I had to start a new post because things are heating up.

In a new twist, TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, who banned AP (Associated Press) stories from his blog due to the latest madness (see extensive coverage on my previous entry), has now decided to call in his own attorneys because the AP has quoted his blog without paying him a dime.  He has sent a takedown order to the AP based on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Fair Use Smackdown! 

Techcrunch: The AP Has Violated My Copyright and I Demand Justice

Also today, the AP promised to meet with an unknown and rather shady group called the "Media Bloggers Association" to form new guidelines, and yet not one story has leaked from the media about it. 

UPDATE: According to a blogger on The Washington Post, AP has issued a statement that this matter is now closed!  You can read it at the link because I don't dare copy their sacred words: 

AP Says Drudge Retort Excerpt Matter Closed ~ No Official Policy Announced

Rogers Cadenhead: Writes About His Meeting with the AP Attorneys  ~ 
The Stanford Fair Use Project offtered to help him.

“The principal question is whether the excerpt is a substitute for the story, or some established adaptation of the story,” said Timothy Wu, a professor at the Columbia Law School. Mr. Wu said that the case is not clear-cut, but he believes that The A.P. is likely to lose a court case to assert a claim on that issue.

“It’s hard to see how the Drudge Retort ‘first few lines’ is a substitute for the story,” Mr. Wu said.

“We are not trying to sue bloggers,” Mr. Kennedy said. “That would be the rough equivalent of suing grandma and the kids for stealing music. That is not what we are trying to do.”

( Here Are Lots of Links (Yes Links) to Bloggers Sounding Off )

I don't know why this song came to mind . . . hmmm
but it's a great video!

Fleetwood Mac ~ Sweet Little Lies

The last two days have been . . . well . . . let's just say I'm tired of typing.

So here's a post just for fun because unless there is major breaking news, 
I may take tomorrow off from the Blog-o-sphere.
.

First we have "Mr. Bill Goes to Court" from Saturday Night Live.

Bugs Bunny: Myeaaaah (chomps carrot) Warner Brothers intends to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Malfoy Publishing printed a Guide to Harry Potter that infringes on our intellectual property and includes slanderous statements about Harry Potter’s former intellectual property owner, causing the lovely Ms. Rowling untold heartache, pain, suffering, malaise and gastritis, and moreover to prove that Warner Brothers refuses to let Disney be the only studio that burns terror into lawyers’ hearts. We’re number one! Eat that, Eisner—oh, wait, he’s long gone…

Judge: And the defendant?

Malfoy: The Defense maintains that all biographical statements are entirely true, that the Harry Potter Guidebook is a legal and scholarly work necessitated by demand, and that Warner Brothers is only being pouty because I thought of it first!

Bunny: Objection! Warner Brothers is NOT being pouty! We’re protecting our rights! (stamps foot and pouts.)

Malfoy: Yeah, right. Don’t mess with me, Bugs, I had rabbit for lunch.

Bunny: This…means…war!

Judge: Order! Order in the courtroom! The Plaintiff will stop pouting and call their first witness.

Bunny: I call…Professor Joanne Rowling!

Judge: Are you Ms. Rowling?

Rowling: You mean…you don’t KNOW? You don’t recognize me? What, do you live in a hole or something? Darn you, I’m FAMOUS!

Bunny: And so lovely and unspoiled by it. Tell us, Joanne, in your own sweet words, how the idea of Malfoy Publishing printing the Harry Potter Guide fills you with horror and loathing and has caused you uncountable sleepless nights.

Rowling: The idea of Malfoy Publishing printing the Harry Potter Guide fills me with horror and loathing and has caused me uncountable sleepless nights.

Bunny: Poor darling!

Rowling: I mean, I wrote the books! ME! I slaved over them day and night for years, Dumbledore standing over me with a whip! If anyone’s going to chisel a share of profit away from WB, it should be me, ME!

McGonagall: Did you stand over her with a whip?

Dumbledore: I can’t remember…

(Much Much More at the Link)

I had a feeling I would be using my Twilight Zone icon alot today. Can you hear the music?

I just found a blogger who took notes today in court, and this just deserves it's own space.  

Now, to me, it isn't just weird because they are discussing magical creatures in court, it is the fact that JKR believes there is only one "correct" interpretation of "Alohomora."  I always thought it came from "Aloha" since I don't speak West African.  So if someone misinterprets the books - say they don't believe Dumbledore is gay, or that Snape is a big evil dodo bird - then they need to be set straight (or not straight, as the case may be)! 

NY Times Blog: J. K. Rowling and the Courtroom of Muggles

April 14, 2008, 3:02 pm
By Jennifer 8. Lee

As the author J. K. Rowling took the witness stand on Monday to testify in the copyright lawsuit over a Harry Potter encyclopedia, the line between her magical world and the muggle courtroom became somewhat blurred. The lead plaintiff lawyer apologized for saying the name of the villain Lord Voldemort out loud. Albus Dumbledore was quoted in opening arguments for his admonition of when you must “choose between what is right and what is easy.”

Ms. Rowling, when asked to define what wizard cards were, explained in a matter-of-fact matter that they were cards of famous wizards that came with the purchase of a chocolate frogs. (Her lawyer had to explain to the judge that outside the books the cards only existed in a video game). And while the lawsuit was filed on Oct. 31, the lawyers noted, “The fact it was filed on Halloween, your honor, was just a coincidence.” 

When asked to discuss the similarity of the Lexicon’s definition of Chinese fireballs on the stand with her own writing, she said that it was not like a giraffe, where if she and Mr. Vander Ark were describing the animal, they might inevitably use the same words. “It’s not as if we are describing something that exists outside my imagination,” she said.

It was clearly an emotional issue for Ms. Rowling, who had flown in from Scotland to testify. She was given a box of blue tissues after she said, “I really don’t want to cry because I’m British.” 

“Alohomora,” a spell that opens doors in Harry Potter’s word, does not come from “aloha,” the Hawaiian salutation, she said on the stand. Rather it derives from a West African term meaning favorable to thieves, she said. 

The courtroom at the federal court house at 500 Pearl Street was considerably more packed than other copyright cases (like Viacom v. YouTube/Google). There were reporters, law students, copyright groupies, legal scholars and even a young fan or two (shouldn’t they be in school?).

Occasionally, the muggle world would come in focus. When the lawyer apologized for struggling with the pronunciation of “occamy” (a creature resembling a winged snake that was a play off of Occam’s Razor), Ms. Rowling said: “You can pronounce it any way you want. It is not a real thing.”