Author: beesquared

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Law

Press for advantage, act ethically, avoid spinachy

For the second time in a year I’m studying for a test that constitutes part of admission to the New York bar.

This one goes by the name of Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). It has 60 multiple-choice questions and tests knowledge of the rules of professional and judicial conduct.

Alert: reading about the bar exam may feel, to borrow a word from the novelist (and lawyer) Ayelet Waldman, “spinachy.”

I had forgotten about the MPRE when I set out a year ago to pass the bar exam and apply for a law license here in the Empire State. Last fall, I received a letter advising me that I passed, but the letter went on to say that the examiners would hold off on certifying me for admission until I passed the MPRE too.

Oh. That.

Thus, I’m studying for the MPRE, which takes place on March 28. Spinachy. Still, the material illuminates something about the law that appeals to me.

For example, you may have heard it said that a lawyer should represent his or her client zealously. That matters in our adversary system, which assumes that opposing sides, represented zealously within the bounds of law, will produce justice.

However, a lawyer also owes a duty of candor to the court. According to the rules, an attorney is subject to discipline for knowingly failing “to disclose to the tribunal legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client and not disclosed by opposing counsel.”

Suppose you represent a client in a New York court, and your opponent fails to call the court’s attention to a case from the state’s Court of Appeals that directly counters a position taken by your client. You must cite the case.

That doesn’t mean that you have an obligation to volunteer facts that are harmful to your client – we trust the opposing side to handle that – or that you have to cite a case from Virginia, for example, here in New York. But it does mean that you have a responsibility to the tribunal that transcends even your duty to your client.

In short, press for advantage but remember that you have a responsibility to act ethically.

Categories
Law

A final note (for now) on the ‘Blurred Lines’ verdict

Whatever your take on the verdict Tuesday that awarded the estate of Marvin Gaye a win in its claim that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams plagiarized part of “Blurred Lines” from a song that Gaye copyrighted in 1977, it may be helpful to remember that we aren’t the jury.

We didn’t hear the evidence, nor did we try our best – assuming that’s what jurors do – to follow an instruction from Judge John Kronstadt regarding the law that applies. Thus, imagine that we’re jurors, we’ve heard all the testimony – including Thicke’s serenading us with segments of popular songs – and now the judge instructs us.

At its core, infringement requires a finding of similarity of expression that’s protected by copyright. “Similarity that is confined to ideas and general concepts is not infringing,” Kronstadt explained. “Similarities derived from the use of common ideas are not protected.” He continued.

Trivial copying is not copyright infringement. Copying is trivial if the average audience would not recognize the copying of the Gaye Parties’ work in the Thicke Parties’ work.

You must determine whether any copying of the Gaye Parties’ work in the Thicke Parties’ work is trivial. If the copying is trivial, then the Thicke Parties’ did not infringe the Gaye Parties’ copyright.

Thus, the jurors unanimously found, after hearing the evidence, that “Blurred Lines” bears a similarity to “Got to Give it Up” that is more than an idea or concept.

The “verdict sets a terrible precedent,” according to Adam Pasick at Quartz, who notes that the finding that Thicke and Williams infringed merely by trying to evoke the feeling of Gaye’s song – as lawyers for the duo argued – “could have a chilling effect on musicians trying to create new songs.”

That may be. Yet as Kronstadt instructed jurors, “Intrinsic similarity is shown if an ordinary, reasonable listener would conclude that the total concept and feel of the Gaye Parties’ work and the Thicke Parties’ work are substantially similar.”

Jurors seem to have followed his instruction.

Others have said the court misapplied the law more broadly. “The Gaye estate’s copyright covers only the notes of his song (the composition), and not the way it was played (the sound recording),” writes Tim Wu, a professor of law at Columbia, in The New Yorker.

According to Wu, who notes that Gaye registered a copyright for the composition but not for the recording:

With a broader copyright, Gaye’s estate would have a stronger claim to owning some of his particularly distinctive style choices. But, given that the copyright covers only the notes and Pharrell did not borrow any note sequences, the judge was legally obliged to throw out the case.

