Copyright question

[windshieldbug]

Rick "who really would like to hear a Beethoven symphony played by a tympani octet" Denney

This says more about you than we really want to know...

[Joe Baker]

As far as state legislatures go, my state ranks among the lowest for attorney members.

Dick Cheney is from your state!?

Now, he only shoots 'em in Texas, where they are overly abundant. No lie: I know of TWO Texas attorneys who have passed their bar exams who are currently doing yardwork to support themselves, because they can't find employment as attorneys. Cheney was just exercising population control!

______________________________
Joe Baker, who is curious: would anyone be interested in a CafePress rollout of the "Lawyers Unlimited" pic?

[windshieldbug]

I know of TWO Texas attorneys who have passed their bar exams who are currently doing yardwork to support themselves

I always thought it was the other way around; yardworkers who became attorneys...

[Chuck(G)]

Attorneys don't make law, Chuck is right. I'm not the happiest law student in the world, in fact, I miss music so much it aches. (Thus, my attempts to 'cross back over' once I AM an attorney.)

'Sokay, Lisa. Patent law's just as nutty--the good news is that patents only last 14 years, not 95.

[iiipopes]

Hey, tubalawlisa -- attorneys do make law. Haven't you ever seen a brief quoted in an appellate court decision? Don't you know that most legislatures, especially Congress, have attorneys on staff to help with the drafting and cross-referencing of bills? And of course, 99 44/100 of judges are attorneys, whose decisions are published?

As a law student, look around and see how much influence attorneys really do have, especially if they are good in front of juries and articulating their points in appellate arguments. PM me for the rest of this so I don't get too far off thread.

[Chuck(G)]

Hey, tubalawlisa -- attorneys do make law. Haven't you ever seen a brief quoted in an appellate court decision? Don't you know that most legislatures, especially Congress, have attorneys on staff to help with the drafting and cross-referencing of bills? And of course, 99 44/100 of judges are attorneys, whose decisions are published?

Lawyers don't make law--lobbyists do. An attorney can sit around drafting up all sorts of creative law, but will get nowhere without enough bakshish to grease the wheels of government.

Do you really believe that the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension legislation was the result of some public-spirited attorney's efforts?


<img src="http://www.magicalears.com/clipart/Clas ... "width=300>

Wondering why this isn't covered in "How a Bill becomes law"...

[LoyalTubist]

My favorite story of a copyright case deals with the Archdiocese of Chicago, about 25 or so years ago. Someone in a Catholic church in Chicago got the idea that the song Edelweiss from The Sound of Music was an Austrian folk song. I mean, heck, when I was in Salzburg with my high school band in 1973, I bought my mother a music box that played the song...

Since it was perceived as a folk song, worshipful words were put with it. Soon, it was sung by churches all over the Chicago area... Even Protestant congregations!

Boy, was it ever a shock when the Estate of Richard Rodgers (who hadn't been dead that long) got wind of it. The "folk song" was written with words by Oscar Hammerstein, II, and music by Richard Rodgers. There was a hefty, collective fine to pay and the books were to be destroyed. Those books, though, were not all destroyed. When I was in grad school, I went to a Baptist church near Fort Worth, Texas, and the minister of music had that book and used the Edelweiss song--this was not quite ten years later.

[Rick Denney]

Lawyers don't make law--lobbyists do. An attorney can sit around drafting up all sorts of creative law, but will get nowhere without enough bakshish to grease the wheels of government.

Yup. Lawyers don't make law, they just assemble the words so that it is unintelligible by any normal educated person.

Of course, those lobbyists have clients, and those clients are collections of people just like you and me (sometimes). And it is axiomatic that our lobbyists are working for the good of mankind in an unjust world, while your lobbyists are the reasons the world is unjust.

By the way, one of the biggest of the lobbying organizations is trial lawyers.

Rick "who thinks lawyers making law is a conflict of interest" Denney

[windshieldbug]

who thinks lawyers making law is a conflict of interest

True, but then ANY form of government is a conflict of interest. At least in OUR form of government they are (often) recognized, and some attempt is made to solve them...

[Chuck(G)]

Rick, of course lobbyists are evil, particularly yours!

What was disappointing about the Sonny Bono Copyrigh Extension act was its quick passage, spearheaded by someone who would directly benefit from it (Mary Bono).

Where were the lobbyists representing the public? Oh, yeah, in this case they're called "Congress".

[iiipopes]

Of course lawyers make the law. Because they have to argue about what it means, and it ends up being an application of the golden rule: he/she who makes the rules gets the gold.

[sloan]

My favorite story of a copyright case deals with the Archdiocese of Chicago, about 25 or so years ago. Someone in a Catholic church in Chicago got the idea that the song Edelweiss from The Sound of Music was an Austrian folk song.

Irrelevant Did they work from the "Sound of Music" score?

[TubaRay]

My favorite story of a copyright case deals with the Archdiocese of Chicago, about 25 or so years ago. Someone in a Catholic church in Chicago got the idea that the song Edelweiss from The Sound of Music was an Austrian folk song.

Irrelevant Did they work from the "Sound of Music" score?

More importantly, can the church prove they didn't?

[Rick Denney]

Of course lawyers make the law. Because they have to argue about what it means...

The only reason that's so is because they wrote the laws in the first place. They have developed a jargon that gives the impression of precision when really it just makes things hard to understand, so that people are compelled to get legal help when trying to understand what the law requires them to do. Most laws should be plainly stated and understandable by educated people, who should be able to argue about them in front of other educated people (the jury). We have devolved into requiring far too much advocacy.

And when lawyers become involved, soon all the gold will be theirs.

Of course, people think about lawyers the way they think about lobbyists. My lawyer is the Defender of Right (or at least the Defender of My Rights), while your's chases ambulances and bites tires.

Rick "who, as an engineer, is not allowed to write the requests for proposals on which he proposes" Denney

[BVD Press]

My favorite story of a copyright case deals with the Archdiocese of Chicago, about 25 or so years ago. Someone in a Catholic church in Chicago got the idea that the song Edelweiss from The Sound of Music was an Austrian folk song.

Irrelevant Did they work from the "Sound of Music" score?

The source material is what matters like Sloan states above. What makes it worse is that from the original post I understand this was a Rodgers and Hammerstein original and not an Austrian Folk Song.

[Chuck(G)]

After eating bad yams, I'll bet he does!

[Donn]

As far as understandable language, there is also the notion in law that if the statute is vague or understandable, this renders it unconstitutional basically.

Please tell me you meant to say "not understandable".

[Dean E]

The problem is that for every Lisa there is at least one of these...
snip

He appreciates the publicity.