Business Briefing | Legal News: Dean Foods Settles Antitrust Case

Dean Foods settled an antitrust lawsuit with Northeast Dairy Farmers, agreeing to pay $30 million in damages and buy milk from producers in the region.

Business Briefing | Legal News: Dean Foods Settles Antitrust Case

Backlink: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=db74521a4c836614daddd85ce280a061

Business Briefing | Legal News: Mylan to Pay $65 Million Over Drug Prices

Mylan, a generic-drug maker, agreed to pay $65 million to settle a lawsuit by the federal and Texas governments asserting that the company had inflated prescription drug prices.

Business Briefing | Legal News: Mylan to Pay $65 Million Over Drug Prices

Backlink: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=809c6d24871d4c95cb2128fafd3d270d

DHS relied on bizarre legal reasoning and crappy evidence to seize "pirate" domains

Techdirt's Mike Masnick enumerates the litany of crappy law, evidence, and assumptions behind the Department of Homeland Security's decision to seize a group of music-blog and search-engine domains. The seizures were backed copyright industry lobbyists. The story should scare all of us: if you have a .com or .net domain, the US government is prepared to censor you on the evidence-free say-so of a corporate lobbyist from the copyright cartel.

It looks like the four blog/forum sites (RapGodFathers, OnSmash, Dajaz1 and RMX4U) and Torrent-Finder were all lumped together into a single warrant and affidavit. The affidavit was written by a Special Agent with ICE, named Andrew Reynolds, who indicates in the affidavit that he only recently graduated from college (he notes that he's only been on the job for one year, but before that he was a "student trainee with the group"). Much of the affidavit relies heavily on the MPAA. This fits with what ICE assistant deputy director Erik Barnett said soon after the seizures, admitting that they basically just took what sites Hollywood said were a problem and seized them...

...In other words, the "support" that Agent Reynolds provides for why Torrent-Finder's domain should be seized is that he claims that Torrent-Finder's admin linked directly to infringing material. But that's not true. Instead, the admin was simply pointing to a bunch of different news stories. Even worse, some of those news stories highlight why the claims of the MPAA, which Agent Reynolds relies upon, are simply made up -- such as TorrentFreak's story about comic artist Steve Lieber (which was actually based on a Techdirt story about how Steve Lieber embraced the so-called "pirates" and ended up making a lot more money -- we later interviewed Steve about his experiences). The CNET article is all about the COICA law -- which is about the legality of seizures like this one. How is that evidence of probable cause?

Even going beyond the fact that Agent Reynolds can't seem to figure out that a search engine is different than a torrent tracker or a torrent hosting site, he also seems to think that linking to blog posts like the ones we write here is probable cause for criminal behavior. Holy crap! That's just downright scary.

Homeland Security Presents 'Evidence' For Domain Seizures; Proves It Knows Little About The Internet - Or The Law (via /.)

 

• EFF on US domain copyright seizures - Boing Boing
• Official "This website seized by feds" graphic - Boing Boing

DHS relied on bizarre legal reasoning and crappy evidence to seize "pirate" domains

Backlink: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Frq_oPSAFZY/dhs-relied-on-bizarr.html

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Kickstarter project to make a Transmetropolitan art book

As the tenth anniversary of Transmetropolitan's final issue draws near, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has embarked on a Kickstarter project to create a limited edition hardcover featuring new illustrations from a superstar list of comics artists. The book will be used as a fundraising premium for CBLDF, which defends the free speech rights of comics creators, publishers and retailers. Artists who've been tapped for the project include:

Aaron Alexovich, Martin Ansin, Brandon Badeaux, Edmund Bagwell, Joe Benitez, Rick Berry, Nicholas Bradshaw, Dan Brereton, Evan Bryce, Stephanie Buscema, Jim Calafiore, Cliff Chiang, Katie Cook, Molly Crabapple, Camilla d'Errico, Michael Dialynas, Aaron Diaz, Kristian Donaldson, Ryan Dunlavey, Gary Erskine, Simon Fraser, Richard Friend, Dan Goldman, Cully Hamner, Matt Howarth, K Thor Jensen, Lukas Ketner, Sam Kieth, Clint Langley, Jeff Lemire, Corey Lewis, Milo Manara, John McCrea, Kevin Mellon, Moritat, Dean Motter, J O'Barr, Len O'Grady, Alberto Ponticelli, Rodney Ramos, Paul Renaud, Afua Richardson, Darick Robertson, Jimmie Robinson, James Romberger, Nei Ruffino, Tim Seeley, Liam Sharp, Alex Sheikman, Paul Sizer, Fiona Staples, Dave Taylor, Spike Trotman, Pete Venters, Matthew Weldon, Pete Woods, JK Woodward, Annie Wu, ...and many others.

Transmet is the comic that got me seriously interested in the form again in my late 20s. It's truly a seminal work, and the CBLDF is one of my favorite activist groups.

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Kickstarter project to make a Transmetropolitan art book

Backlink: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/eJclJnpRdR4/comic-book-legal-def-5.html

House Judiciary panel convenes Thursday to explore legal attack on Wikileaks

The Hill has published a preview of tomorrow's House Judiciary Committee hearing

House Judiciary panel convenes Thursday to explore legal attack on Wikileaks

Backlink: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/lILN5MVsSpQ/house-judiciary-pane.html

Legal analysis of the problems of superherodom

Ryan Davidson and James Daily are lawyers and comic-book geeks, and they write the absolutely charming Law and the Multiverse blog, which involves intricate, hilarious analysis of the legalities of superheroes and supervillains, and considers appropriate policy responses to the social problems created by supers.

Legal analysis of the problems of superherodom

Backlink: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ouEVXWqmung/legal-analysis-of-th.html

Wikileaks under legal assault

Wikileaks may be under denial-of-service attack this morning, in advance of the whopper diplomatic cables release—but according to this legal complaint filed by a gentleman in Kentucky who used his "credit card to pay for Dick Cheney's heart surgery" and "had a sexual affair with Barack Obama," they now have far greater problems. As you can see from the legal complaint, he's not messing around: he "taught Assange how to hack," and previously sued Hurricane Ike. The plaintiff is currently incarcerated in a federal prison that houses mentally ill inmates.

Wikileaks under legal assault

Backlink: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/DWU__UllU_U/wikileaks-under-lega.html