That also may be decided on appeal. For now, imagine you are a juror and Kronstadt has charged you as follows.

If the Gaye family showed that is more likely than not that there was a substantial similarity between the songs, then you can presume that Thicke and Pharrell copied.

According to Kronstadt, Thicke and Pharrell could rebut that presumption if they showed that it is more likely than not “that they independently created the infringing work or works.”

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News

News quiz, week ending March 13

1. President Edgar Lungu of Zambia reportedly is being treated for a narrowing of his esophagus. What disease was Lungu thought initially to have?

2. Which of the following fighting forces is not participating in the military assault on the Islamic State in the Iraqi city of Tikrit?

a) Iraqi troops, b) Turkish troops, c) Shiite militias, d) Iranian troops

3. What “extraordinary action” did Missouri’s supreme court take to restore trust in Ferguson’s court system?

4. What pay-TV service announced a deal to stream its programming on Apple devices exclusively for three months?

5. “U.S. senators officially announce that when this government leaves, its commitments will become nullified,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Thursday. “Isn’t that the ultimate collapse of political ethics and the disintegration of the U.S. system?” To what was he referring?

6. How many people have died from the Ebola virus in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization?

a) more than 8,000, b) more than 9,000, c) more than 10,000, d) more than 11,000

7. A group of women who advocate global disarmament plan to walk this May across what stretch of land?

8. What world leader’s absence from public view since March 5 has swirled speculation about the leader’s health, political prospects and romantic life?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers

1) Malaria; 2) b; 3) Assigned a judge of the state appeals court to oversee all municipal cases; 4) HBO; 5) An open letter to Iran’s leaders signed by 47 Republican U.S. senators warning that any agreement reached in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program would be no more than an executive agreement; 6) c; 7) The Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea and South Korea; 8) President Vladimir Putin of Russia

 

 

Categories
News

News quiz, week ending March 6

1. What African leader threw himself a birthday party that reportedly cost more than $1 million and featured elephant on the menu?

2. What Latin American leader said that his country had captured U.S. citizens involved in espionage?

3. Tens of thousands marched through Moscow on Sunday to mourn this opposition leader, who was shot dead near Red Square.

4. Who told the U.S. Congress: “I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political.”

5. Which of the following volcanoes erupted this week?

a) Llaima, b) Etna, c) Tungurahua, d) Villarrica

6. A man wielding a knife attacked the U.S. ambassador to what country?

7. Sohu, one of China’s major Internet portals, announced a deal to create a Chinese-language version of what American TV program?

8. Scientists at work in Ethiopia have unearthed a jawbone from 2.8 million years ago. What is the main significance of the find?

a) It represents the oldest known evidence of an ape-like creature, b) It represents the earliest evidence of the human genus; c) It establishes that humans developed in parallel across Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers

1) Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe; 2) President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela; 3) Boris Nemtsov; 4) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; 5) d; 6) South Korea; 7) Saturday Night Live; 8) b

Categories
Law

Robin Thicke performs at ‘Blurred Lines’ trial

Robin Thicke may be hoping his testimony hit the right note.

The singer of “Blurred Lines” serenaded jurors in a federal courtroom recently as part of an effort to show that he and his fellow songwriters did not copy “Got to Give it Up” by Marvin Gaye.

At issue is a claim by Gaye’s children, who charge Thicke and songwriters Pharrell Williams and T.I. with infringing their father’s composition.

To aid Thicke’s testimony, U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt authorized the songwriters to set up an electronic keyboard in the courtroom.

As part of a demonstration to show how easily a song can be structured to sound like others, Thicke reportedly played some of “Blurred Lines ” along with songs by the Beatles and U2.

Part of the performance included Thicke’s attempting to substantiate that songs with similar chords – such as “With or Without You” and “Let it Be” – can be recorded differently. The medley by Thicke also included Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and “Forever Young” by Alphaville.

