When you win a copyright case you may be awarded your attorneys fees. I can't wait to see YouTube's attorneys fee motion. It's going to make my firm's bills seem like chicken feed.

But the defendant's lawyers have done a great job of beating back the Evil Empire, and in so doing have accomplished an important victory for the vitality of the internet.

Yeah.

And trying to 'maximize' the 'minimal' legal authority that exists to support their positions.

And trying to maximize their eroding monopolies.

Actually, you're 100% right. I think I was trying to decide between the phrase "content cartel" and "copyright maximalists", so my aging brain settled on "content maximalists". Would you change that to "copyright maximalists" for me, please :)

It means the big old school content "gatekeeper" companies, and their trade groups like the MPAA, RIAA, ASCAP, etc., whose economic power is being eroded by digitalization and the internet, and who are fighting back by taking extremist positions in defense of their copyright ownership.

Oops, I forgot to put "(PDF)" after the link to the Judge's 24 page decision, which is indeed a PDF file. I always like to give that heads-up, but forgot to this time.

The school I mentor for had a rough time in the Kansas City Regional, but fixed things up and solved some problems to end up doing well enough at the Razorback regional that they will go to the championships. Go Team 2410!

Are you talking about my law firm web site or my blog post on blogger.com?

I don't have the power to do that; the site was set up with Yahoo Site Solutions which is pure junk, and doesn't let you do anything.

I would love to be a judge, but it ain't gonna happen.

Thanks for the advice. Wish I had a clue as to what to do about it.

Regrettably, they vary from judge to judge and from court to court and are not predictable, since they are "discretionary".

I can tell you that if I were deciding UMG v Veoh I would have awarded Veoh its attorneys fees.

As I said, the judiciary has a number of rules, and engages in many practices, which make the cost of lawyering more expensive than it needs to be. I could write a book on the subject.

No it doesn't need as many hours of legal work as most big firms put into a case, which is why a good small firm like mine is wildly more efficient than the big firms, and can beat much bigger firms day in and day out. But under the rules and practices in place, it's still an unnecessarily expensive undertaking to litigate.

I don't make the rules; but I have to live with them in my daily life.