Author: Eoin

Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

The Manifest Destiny of Critics’ Fair Comment, Again

| 3 Comments
| Defamation, Freedom of Expression

'Manifest Destiny' logo via Keith Burstein's site






During the Summer, I wrote about the decision of the UK’s Court of Appeal in Associated Newspapers Ltd v Keith Burstein [2007] EWCA Civ 600 (22 June 2007), to the effect that an opera critic’s review of the defedant’s opera Manifest Destiny was covered by the defence of fair comment. The defendant sought to appeal to the House of Lords. Now, via MediaPal@LSE (see also Media Law Prof Blog) I learn that, at the end of last month, the House of Lords has decided not to hear the appeal on the usual ground the case “does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the House”. According to Ben Dowell in The Guardian, however, the undaunted composer intends to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). I wrote at the time that the Court of Appeal decision was plainly good common sense, and very welcome for it; I am glad that the House of Lords has declined to hear the appeal; and I fully expect the European Court of Human Rights to dismiss the case as manifestly ill-founded (within the meaning of Article 35(3) of the European Convention on Human Rights (pdf)).…

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The ultimate outrage

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| Capital Punishment, Law, US Supreme Court

Death Penalty rope, via uvsc site.A few weeks ago, The Economist published a Special Report on Capital Punishment in America entitled Revenge begins to seem less sweet. The theme was that Americans – except in Texas – are losing their appetite for the death penalty. One of the many points in a typically well-written, balanced and informative piece was that

It is now far more expensive to execute someone than to jail him for life; in North Carolina, for instance, each capital case costs $2m more. Ordinary inmates need only to be fed and guarded. Those on death row must have lawyers arguing expensively about their fate, sometimes for a decade or more … The system of appeals has grown more protracted because of fears that innocent people may be executed. Few would argue that such safeguards are not needed, but their steep cost gives abolitionists a new line of attack.

This was graphically illustrated by a story in the New York Times last week, headlined: Capital Cases Stall as Costs Grow Daunting: …

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Number unavailable – is locking phones lawful or anticompetitive?

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| Competition Law, Media and Communications

Locked phone, via the NYT site.Have you bought a locked mobile/cellular telephone? Are you thinking about doing do? If so, then you will be interested in an article in the New York Times during the week, entitled Locked vs. Unlocked: Opening Up Choice (also here). One element of it caught my eye in particular:

In the United States … some carriers — and in the case of the iPhone, a phone maker — say that unlocking the phone may violate the company warranty and thus the company will not repair or replace it if something goes awry. Some imply that it is not legal to unlock a phone, but the legal issues are murky at best. A subsection [ie, section 1201] of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 could be interpreted as saying that anyone who unlocks a phone for someone else or tells others how to do it might face legal action.

Some legal scholars, like Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and an authority on digital copyright law, have argued that interpreting the act that way has little to do with protecting copyrights, and more to do with limiting competition. The Librarian of Congress, the office that determines what things are covered under the copyright act, exempts the unlocking of mobile phones from the law.

…

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Property and Empire: From Colonialism to Globalisation

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops

TCD crest, via TCD Law School website.On Tuesday next, 6 November 2007 at 6pm, the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, will host a guest lecture by Prof Patrick McAuslan entitled:

Property and Empire: From Colonialism to Globalisation

Birkbeck Law School logo, via their site.Professor Patrick McAuslan, of the School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London, has worked throughout the developing world, including India, Vietnam, Jamaica, South Africa and Uganda, as a policy adviser to governments on land and environmental matters and as a drafter of new laws on land and natural resources. He studied law at Oxford and was a founding member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1961 to 1966 and of the Warwick School of Law. He was Professor of Public Law at LSE and Professor of Urban Management at UCL. He has wide-ranging research interests and is the author and co-author of several books and many articles, including Bringing the Law Back In: Essays on Land, Law and Development (Ashgate, 2003).

The lecture will take place in The Law School, Trinity College Dublin (map here); all are welcome to attend; please RSVP by 1pm on Monday, 5 November 2007 to Kelley McCabe.…

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Should Jameel spell the end of ‘libel tourism’ to the UK?