Musicality aside, the demonstration was notable, because “essentially what Thicke and Pharrell are arguing is exactly the opposite, which is that however similar the recording of ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got To Give It Up,’ they found the actual underlying compositions are very different,” Austin Siegemund-Broka, who is covering the trial for The Hollywood Reporter, told Southern California Public Radio.

According to Siegemund-Broka, the writers of “Blurred Lines” contend that their song uses two chords — E-major and A-major — while Gaye’s composition uses eight chords

Besides an electronic keyboard, Thicke also obtained permission to carry in power cords, an amplifier, amplifier cables, a speaker, a keyboard stand and a surge protector, according to an order that Kronstadt signed on Feb. 24.

Here are the songs. See what you think.

Categories
New York City

Cold nights, big city

A constant
A constant

February here in New York City started cold and ended colder.

The temperature on February 1 reached 36 degrees. Today, the 28th of the month, is slated to reach 29. This month is the third-coldest February on record, according to the National Weather Service. That makes it the coldest February since 1934.

I realized recently that the temperature displays atop the old bank building at 73rd and Broadway and the one above Columbus Circle seem to change by fewer than 10 degrees no matter when I see them. Whenever I pass, the digits rarely, if ever, exceed 30.

“It was like the most sick month you can think of,” Jay Engle, a meteorologist with the weather service, told the Times, which noted that it even has been cold on subway platforms and other places that don’t usually get cold.

Which brings me to the one redeeming thing I can say about February. I never hurried home from the grocery store for fear that my frozen yogurt would unfreeze.

On Presidents Day, I went into a movie at 4:00 p.m. Though the feature was fine, I bought a ticket mostly because I wanted to warm up.

That reminded me of a piece from The New Yorker that I like. It’s about the Bleecker Street Cinema, an art house theater that closed in 1991. In the piece, from 1974, a guy named Larry emerges from the ticket booth. Les Rubin, the impresario behind showing old movies, tells the reporter:

Larry has an M.A. in meteorology. It wasn’t until tonight that he realized there was a difference between William Powell and Dick Powell. And look what it’s done for him! He just had a brilliant idea. We put a big sign out front that says, ‘40° WARMER INSIDE.’”

Categories
News

News quiz, week ending Feb. 27

1. Name at least four of the six countries that are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.

2. Why did men in Istanbul march in skirts?

3. Why did the family of pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing visit 10 Downing Street?

4. What event next month will be “an unprecedented test for Europe’s electricity system,” according to the continent’s Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity?

5. President Obama vetoed a bill that would have approved the Keystone XL pipeline. Where would the pipeline start and end?

6. In what city did officials spot drones flying over major landmarks?

7. What do we know about the length of eyelashes in humans and other mammals, thanks to researchers at Georgia Tech?

8. The militant from ISIS known as Jihadi John reportedly grew up in what city?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers

1) The U.S., France, U.K., Germany, Russia and China; 2) To show support for women who have been victimized by a recent wave of male violence in Turkey; 3) To demand the British government pardon as many as 49,000 other men who, like Turing, were convicted for having consensual sexual relationships with other men before homosexuality was decriminalized in the U.K.; 4) A solar eclipse that will occur on March 20; 5) The pipeline would run from Hardisty, Alberta (Canada) to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would connect with an existing pipe that carries oil to the Gulf of Mexico; 6) Paris; 7) That eyelashes are one-third as long as the eye is wide, the ideal length for channeling airflow and reducing evaporation; 8) London

Categories
News

News quiz, week ending Feb. 20

1. In which city did police shoot dead a gunman whose attacks on an event promoting free speech and at a synagogue left two people dead and five police officers wounded?

2. Apple is looking to make what mode of transportation, according to industry sources?

3. What country did Sri Lanka’s new leader, Maithripala Sirisena, visit on his first official overseas trip as president?

