This is the first iPhone 3G lawsuit I’ve seen so far. I wonder if the the iPhone 2.0.2 software update fixed the problem; i.e., slow 3G connection speeds and multiple dropped calls.
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Alimoney
I chuckled the first time I spotted the typo alimoney. In some ways, the misspelling (alimoney) makes more sense than the correct spelling (alimony). After all, “alimoney” is about transferring “money” from the pocket of one party to another in a divorce proceeding. Of course, for the ex-husband or ex-wife that has to pay spousal support, the preferred spelling may be all-my-money. Google shows 11,700 matches for alimoney, so a lot of people have misspelling alimony.
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Deal or No Deal
The New York Times reports that a new study compares the settlement offers and trial outcomes for plaintiffs and defendants who ended up going to trial. The study was performed by DecisionSet, a litigation and settlement research firm.
This tidbit comes from a lawsuit filed by the United States Olympic Committee and the IOC:
For security reasons, tickets to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies have been specially designed to prohibit, to the greatest extent possible, counterfeiting and speculative ticket reselling. Specifically, each ticket to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the upcoming Games is embedded with a microchip containing the ticket’s serial number, which can then be read by a database maintained by the [Beijing Organizing Comittee for the Olympic Games] to retrieve the bearer’s photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail address and telephone numbers.
Sounds like fun. Hopefully, the lines to get into the stadium will move faster than the ones to get inside an Apple retail store to purchase an iPhone 3G.
Minekey Inc., the producer of iThink, was sued by i.think inc. for trademark infringement. iThink is an online polling application on Facebook that allows users to enter an opinion and permits other iThink users to vote whether they agree or disagree with that opinion. i.think inc is a online research and survey business. Here’s a copy of the amended complaint that i.think inc. recently filed in the U.S. District Court – Northern District of Texas.
Of course, trademark battles are not solely the province of for-profit businesses. In the U.S. District Court – Northern District of Illinois, Plaintiff Robert Morris College is seeking a declaratory judgment that changing its name to Robert Morris University “to more accurately reflect its status” does not infringe on Defendant Robert Morris University’s rights under the Lanham Act or the laws of trademark or unfair competition.
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Gerry Spence's Blog
Attorney Gerry Spence is blogging. For me, the real treat was when I visited the blog and discovered that it was completely different from every other lawyer blog that I have come across. I’ll be adding this one to the RSS reader.
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The Cost of Being a Sanctuary City
Wikipedia states that a sanctuary city generally does “not allow municipal funds or resources to be used to enforce federal immigration laws.” I think this definition is biased and am surprised that Wikipedia hasn’t already flagged it. Stated otherwise, a sanctuary city is one that permits municipal funds and resources to be squandered to circumvent federal immigration laws. In the case of San Francisco, the city has spent $2.3 million since 2003 incarcerating immigrant youth instead of turning them over to the feds for deportation. While the City has a bad rap for its anti-business climate, it does welcome enterprising illegal immigrant drug dealers with open arms.
San Francisco Chronicle: 8 Crack Dealers Shielded by S.F. Walk Away. An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday.
I understand how some local governments don’t want to demonize illegal aliens. They’re not illegal, they’re undocumented. 🙄 However, you should distinguish between the hard-working guy scrubbing dishes in the restaurant and the crack dealer, right?
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George Carlin and the Seven Dirty Words
<p>George Carlin passed away. He will forever be remembered (at least among legal scholars) for his Filty Words monologue which was the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case. See <a href=”http://supreme.justia.com/us/438/726/case.html”>FCC v. Pacifica Foundation</a>, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). The Appendix to the Opinion includes a verbatim transcript of the monologue prepared by the Federal Communications Commission. That’s U.S. tax dollars paying some bureaucrat to transcribe an indecent monologue.</p>
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Proposition 13: Happy Birthday
SF Gate: Prop. 13 Property Taxes in the Voters’ Hands. Thirty years ago today, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13 as a way to keep seniors from losing their homes to skyrocketing property taxes. But the 1978 vote also ignited a revolution that dramatically changed the way people across America look at government and taxes.
I think all the usual groups that hate rent control love Proposition 13, which really is a form of rent control on politicians. Prop. 13 amended the California Constitution to limit ad valorem taxes on real estate property to one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property as shown on the 1975-76 tax bill. However, purchases, new construction or changes in ownership after the 1975 assessment can trigger a new appraisal that may reset the full cash value to market rates. Additionally, Prop. 13 barred the government from increasing the full cash value of a property by more than two percent (2%) on a year to year basis to account for inflation.
Despite all the complaints about Prop. 13, I believe that it actually helps politicians govern better in the end because it stabilizes the growth of property tax revenues. No wild upward swings in taxes that lead politicians to overspend and overcommit. Just look at what happened during the dot.com bubble when Sacramento was flush with tax revenues from one-time stock option gains. The bureaucrats searched for new ways to spend the money.
So, when the SF Gate notes that the state is currently facing a $17 billion budget shortfall, I can be fairly confident that Prop. 13 stopped it from becoming a $34 billion or $68 billion shortfall. So, how does more revenue yield a larger shortfall you ask? Quite simply, more revenues results in more programs and more spending. This is not an indictment exclusive to politicians, but an observation on human nature in general. After all, higher salaries don’t necessarily lead to higher savings for most consumers. Instead, the money is often allocated to increasing the standard of living with better food, a nicer car, larger house, and more debt. Likewise, without Prop. 13, the state bureaucrats would have found additional programs to soak up all the extra money and with a larger spending base comes larger shortfalls when the economy takes a dip.