Category: Law

Law Friday - Stuff White People Like

Someone emailed Nick a link to a new Web site today called Stuff White People Like. If you’re not overly sensitive to racial stereotypes as a source of humor, you’ll love this site. In fact, I can almost guarantee if you’re white you’ll be laughing at yourself in no time over your follies.

Apparently one of the things white people like is lawyers. (Hey, that’s great, right? ‘Cause someone will have to pay me so I can afford my husband’s Porsche after I graduate.)

The article begins with a poignant observation:

A common characteristic amongst white people is the need to over analyze things, so they partake in activities such as therapy, writing a blog, or becoming an arts major. So its rather obvious why white people love lawyers so much as it is the one profession that has mastered the art of “over analyzing things”.

Has the author has been reading my journal? (Crap! A journal...is that something that white people like too?)

You wanna know what else white people like? Movies and TV shows about lawyers. I think I’ll go watch the latest Law & Order now.

Law Friday - Super Bowl edition

I’m straying from the usual Law Friday format to bring you a special edition, containing a tasty buffet of legal angles on Sunday’s big game. Let the tailgate begin!

Trademarks! - Remember when Dennis Green tried to register the phrase “They are who we thought they were” with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office a month or so ago? Amusing, but not nearly as bold as the Patriots’ latest act. To the ire of Giants fans everywhere, the Patriots have filed a registration to trademark “19-0″ and “19-0 The Perfect season.” Three cheers for the New York Post, which spent $375 for its own trademark application yesterday — on 18-1.

Copyrights! - The Washington Post reported on the ever-vigilant NFL’s efforts to pull the plug on big-screen Super Bowl shindigs at churches. The league insists that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets — those larger than 55 inches — violates the NFL copyright. You know the drill: “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent is prohibited.” Believe it or not, part of me understands where the NFL is coming from, but the law seems a little outdated and problematic to me. It seems likely that many home viewers will watch the game on TVs much larger than this. Will the NFL start suing these folks, as well? To be consistent and protect their legal rights, I think they have to. Where will they draw the line?

Counterfeits! - The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency are on the ground in Glendale cracking down on the sale of counterfeit merchandise, conducting raids on dealers who descend upon the Super Bowl to hawk their goods. They’ve already seized about $140,000 worth of goods, according to the NYT. “A significant number of professional counterfeiters come into the host city every year,” Anastasia Danias, a lawyer for the NFL, told the Times. They come, she said, “hoping to make a quick buck off fans’ enthusiasm for the game.” Considering the NFL has about $3 billion to lose in this area, there’s no surprise.

Shenanegins! - Where would professional sports be without it’s fair share of mis-behaving players. Early this morning, New York Giants backup defensive end Adrian Awasom was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving by Arizona state police. Think he’ll make bail?

Gambling! - Lastly, let’s not forget the question of whether office pools are legal. It appears they are, according to RCW 9.46.0335, but not without some pretty specific restrictions. The outcome must be based on the score (sorry, bets about number of sacks relative to field goals are out). The most that can be wagered in a given pool is $100. Once the game starts, the betting is closed. And if you’re organizing the pool, you cannot conduct another sports pool for the same event.

Law Friday

Talking the Talk - Arguendo
“For argument’s sake” or “assuming what you’re saying is right, you’re still a moron.” Arguendo is a close cousin of reductio ad absurdem, an Aristotelian favorite, which means “reduced to the absurd” or “here’s how stupid your statement is.” For example, you might say the following: “Assuming, arguendo, that my headlight was indeed broken, he should not be able to recover $10,000 for running a stop sign at 90 mph.”

Hearsay

Any Facebook folks out there? Hasbro and Mattel are trying to put the kibosh on Srabulous, the Scrabble rip-off over on Facebook. (That’s about the only thing I ever do with my stupid Facebook account.)

Then there’s this video...fabulous! Just fabulous! (It’s not news, but Ms. Clinton is a lawyer, so it sorta fits here.)

And finally, a story for my brother, who is interested in making a return to the gaming industry after graduation: Microsoft’s getting sued over the Xbox Live outages that took place over the holiday season, forcing folks to—*shudder*—spend time with their families.

You be the Judge - Hold onto that spleen!
In Torts, we study a lot of medical cases, especially ones where the doctors are doing things the patients might not like. Here’s an interesting dilemma for you: A doctor removes a patient’s spleen for health reasons. So far, so good. But later, after the patient returns home, he occasionally ponders the fate of his spleen: Where did it end up? Did it go into the trash? Did the hospital flush it down the toilet? What does one do with an old spleen? As it turns out, the doctor used the spleen to develop a very profitable cell line. So the patient sues him, because he feels he deserves some money for his genetic material. Who wins?

Princess Smartypants

The last of our grades for fall semester finally posted this evening. Without going into detail, I will now be answering exclusively to “Princess Smartypants.”

It doesn’t look like much

It doesn’t look like much, but the towel rack, pictured above, is the result of my handiwork at SU. The school provides lockers and shower facilities for bike commuters (awesome), but until recently no where to hang wet towels or damp cycling clothing (lame).

Enter me.

After much discussion about the possibility of a towel rack with the person who manages the lockers, she finally admitted that she didn’t have the authority to do anything about it. (I’ll never understand why people bother to tell you something can’t be done when they aren’t the person responsible for making it happen.) Undeterred, I walked over to Facilities and asked to speak with someone about the commuter showers.

The nice woman I spoke to was sympathetic about my problem, but she underestimated me, thinking I was just another whiny student. Not I! I came with a solution - a practical, easy to implement, inexpensive solution. It wasn’t perfect, but the school was willing to take my suggestion.

I was so pleased yesterday to find that the rack had been installed. I hung my wet towel on it, which was nice and dry when I returned later that day to change for the ride home.

Ta-da!