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| Defamation, libel tourism

'Alms for Jihad' cover, from the CUP site.An essay by Rachel Donadio, in the New York Times Sunday Book Review of 7 October 2007, entitled Libel Without Borders (hat tip: Law Librarian Blog), begins:

When it first appeared in 2006, Alms for Jihad, an academic book on Islamic charitable networks by two American scholars, drew scant attention. It sold a modest 1,500 copies and received few reviews. But in recent weeks the book has become an international cause célèbre, after Cambridge University Press agreed to pulp all unsold copies in a defamation settlement.

The angry and defiant reaction of Robert Collins, one of the authors, can be read here (with an update here; and there’s more on the story generally from American Libraries, Chronicle of Higher Education, Critical Mass, Democracy Project, FrontPageMagazine.com, Human Events, Mark Steyn, and wikipedia). In what must be an oversight, the book still remains in CUP’s online catalogue (and that’s the cover image, on the top left of this post, from the same site); I can’t find it on Amazon, but this entry is still on the Barnes & Noble website.

This species of forum shopping is called libel tourism; it is said that it chills investigative journalism; and Alms for Jihad is not the only example …

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Airlines are facing legal challenge over refunds

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| Airline charges, Consumer, Irish Law, Restitution

Small palm tree, via Steve Hedley's restitution siteUnder the above headline, Paul Cullen has an excellent piece (sub req’d) on the front page of today’s Irish Times, to the effect that the newly created National Consumer Agency (NCA) is planning a legal challenge aimed at forcing airlines to pay refunds to customers and to display their prices more clearly. The NCA has various airline practices firmly in its sights (and anyone who has been on a plane recently knows exactly what they are), but one line in the article particularly caught my attention:

The airlines are to be asked why … the taxes and charges they collect on behalf of airports are not refunded if a passenger does not fly.

Irish airlines are hardly unique in being slow to refund unincurred taxes and charges (see, for example, the UK’s Air Transport Users Council (AUC) report (pdf) on the issue, and some US stories here and here). One recent online report discussed Ryanair’s less than helpful practices in this area.

Nevertheless, as I have said on this blog before, in my view, as a matter of law, taxes collected but not due must be refunded. In my view, therefore, the NCA has solid legal grounds for this aspect at least of its actions against airlines, and I look forward to further developments in this story!…

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Just when are wardriving and piggybacking illegal?

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| Media and Communications

I have mused on previous occasions on this blog (here and here) as to whether it really is the case that piggybacking on someone else’s open wi-fi connection is a criminal offence. I’m still not sure. Two months ago, the BBC reported Man arrested over wi-fi ‘theft’ and The Register reported Broadbandit nabbed in Wi-Fi bust.

The BBC report began: “A man has been arrested in connection with using a wi-fi broadband connection without permission”; whilst the Register‘s report began “A laptop user was collared by police community support officers in west London yesterday for allegedly pilfering someone else’s Wi-Fi”.…

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Interested always, disinterested often, but uninterested never

| 1 Comment
| Language

New York Times logo, via the NYT siteWilliam Safire (NYT bio | wikipedia), a New York Times Magazine columnist on language, has the following vignette in today’s column (sub no longer req’d!):

A Pet Named Peeve

Two cheerful dogs grace our household, but in my imagination we also have a dog named Peeve. He is perpetually grumpy; complains about his dog food, collar is too tight, bed lumpy, not getting enough exercise, all that. What especially gets his hackles to rise is human language he doesn’t understand.

Disinterested puts him off. When he turns his nose up at a bowl of dry kibble and I say, “Whatsamatter, disinterested in eating?” this erudite Portuguese water dog emits a low growl. He and I know that word means “objective, fair, without a partisan slant or pecuniary involvement.” But it is used by writers who mean “uninterested” and allowed to stand, reeking of misuse, undermining clarity, by editors who could (not) care less. I can’t tell you what my pet, Peeve, scornfully does on a newspaper that treats the language with such unrespect.

Exactly!…

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