Internet Scofflaw

It’s the one-month anniversary of my first post at Internet Scofflaw.  I wanted to take this occasion to thank WordPress for a their blogging service.  It works great, and is quite inexpensive.  Thanks guys!

Got two fortunes tonight. One was funny:

It’s nice to be remembered, but it’s far cheaper to be forgotten.

The other invoked a far different emotion:

You can depend on the trust of the collective.

Uhhhh, okay. I wonder where these were manufactured. I’ve got a guess. . .

I’m not much of an audiophile, so I never really noticed Monster Cable except when Best Buy clerks try to sell me their ridiculously overpriced cables. Today I learned that actually selling cables is a sideshow for Monster; their real business is filing frivolous claims of patent infringement against smaller connector manufacturers, in order to bully them into signing licensing agreements. Apparently they’ve made enough money on this strategy to buy the naming rights to Candlestick Park!

Now it appears that they may have picked on the wrong small company. In a response to Monster, the President of Blue Jeans Cable first dispenses with the claim on the merits, then writes:

I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable’s modus operandi in these matters. I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle. In plaintiffs’ practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table. I am “uncompromising” in the most literal sense of the word. If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds. As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

(Via the Volokh Conspiracy, via Instapundit.)

“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!” I think I have a new hero.

Former celebrity scientologist Jason Beghe sits for an interview: “My experience, personally, and what I’ve observed for myself, is that scientology is destructive and a rip-off.”  (Warning: some very appropriate vulgarity.)

Another great American has passed away. The NYT has a respectful obituary.

Dear Tom,

I liked your take on open letters.

Very Truly Yours, Karl

Fox News reports that the FBI has narrowed its focus to “about four” suspects in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks.  Three are scientists connected with Fort Detrick.  It’s been a long time since I had any hope this case would be solved.  Here’s hoping.

ASIDE: My brother-in-law used to live about a mile from Fort Detrick.  It was somewhat creepy driving past it.

Via Instapundit, the most entertaining trial ever.  I don’t know if this is legitimate, but even if not it doesn’t detract from the humor much.

Today, as Michael Ledeen notes.

The spell checker built-in to WordPress (the blogging software I’m using here) doesn’t recognize the word “blog.”

This is the first post on my new blog, Internet Scofflaw.  For a long time I’ve thought of assembling my essays and other musings into one place, but I never got around to doing so until now.

One driving force behind actually starting now is that I finally came up with a good blog name.  I’ll write about what the name means, and other philosophical matters, in future posts, whenever I feel like it.  The other driving force is that there’s so much going on right now, it seems like a good time to start.

“Hello world!” is the default name that WordPress gives to your first post, but it seemed appropriate, so I kept it.