Against the background of an unprecedented number of cybersquatting cases in 2007, the evolving nature of the domain name registration system (DNS) is causing growing concern for trademark owners around the world. Last year, a record 2,156 complaints alleging cybersquatting - or the abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet - were filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center (Center), representing an 18% increase over 2006 and a 48% increase over 2005 in the number of generic and country code Top Level Domain (gTLDs and ccTLDs) disputes.

DNS Developments Feed Growing Cybersquatting Concerns

Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 establishes the affirmative defense to copyright infringement of “fair use,” by far the most enigmatic doctrine in U.S. copyright law and by far the most important. Without it, much of our economic and communicative action would constitute copyright infringement. Yet despite the importance of the fair use defense, and despite the enormous amount of scholarly attention that it has received, we continue to lack any systematic, comprehensive account of our fair use case law and the actual state of our fair use doctrine. Instead, our conventional wisdom derives from a small set of conventionally agreed-upon leading cases. This Article presents the results of the first empirical study of our fair use case law to show that much of our conventional wisdom about that case law is mistaken. Working from a data set consisting of all reported federal opinions that made substantial use of the section 107 four-factor test for fair use through 2005, the Article shows which factors and subfactors actually drive the outcome of the fair use test in practice, how the fair use factors interact, how courts inflect certain individual factors, and the extent to which judges stampede the factor outcomes to conform to the overall test outcome. It also presents empirical evidence of the extent to which lower courts either deliberately ignored or were ignorant of fair use doctrine set forth in the leading cases, particularly those from the Supreme Court. Based on these descriptive findings, the Article prescribes a set of doctrinal practices that will improve courts’ adjudication of the fair use defense.

An Empirical Study of US Copyright Fair Use Opinions, 1978-2005

This paper explores the potential value of blogs to military information strategy. It examines whether blogs are influential, whether the information environment adequately supports blogging for an information cam- paign, and whether blogs offer a significant, reliable source of intelligence for information operations. While we can make reasonably certain statements about blogging in general that can be applied universally, the actual employment of tactics and techniques comes down to cases. The successful employment of blog operations depends on a number of variables that must be determined during intelligence preparation of the environment.

Blogs and Military Information Strategy

The Federal Reserve System on Tuesday announced the availability of a set of dynamic maps and data that illustrate subprime and alt-A mortgage loan conditions across the United States.

The maps, which are maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will display regional variation in the condition of securitized, owner-occupied subprime, and alt-A mortgage loans. The maps and data can be used to assist in the identification of existing and potential foreclosure hotspots. This may assist community groups, which can mobilize resources to bring financial counseling and other resources to at-risk homeowners. Policymakers can also use the maps and data to develop plans to lessen the direct and spillover impacts that delinquencies and foreclosures may have on local economies. Local governments may use the data and maps to prioritize the expenditure of their resources for these efforts.
…
The maps show the following information for subprime and alt-A loans for each state and most of the counties and zip codes in the United States:

• Loans per 1,000 housing units
• Loans in foreclosure per 1,000 housing units
• Loans real estate owned (REO) per 1,000 housing units
• Share of loans that are adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)
• Share of loans for which payments are current
• Share of loans that are 90-plus days delinquent
• Share of loans in foreclosure
• Median combined loan-to-value ratio (LTV) at origination
• Share of loans with low credit score (FICO) and high LTV at origination
• Share of loans with low- or no documentation
• Share of ARMs with initial reset in the next 12 months
• Share of loans with a late payment in the past 12 months

Dynamic Maps of Nonprime Mortgage Conditions in the United States

Forget using paper. Take notes, create to-dos, save what’s important, and then find it all anytime.

A Single Place For All Your Notes! | EverNote Corporation

Getting a Job in Hedge Funds offers targeted advice for those looking to break into the hedge fund business. With this book, you’ll learn where hedge funds traditionally look for new candidates, what sort of experience is needed to set yourself up for a position, and what can be done to improve your chances of getting into a hedge fund. If you’re seriously considering a career in hedge funds, this book can help you secure a position in this profitable field.

Getting a Job in Hedge Funds: An Inside Look at How Funds Hire

Testimony presented before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on April 2, 2008.

Getting Back on Track in Afghanistan

This month, the military leader of the surge, General David Petraeus, and America’s chief diplomat in Iraq, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, will present their second report to Congress on the surge and its effects. Prudent and circumspect men, they will surely not advance bold claims on behalf of the policy the United States has been following under their leadership. But I expect they will speak more optimistically about the future than many thought possible eighteen months ago. Their testimony will demonstrate that, at last, the United States has a sustainable strategy for Iraq with a reasonable chance of success, and one that George W. Bush will be able to turn over with confidence to the next incumbent of the White House.

How we got here is a story in itself.

Anatomy of the Surge

Researchers at the University of Rochester have digitally reproduced music in a file nearly 1,000 times smaller than a regular MP3 file.

The music, a 20-second clarinet solo, is encoded in less than a single kilobyte, and is made possible by two innovations: recreating in a computer both the real-world physics of a clarinet and the physics of a clarinet player.

The achievement, announced today at the International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing held in Las Vegas, is not yet a flawless reproduction of an original performance, but the researchers say it's getting close.

Music File Compressed 1,000 Times Smaller than MP3

Morgan & Owens, photographers

A new blog.

Morgan & Owens