“Extreme Borrowing in the Blogosphere”

Kottke.org: “Extreme Borrowing in the Blogosphere” (discussing linking/excerpting/attribution issues).

Dave Winer On AP and Hot News

Dave Winer discusses AP’s recently announced enforcement efforts and the value of ‘hot news‘ on the Internet.

Who Is Suing The Watchmen?

Chock Full Of Nuts is the heavenly coffee, better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy. Nite Owl is a character from the WATCHMEN movie. Defendant came out with Nite Owl Coffee, apparently as merchandising related to the movie.
First aside: I speculate that the (registered) checkerboard design on the CFON label alludes to the ‘checker cabs‘ that were popular in New York in days gone by.
Second aside: Read paragraph 32 of the complaint and ask yourself if you would have put that allegation quite that way.
Third aside: Nite Owl coffee doesn’t seem to be on defendant’s website.
Complaint Nite Owl Coffee

“YouTube Is Doomed”

Competitor of YouTube writes column in BusinessInsider arguing that YouTube’s annual loss of $500M is unsustainable.

Two Views Re The Wolverine Piracy Firing

Pro: Fox News Columnist Reportedly Fired for Wolverine Review
Con: Wolverine Piracy, Claws Grow
Pictured: A real wolverine.

WSJ: The Scariest Monster of All Sues for Trademark Infringement”

WSJ: The Scariest Monster of All Sues for Trademark Infringement“:

When Christina and Patrick Vitagliano dreamed up their Monster Mini Golf franchises — 18-hole, indoor putting greens straddled by glow-in-the-dark statues of ghouls and gargoyles — they never imagined that a California maker of high-end audio cables would object.
But Monster Cable Products Inc., which holds more than 70 trademarks on the word monster, challenged the Vitaglianos’ trademark applications. It filed a federal lawsuit against their company in California and demanded the Rhode Island couple surrender the name and pay at least $80,000 for the right to use it.

If you thought, from the headline, that this was about Monster, the employment listings company, it isn’t.

2d Circuit: Sale of Keywords Is Use In Commerce: Rescuecom defeats Google’s Motion to Dismiss

Prof Goldman analysis here:
Rescuecom Google Key Word Decision

“Fender Loses Guitar ‘Copyright’ (sic) Case”

Music Radar: Fender Loses Guitar Copyright (sic) Case:

Guitar makers Fender have lost an application to make its Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision guitar body shapes a trademark in the USA.

“Protest Against Removal of Text-to-Speech Function From Kindle”

Facebook Group organizes “Protest against the removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books”:

The Authors Guild is pressuring Amazon to modify the Kindle 2 so that the synthetic speech function can only be used with the express authorization of the owner of the copyright of a work. A coalition of organizations that represent or work with persons with reading disabilities is organizing a protest to persuade the Guild to change its position.

Background here.