Free for all

2/6/13

By Dan Brillman

One of the inventors of Recap, a plug-in that is able to store downloads of federal court documents and make them available for free, is lobbying Congress to make his program obsolete. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Stephen Schultze wants all U.S. court filings to be available free of charge, period. 

Recap is the free alternative to Pacer, the fee-based on-line database of U.S. appellate, district and bankruptcy court records. Schultze built Recap (Pacer backwards, natch) with Aaron Swartz, the activist who was the subject of multiple Justice Department charges and who committed suicide last month, and some other Princeton graduate students. Recap works by automatically sending any documents purchased on Pacer to the Recap database, which is accessible to anyone. In 2009 Swartz donated $1.5 million worth of documents to the fledgling endeavor.

Pacer netted $120 million in 2012, but as the Journal reports, 95 percent of fees are generated by 5 percent of users, firms or research companies. Fee exemptions apply to academic, pro bono or “indigent” users.

Schultze told the Journal that the bill could mark a sea change in the availability of court documents filed by courts nationwide. “My feeling is that the federal courts could lead by example,” he said.

Orangutan humor 

2/6/13 

By Caitlin Tremblay  

When comedian Bill Maher appeared on Jay Leno’s  “Tonight Show” last month, he joked that he would donate $5 million to the charity of Donald Trump’s choice if Trump could  prove he wasn’t “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan,” according to CNN.     

The joke was a response to Trump, an ardent “birther,” telling President Obama via a YouTube video that he would donate $5 million to Obama’s charity of choice if he released his long-form birth certificate. 

CNN reports that Trump provided his birth certificate to Maher, proving he is not orangutan spawn and that Maher never paid up. So Trump is now taking the case to court and on Monday filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. Maher’s only reaction to the lawsuit came in a tweet: “What?? Really? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.” Maher’s response may be the same as the judge’s. The law professor Eugene Volokh over at The Volokh Conspiracy says that the suit appears frivolous.  

Trump’s been talking about lawsuits a lot lately. He took to Twitter threatening Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller with a lawsuit over his song “Donald Trump.” “Little @macmiller, you illegally used my name for your song ‘Donald Trump’ which now has over 75 million hits,” Trump tweeted, followed by “Little @macmiller, I’m now going to teach you a big boy lesson about lawsuits and finance.” Trump has yet to file that lawsuit.  

Free the Internet  

2/6/13

By Suhrith Parthasarathy 

Republican Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has proposed new legislation that would make it official U.S. policy to promote “Internet freedom,” reports The Hill. The draft bill is in part a response to a December vote by members of the United Nations to revise a telecommunications treaty expanding governmental control of the Internet. Eighty-nine nations signed the treaty revision, while 55, including the United States, declined.

Walden’s bill is in line with a similar December resolution that passed both Houses, and, as Ars Technica points out, reflects one of few principles that members of Congress from both parties agree on: that giving governments authority over the Internet will curtail the free flow of information. “By refusing to sign a treaty that would curtail Internet freedom, we stood up to those nations that would shackle the Internet for their own purposes,” wrote Walden in The Washington Examiner. “We should now commit this resolve to law and affirm the United States unambiguous commitment to a global Internet free from government regulation.”

Not so exotic East Village hotel 

2/6/13

By Dan Brillman 

Going out of town for a bit and want to rent your apartment? You might want to heed the tale of Nigel Warren, suggests WNYC.

Warren, who lives in New York City's East Village neighborhood, used the website Airbnb last year to rent out his bedroom to a visitor and was paid a tidy $300 for a three-night stay. The catch? Warren now faces up to $30,000 in fines on charges that he was running an illegal hotel.

According to WNYC, the city is cracking down on violations of its multiple-dwelling laws, which ban many short-term rentals in large buildings. Apart from the liability and insurance issues, the city has pointed to certain safety features, like sprinklers and double exits, that exist in hotels but which many apartment buildings may not have. "We know that people who stay for a week or a day or three days need these extra supports in case of an emergency," John Feinblatt, Chief Policy Advisor to Mayor Bloomberg told WNYC.

Warren, who will appear in front of an administrative judge at New York's Environmental Control Board later this month, says he did not read the fine print on Airbnb's website. He says it is "insane" that he has been targeted for a one-time transgression and that Airbnb needs to make it clearer to customers what is legal and what isn't in popular destination cities.

Either way, this is not good publicity for Airbnb's business model. The company is lobbying Albany pretty heavily to change the current laws.

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