MyDD.com makes the case for the US west coast to secede from the nation. “If you look at a map of the congressional districts that overlaps the map of the US, you’ll see that nearly the entire Pacific coast, stretching from Canada to Mexico, is under Democratic control. The Republicans have just 3 districts in very southern CA, the 48th, 49th & 50th, that break-up the otherwise continuous blue land through the Washington, Oregon, and California waterfront — Republicans out there remember that when you come to visit our beaches.”
Larry Lessig points to a particularly egregious example of over-zealousness in pursuit of protection of intellectual property.
You can only see the Met Maniac site now thanks to the Web Archive, because the Metropolitan Opera decided it infringed their rights. As Lessig says, “Can anyone explain what sense it makes that this fan site, which collects historical facts about an important part of our culture, can be banned? I know the lawyers say ‘the law makes us do it’ — that trademark law, etc., requires that they police the way other people use their name. But what possible sense does such a law make. And at a time when opera around the world is struggling for resources to build an audience, what possible sense does it make to begin to attack your fans?”
There’s a further point, I think. The lawyers may say, “The law makes us do it.” But no one forces the client to take action — they are free to accept or reject legal advice. I don’t blame the lawyers, I blame the idiocy of someone in management at the Met.