It’s the 30th anniversary of Lego and weird things are happening, man. For inst, another giant Lego man mysteriously washed ashore in the resort town of Brighton, England. He’s not the same the guy as the one in Holland because he’s wearing a different outfit.

Hmmm maybe Lego’s deploying these guys all over the EU to enforce their brick-rights. Lego lost a trademark battle yesterday to protect its iconic bricks in the European market. The ruling by the European Union’s Court of First Instance will allow competitors to keep selling plastic building blocks similar to Lego’s in the EU. Not if the giant Lego men have anything to do about it…

Even though we’re talking about porn, this might not be the most sexy news, but it’s important for YouTube and people who like to upload videos (like Mer-chan!). Adult entertainment company Io Group sued video sharing site Veoh for its users uploading their pornos. And a U.S. District Judge ruled that Veoh isn’t liable for copyright infringement under the safe harbor rules of the DMCA. The bad news is DMCA laws are still poorly written and weaken fair use, but that’s what geeky parody videos are for.

+continue reading Video Village People+

I feel like I’m back in First Amendment class with 7 Dirty Words and now this…Obscene materials are materials that violate the community’s tastes and values. The defense in an Pensacola, Florida obscenity trial plans to show that residents are more likely to type in “orgy with goats and midgets” than “apple pie” in Google. Look at Google Trends to get a sense of the stats. I have a suggestion: see how many people call their town PENISacola. I can’t be alone here!

+continue reading Pensacola Pervs+

I’m sad to find out that George Carlin passed away. The NYT has the obit, but weirdly (to my lawyer lady self) fail to mention the landmark Pacifica Case by name. I’ve cited FCC v. Pacifica many times in trying to convince the FCC that an indecent noun was a highly descriptive but not indecent adjective. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s an excellent indecency primer from South Park, the Uncle F**ker FCC Song.

+continue reading RIP George Carlin+

Remember McGruff the Crime Dog who always told the kids to “take a bite out of crime”? Now you can join McGruff register your bicycle. In the event your bike is stolen and recovered, the police will check the ID number against the Bike Registry (in a fantasy happy world but then again in that world, your bike should have never gotten stolen). Go to The National Bike Registry and believe!

In case you think McGruff has retired, check out a video of McGruff byting cyber crime!