4. Egypt bombed targets in what country after the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians?

5. Why did the Obama administration postpone plans to allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants to apply for work permits and legal protection?

6. What Mandarin word created confusion in the West about whether the Chinese New Year is the year of the goat or the year of the sheep?

7. Who won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club?

8. What country was hit by both Cyclone Marcia and Cyclone Lam?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:

1) Copenhagen; 2) A self-driving electric car; 3) India; 4) Libya; 5) A federal judge in Texas issued an order that temporarily blocked the administration from putting into effect its plans; 6) The Chinese character “yang,” which can translate as either goat or sheep; 7) Miss P, a 15-inch beagle; 8) Australia

Categories
Asides

David Carr, R.I.P.

There’s a scene in “Page One,” a 2011 documentary about The New York Times, that stands out among the others. David Carr, the Times reporter who died Thursday, interviews the founders of Vice, the upstart media company that made its mark “going places we don’t belong,” according to the company’s tag line.

In the video, above, Shane Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Vice, tells Carr that Smith had been to Liberia, where he saw that people had been using the beach as a latrine and learned that some locals engaged in cannibalism.

The exchange that ensues:

Smith: “The New York Times, meanwhile, is writing about surfing. And I’m sitting going, you know what, I’m not going to talk about surfing. I’m going to talk about cannibalism. Because that [expletive] me up.”

Carr: “Just a second, time out. Before you ever went there, we’ve had reporters there reporting on genocide after genocide. Just because you put on a [expletive] safari helmet and looked at some poop doesn’t give you the right to insult what we do, so continue. Continue.”

The scene resonates with me and with many journalists with whom I’ve talked about it over the years because it demonstrates two things. That Carr had guts. And that he had the courage to call out the practice of adopting the tropes of journalism without recognizing what reporting entails.

Carr never failed to sniff out spin. He was a master at revealing the veneer of news that companies, organizations, governments and others cloak themselves in when in reality they’re advancing their mission or bolstering their bottom line. Or, as in the case of Smith, those who are quick to dismiss the work of journalists as plodding or somehow out of step, as if the hard work of pursuing the truth, of asking what the truth of the matter happens to be, somehow misses the point.

As Carr reminded us, reporting is the best job in the world. It’s a license to ask questions, to learn and to be an honest broker.

David Carr embodied what it means to be an honest broker. He also happened to be able to report thoroughly and to write beautifully. By all accounts, he seemed to be a terrific colleague. I will remember him for standing up for journalism and for telling the truth. Readers, including this one, will miss him.

Categories
News

News quiz, week ending Feb. 13

1. A researcher combing through municipal archives in the British town of Sandwich discovered a parchment of what document?

2. What reason did the government of Nigeria give for delaying the country’s presidential election by six weeks?

3. An Oscar belonging to whom reportedly was stolen recently in Paris?

4. What is significant about the relationship between Earth’s innermost core and the layer that envelops it, according to geologists at Nanjing University and the University of Illinois?

5. An Italian court sentenced Francesco Schettino to 16 years in jail for a January 2012 disaster involving what cruise ship?

6. Why do the developers of Google’s robotic dog kick the puppy?

7. Leaders of which four countries negotiated a cease-fire to end fighting in Ukraine?

8. How much plastic is entering the world’s oceans every year, according to researchers in the U.S. and Australia?

a) 8 million metric tons, b) 12 million metric tons, c) 14 million metric tons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:

1) The Magna Carta; 2) That the campaign against Boko Haram prevents the military from sparing enough soldiers to ensure a safe election; 3) Charlie Chaplin; 4) The alignment of molecules in the metal, with molecules of the innermost core aligned along an East-West axis, compared with molecules in the core a layer removed that line up along a North-South axis. According to researchers, the finding suggests that Earth’s magnetic field switched between polar and equatorial axes about 500 million years ago; 5) The Costa Concordia; 6) To demonstrate that the robot maintains its balance; 7) Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France; 8) a