23. desember 2003

How Libya deal brused France's ego Steven Den Beste points out that France was excluded from the entire Libyan diplomatic circuit. With its close relationship to northern Africa, this omission could be considered an important sign that France is really out of the loop, and that the exclusion is pretty permanent. At any rate, the bruised egos in Paris were rather obvious. I think, however, they will have to get used to it in the future. Counterpoint: everybody appears to have been left out, as these were trilateral negotiations between Libya, the US and Britain only. Italy could have been natural partners too, but were not in on these talks either. And Italy is certainly on Bush's good side. 11:31:59 PM    comment []

The RepubliCard Since the US President has been having such a great prelude to Christmas, cosmic balance requires a bit of Bush-bashing here. The above credit card is a funny gimmic from one of Howard Dean's countless campaign blogs. And, yes, if Howard Dean is to have any chance to become President, the budget deficit is a much better topic than the Iraq war. Borrowing from future taxpayers may be necessary in times of recession, but there should be a plan to recover the money when the good times are back. 7:50:31 AM    comment []

Middle Earth Law 101 An incredibly amusing analysis of Sauron's offer to the Dwarfs in The Lord of the Rings (the book, not the film), and how it holds up under contract law. 4:42:25 AM    comment []

More on DVD Jon Obviously, you can't say that "DVD Jon"'s lawyer has not been doing a good job when he's been facing the heaviest legal artillery from the US movie industry and yet defeated them decisively - twice - but there is something odd about this case still: Apparently, the lawyer was surprised by the timing of the December 22 ruling, thinking nothing would happen before January: "We weren't prepared that the verdict would come down so early," said lawyer Halvor Manshaus, defense attorney for the 20-year-old computer expert who helped crack the code that protects DVD content. Norwegian media has been saying the same thing. But in fact international newsmedia has for a week reported that a ruling was due precisely yesterday: The Oslo Court of Appeals heard closing arguments Wednesday and Thursday in the trial of Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon." A verdict is expected on Dec. 22. See also The Register and InfoWorld, writing about the upcoming decision. Obviously, the international computer press has known about this for some time. The Norwegian press hasn't, and neither has Johansen's own lawyer, who apparently had a hard time getting hold of the "hacker" celebrity to tell him the big news. The ruling itself has been available in the Norwegian press (e.g. VG), but the commentary is exceptionally sparse and nothing interesting has been said by anyone. Not a single journalist have come up with the idea of calling a legal expert to ask what precisely are the option for the prosecution of they are to appeal to the Surpeme Court. Once someone has been aqcuitted twice, including the appeals court (Lagmansrett) it is rather limited what the Supreme Court can do, unless I am much mistaken. I am certainly no legal expert, and this is a rather complex case, yet it surrpises me that not a single news source has bothered to check out the fundamentals. Actually, that was a lie. Knowing the Norwegian journalists, it doesn't surprise me at all that they do nothing except write the obvious. 2:30:45 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 02.01.2004; 05:15:13.