prayer being granted. It gets Jeremy Hunt completely off the immediate legal and political hook. His transparent decision to delay a decision – by relying on the number of responses he had to his last consultation – was not unsustainable in the short term politically, and in the longer term legally. This gives him much more room for manoeuvre.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[I]n my view, one of the inquiries announced last week by the Prime Minister must look into all contact between News Corp and everyone and anyone in government and Parliament last week and this. The public must know if this was yet another stitch-up between News Corp and politicians.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Invariably, whenever a legal controversy commands public and governmental attention as this one has, we can rely on &lt;a href=&quot;http://charonqc.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/withoutprejudice-special-podcast-news-of-the-world-judicial-inquiry-the-law-and-the-commercial-real-politik/&quot;&gt;Charon QC&lt;/a&gt;&#39;s &quot;Without Prejudice&quot; podcasts to get the the heart of the issue; he and guests Carl Gardner and David Allen Green did so this week in a very lively discussion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I left Charon a voicemail congratulating him on another fine discussion. I didn&#39;t bother to leave it on his phone, however; I just called News Corporation directly. Since they&#39;re so busy this week, I thought I&#39;d save them the effort of hacking his account.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR36CERx-MJxjns-P6IRjCNjWH3EiJecQ7vp1wzNdbUJ9Fie5JVdV1Jfx03D7f3M-vzl6DP79mrTpqaGqEaMYwCf7ynWTsUVka_3nf-__3fcyQg9QJaQBWnH7JmNtxjfLWJea8XQ/?imgmax=800&quot; alt=&quot;Odds n Ends Shop&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We often discuss the key roles ethics and credibility play in maintaining our profession and, conversely, how failures of ethics and credibility undermine it. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.declarationsandexclusions.com/2011/07/profiles-in-credibility.html&quot;&gt;George Wallace&lt;/a&gt; noted this past week that this is true as well for expert witnesses:&lt;blockquote&gt;Just today, I noticed a discussion thread in the LinkedIn &quot;Insurance Coverage&quot; Group that gave me pause.  An attorney in the Buffalo/Niagara region of New York has started a discussion under this title:&lt;blockquote&gt;Need ins agent expert to testify at trial in NY Sup Ct Erie Co that standard for agent of direct writer is to obtain requested coverage in reasonable time or inform client of inability to do so.&lt;/blockquote&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The attorney essentially says flat out that the object of the search is not an expert to consult or advise generally on a subject, i.e., &quot;standards for agents of direct writers.&quot;  Rather, as phrased, the attorney announces a search for an expert who will commit in advance to stating a particular opinion, i.e., &quot;the standard for agents of direct writers is [as stated by the attorney].&quot;  The standard articulated by the attorney may, in truth, be the applicable standard in New York; the method by which the opinion has been solicited, however, potentially compromises the credibility of any expert who takes the stand to describe it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Expert witnesses are constantly accused, in depositions and at trial, of being mere &quot;hired guns&quot; whose opinions should be disregarded because they are &quot;bought and paid for.&quot;  Expert witnesses are always under scrutiny by opposing counsel concerning the manner in which they came to be selected and hired.  Framing the search for an expert as has been done in this LinkedIn discussion makes the &quot;hired gun&quot; argument that much easier for opposing counsel to advance, by providing what may be perceived as direct evidence that whichever expert ultimately ventures the relevant opinion should perhaps not to be trusted by the trier of fact.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With an expert witness, credibility is everything.  An expert&#39;s opinion testimony is only as persuasive and only as valuable the expert&#39;s explanation of the reasons for holding that opinion.  A jury or a judge needs to be persuaded that the expert&#39;s opinions are reliable because the expert genuinely holds those opinions and has come to them by a reasoned and articulable process.  The entire structure of expert witness credibility collapses when it can be demonstrated, or at least made to appear, that the expert was retained to parrot opinions dictated by counsel, to be as it were a mere &quot;mouthpiece&#39;s mouthpiece.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;An entertaining incident made the rounds this past week when a wildlife photographer had his camera misappropriated by a few of the monkeys he was photographing. According to his account, the monkeys took dozens of photos, including several amusing self-portraits, before he recaptured his lost gear. That several of these photos were circulated by his wire service with their own copyright notice prompted several bloggers to wonder how those copyrights might have been acquired. