From Twitter’s blog:

With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous. Twitter’s Terms of Service are fair and we believe will be upheld in a court that will ultimately dismiss Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit.

Just received a ‘broadcast’ email from INTA about the upcoming Facebook “landrush’ on personalized URLs. I think that this is sorta unusual: other than in the context of domain names, I can’t recall INTA taking a proactive stance on a ‘private’ matter before this. Could be wrong:
Dear INTA Member:
The International Trademark Association would like to inform you of a recent development regarding the use of trademarks on social networking websites.
On Tuesday, June 9, Facebook, Inc., a social networking website company based in the United States, publicly announced that beginning Saturday, June 13th at 12:01 a.m. U.S. EDT, users of the Facebook website will be allowed for the first time to create personalized URLs for their Facebook pages (facebook.com/yourname).
Facebook, Inc. has created an online form for rights owners interested in preventing their trademarks from being registered as usernames by Facebook users.
Trademark owners can reserve their trademark on the Facebook platform by submitting relevant information to Facebook, Inc. through their trademark protection contact form, available at http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights.
If you have further questions or concerns, please contact Facebook directly or see its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, available at http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=896.
Thank you.

Magellan Media Partners: “The Impact of Piracy“:

Both pirated and un-pirated titles showed similar growth in sales in the first few weeks after a title is published, followed by a decline after peak. Average sales for unpirated content start higher and peak later, although this may reflect the specific nature of titles in a small sample.
The primary difference between sales of pirated and unpirated content appeared in weeks 19 through 25, when sales for pirated content peaked a second time at a level higher than that seen in the first, sell-in period. This second peak followed the time (19 weeks) at which the average pirated O’Reilly front-list title was first seeded on a P2P site.
We stress that this is correlation, not causality, but the difference in the sales profile is notable and persists even when using rolling averages.

Kimberly Isbel: “It’s Time to Update the Lanham Act for the 21st Century” “(Discussion of ‘innocent infringer’ safe harbor in Section 32):

When applied to the online activities of companies like Twitter, Google and the Internet Archive, the inadequacy of the remedy-limiting language used in Section 32(2) readily becomes apparent.

NY Times: American Girl Doll Shares Name WIth A Suspect:

American Girl, the doll company based in Middleton, Wis., is expecting strong demand for the newest doll in its historical character line. The 18-inch doll, which went on sale on Sunday, is named Rebecca Rubin and comes with a storybook that describes her life in 1914, growing up on the Lower East Side as the daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants.
But the F.B.I. is more interested in another Rebecca Rubin. Rebecca J. Rubin, who sometimes goes by the alias Little Missy, is a fugitive who was indicted in 2006 in a series of arson fires in Oregon dating to 1997, according to her F.B.I. wanted poster.

WSJ: “To Beat Antitrust Rap, Papers Take Cues From Songwriters”:

Ailing news organizations seeking to make money from both online readers and the Web sites that republish their stories are looking at the way music publishers collect a fraction of a cent for every song played in public, from the corner bowling alley to the stage of “American Idol.”
That model, a major topic of discussion at a private meeting of newspaper executives last week, raises an important question: Can newspapers band together to demand payment from Web sites that use their content?

Yahoo has sued the NFL Players Union re the use of statistics in fanstasy football games, after Minnesota District Court rules in favor of CBS Interactive in similar suit. CBS decision and Yahoo complaint reproduced below.
Decision Cbs v Nfl

Complaint Yahoo Nfl Pa