Tag: Google

Contract Law Teaching, US-style

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| Contract

I can’t let this pass. From a post by Nate Oman on Concurring Opinions:

Apparently Ben Davis of the University of Toledo law school really gets into the facts of Hadley v. Baxendale, acting out the various parts for his students. (Who, of course, have taped his performance and posted it to Google Videos.) For the non-contracts geeks in the audience, Hadley is a famous case on the recoverability of consequential damages for breach of contract. The facts had to do with late delivery of a replacement mill shaft, and the mill owner’s claim for lost profits. Here is professor Davis, complete with mill shaft…

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Fair Use – Recalibrating the balance in Fair Dealing

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| Copyright, Fair use, Irish Law, James Joyce, Politics

'Scales of Justice', a public domain IP image, via wikipediaThis is a call to arms; or at least, a call for legislation which would radically recast EU copyright law.

Intellectual property law and policy are all about innovation, both encouraging it and protecting its fruits. But these are potentially opposing, perhaps even incompatible, goals: if we reward one innovator with a monopoly over the fruits of the innovation, prohibiting others’ use of those fruits, then we risk preventing the next round of innovation. The challenge to law-makers is to strike the an appropriate balance between reward and innovation, by pitching the length of the monopoly at the right level, both in the breadth of its coverage and the length of its term, beyond which others might also use it.

The story of copyright provides a good example of this dilemma. …

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Google Books in the New Yorker

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| Copyright, Fair use, Libraries

I learn from Michael Geist’s blog that in the New Yorker this week, Jeffrey Toobin has an excellent piece on the Google Books project and the litigation it has spawned. It is well informed, and balanced, both qualities which have been sadly lacking on all sides of the debates about the project. Of his several good points, three stand out; though one of them might not be true on this side of the Atlantic.…

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Cracks in the great firewall?

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| Uncategorized

Rebecca MacKinnon on RConversation reports that Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodaphone display some cojones, referring to a press release from Business for Social Responsibiity which says that a

diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders and human rights organizations announced today its intention to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally

As MacKinnon puts it, this “is not only the right thing to do, but these [companies] all recognize that in the long run ethical business is smart business”. More to the point, an agreed platform will not only make it more difficult for countries which fail to protect human rights to pick off companies one by one but it will also make it easier for companies to resist country-based censorship.

The great test will, of course, be China (wkipedia | Global Voices). Even the longest journey must begin with a single step; and this very important development is an excellent first step. …

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