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/07/legal-questions-raised-by-success-of-monkey-photographer.html&quot;&gt;Kevin Underhill&lt;/a&gt; wrote:&lt;blockquote&gt;Since [photographer David] Slater didn&#39;t take the pictures, I don&#39;t think he can be the &quot;author.&quot; And unless he got the monkey&#39;s consent in writing, I don&#39;t think he has any rights through the author. If this had been a &quot;work for hire,&quot; then the employer would own the rights, but this monkey was clearly a freelancer. I suppose non-human primates probably can&#39;t own intellectual property, although underage humans can, and that&#39;s a pretty fine line as far as I&#39;m concerned. But even if the monkey doesn&#39;t have the rights, that doesn&#39;t mean Slater or the news agency has them. Maybe all works of monkey art are in the public domain!&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110706/00200314983/monkey-business-can-monkey-license-its-copyrights-to-news-agency.shtml&quot;&gt;Mike Masnick&lt;/a&gt; speculated along similar lines, but his experience took an odd turn when the news agency sent him a take-down notice in support of their copyright claims. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110712/01182015052/monkeys-dont-do-fair-use-news-agency-tells-techdirt-to-remove-photos.shtml&quot;&gt;Masnick&lt;/a&gt; described his subsequent exchange with the organization:&lt;blockquote&gt;After consulting no fewer than four lawyers (I&#39;m nothing if not thorough) on this matter, I decided that the best course of action was just to ask for a clarification, since they did not make clear the actual basis for the request, and point out that it&#39;s not at all clear Caters has any legal claim whatsoever. At the same time, assuming they could come back with some legal argument for why the copyright was legit, we decided to make it clear that we believe, strongly, that the use of the images was protected fair use, if they actually are covered by copyright. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caters was quick to reply, and it appears they have a rather different view on these things:&lt;blockquote&gt;Michael, regardless of the issue of who does and doesn&#39;t own the copyright - it is 100% clear that the copyright owner is not yourself. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You have blatantly &#39;lifted&#39; these photographs from somewhere - I presume the Daily Mail online. On the presumption that you do not like to encourage copyright theft (regardless of who owns it) then please remove the photographs.&lt;/blockquote&gt;If I&#39;m reading this correctly -- and I believe that I am -- Caters News Agency is claiming that anyone, copyright holder or not, can issue a takedown on a photo, if they can claim that the person using the image is not the copyright holder either -- regardless of whether &quot;fair use&quot; applies. That&#39;s... an interesting interpretation of the law. It&#39;s also not a valid interpretation of the law. In fact, in some places, sending a takedown notice, if you are not the copyright holder, is what&#39;s actually against the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[T]his highlights another case of someone completely misunderstanding the purpose and intent of copyright law, believing that it is universal and that it gives total control to the copyright holder. Caters does not even seem willing to consider that this image &lt;em&gt;might not even have a copyright&lt;/em&gt; given its provenance. In fact, under Cater&#39;s own definition, it seems just as reasonable for us to ask that it take down the image, given that we do not believe that it has a valid copyright interest in the image either. Not everything gets copyright, and when something is covered by copyright, it does not give the rightsholder full control over every use. It&#39;s unfortunate that a company that has built a business around copyright appears not to understand these basic facts.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Touching upon a number of cases, &lt;a href=&quot;http://apublicdefender.com/2011/07/10/what-do-we-want-from-our-system/&quot;&gt;Gideon&lt;/a&gt; asked provocatively what sort of justice system we really want and whether &quot;justice&quot; is characteristic of it:&lt;blockquote&gt;The appreciation of a system which presumes an individual innocent &lt;em&gt;unless&lt;/em&gt; the State can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt seems to be shrinking to a select few who make their living in that system. For the rest, the pure exhilaration of having a pre-determined verdict of guilt (and isn’t it always guilt?) announced, confirming their increasingly myopic and monochromatic view of the world is the only expectation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do we want a system that protects the individual or do we want a system that confirms our view of the guilt of those arrested? Do we want a system that lifts the substance of the accusation up to the light – and upon finding  it wanting – discards it? Or do we want a system that goes by the smell test? Do we want a system where no one who is arrested is not guilty? Do we want so much to believe in the infallibility of our so-called protectors? Do we want a system that allows us to so easily and hypocritically create an artificial divide between the mob and the mobbed?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Does the system only work when the guilty are convicted and the innocent are acquitted, or does it work when some who may be guilty are nonetheless set free? Does the system work when some who are likely innocent are not?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[T]here is a bias toward convicting and keeping people convicted. I sit here, day after day, reading as cases and reports of cases come flooding across my line of sight – and every day it’s the same: we love pronouncing judgment on others and love our moral indignation and our self-assumed superiority. We &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; better. They &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; guilty.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One day they’ll come for you and there’ll be no one left to speak up for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What do we want from our system? A rubber stamp, apparently.&lt;/blockquote&gt;While Gideon&#39;s lack of faith in us and the system we&#39;ve created is justified, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/cory-maye-freed-after-10-years_n_890456.html?view=print&quot;&gt;Radley Balko&lt;/a&gt; reminded us this past week that justice &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; sometimes done &amp;#8212; if grudgingly, uncertainly, and unacceptably slowly. The long road Cory Maye&#39;s defense team traveled to secure his release from an unjust imprisonment shows that justice can be done, but illustrates how unlikely it&#39;s become for many caught-up in our justice system:&lt;blockquote&gt;Cory Maye, now 30, was convicted in 2004 of shooting and killing Prentiss, Mississippi, police officer Ron Jones, Jr. during a botched drug raid on Maye&#39;s home on the day after Christmas in 2001. Maye says he was asleep as the raid began at 12:30 a.m. and had no idea the men breaking into his home were police. The police say they announced themselves. Maye had no prior criminal record, and police found all of a marijuana roach in his apartment, which under other circumstances would garner a $100 fine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact, the man who lived next door to Maye in that bright yellow duplex, Jamie Smith, already had drug charges pending against him and appears to have been the actual target of the police action that night. The police found a significant supply of drugs in Smith&#39;s apartment, though Smith has never been tried.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ask anyone about Maye, and they&#39;ll mention that grin. Maye always smiles, even when a smile may not be the most appropriate expression. [Maye attorney Bob] Evans says he was smiling throughout his trial, which probably didn&#39;t help him with the jury. He was even smiling when he was sentenced to death.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;So what are you thinking this morning?&quot; I ask. &quot;I imagine there&#39;s a lot going through your mind.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;I&#39;m just ready to get home to my family and see my kids,&quot; Maye says. &quot;I want to take them fishing. Maybe take them to Sea World or Disneyland.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;[W]e chat about food. He wants his first meal outside of prison to be his mother&#39;s gumbo, with a side of her banana pudding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;There&#39;s going to be a big party when this is done,&quot; Evans says. &quot;You&#39;ll get to eat all you want.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;It&#39;s an inspiring story and well-worth a careful read in its entirety. Balko is modest about his own role in publicizing Maye&#39;s case over several years, publicity which enabled Maye to secure the pro bono representation of two members of his legal team and to keep his case in the public consciousness. Maye&#39;s story is one in which Balko has played a meaningful role; it&#39;s entirely fitting that his hand should write its happy ending.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Header pictures used in this post were obtained from (top to bottom) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carbolicsmokeball.com/catalog/4257/A_Round_Tuit/&quot;&gt;Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://themoderatevoice.com/wordpress-engine/files//2011/05/nancy_grace_036.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Moderate Voice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/Newsoftheworld.jpg&quot;&gt;Wikimedia.org&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.silentbid.ca/garage/?page_id=7&quot;&gt;Paris Odds n Ends Thrift Store&lt;/a&gt;.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/feeds/6799788324886737353/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/10772329/6799788324886737353' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6799788324886737353'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10772329/posts/default/6799788324886737353'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://infamyorpraise.blogspot.com/2011/07/round-tuit-62.html' title='A Round Tuit (62)'/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03168693942822575264</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnO0-byivXY0Tb7CZ9I1RmxUy6BSYDGImGwaAS4JI3pIQQXOaMeOWA43vS2QNgnyeTth2Pv-vnuAt-Q-qN-x4YTRvCIXN9AR56YEFjeyfm4DVevLpifY-K1DrgRc8s_JKGWT52A/s72-c?imgmax=800" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>