Seriously Dude?

These are the tards I have to deal with on a daily basis. I’m not sure who is worse, the guy who tried backing in and ended up on the line, or the guy who pulled in regular and still fucked it up.

Seriously Dude?

This guy is more cool than you can ever even imagine.

Trial 1 of 2 Finished

OK, so if you’ve been following, my friend and I’s trial was split into two separate trials at the last minute. After this trial on Wednesday, the judge decided that he “had to think about it.”

The verdict came back, NOT GUILTY! Of course, any sane judge would have ruled the same way. However, my personal trial is still up even though we were both doing the exact same thing, the trial will go the exact same way, and at one point we were being charged together.

On one hand, the prosecutor may decide just to dismiss the charges now; I mean, why waste even more time and tax payer dollars? On the other hand, she was VERY upset at the ruling. So, she may decide to take me to trial, and perhaps try another approach.

Either way, things are looking up slightly, and hopefully we can get this taken care of as soon as possible.

MORE LEGAL RIDICULOUSNESS

So, if anyone has been following, my second trial date was set for today. The first trial could not proceed because the prosecution was not ready. So, there are two of us on trial, and our trials were supposed to be together.

We arrive at 9:00am. We finally get into the courtroom around 10:00am. The prosecution wants to move the entire mother fucker back again (noting that this is the third time over 3 months that I’ve had to take a day off of work). We are able to get it in for the afternoon, and our trial time is set for 11:15. So, noon rolls around, and the trial finally starts. They decide to split us up (why??) so my friend goes first.

The trial for this petty fucking M4 last two hours. At the end, the judge doesn’t even make a decision, and my trial date is now set for June 3rd. Yes, I said that correctly, June 3rd. The offense happened FEBRUARY 24th. Yea, so much for a speedy trial.

Anyways, our attorney thinks that the lack of decision might be a good thing. He mentioned that in many cases the judge doesn’t want to offend the police officers by ruling against them. So, he says basically that he’ll think it over so he can avoid the confrontation.

Hopefully my buddy will be acquitted and the prosecution will finally decide to dismiss my charges like they should have done months ago.

I have lost my faith in the legal system.

Retarded Auction

OK, so I’m working at the hotel last (Friday) night. I banquet bartend by the way. I find out that we’re working a fund raiser for Juvenile Diabetes. We usually hate working these events because: no one really drinks a lot; people with money tip like assholes.

OK, so the main event of the evening is a live auction. The auctioneer was flown in from Seattle, and the guy can talk really fast. Anyways, at one point, I stopped serving people drinks out of disgust for what they were paying for some items. Now, I don’t mind the point of the fund raiser, but some things should naturally go for more. Case in point.

Up for auction: an autographed jersey from Mr. Backup Himself, Brady Quinn. Don’t get me started on how much this guy blows, let alone from the fact that he doesn’t even play. This UNFRAMED jersey goes for $600.

OK, that’s a lot of money. I really nicely framed, signed Eddie George OSU jersey went for $275 at an event last week, but no biggie.

Next up, a signed GORDIE HOWE jersey. Gordie Howe, one of the finest athletes of his time, and of course one of the best hockey players ever. Final bid: $300!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!? You’re going to spend twice as much on fucking that Notre Dame assbag. Holy shit, I was pissed.

Then I got more pissed when I came back into the room just in time to hear another lot. You get to spend a day with a Sheriffs Deputy. Yea, that’s it. You get to ride along. It’s like the TV show COPS, but with more smell. This mother fucker goes for $400. Holy cockbag, you’re going to spend $50/hour to ride in a police car, and you’ll only go up to $300 for a fucking priceless jersey.

I was appalled.

J.K. Rowling Panties Bunched

Popular author J.K. Rowling has her panties in a bunch after she realized she could have made an additional fortune based on the Harry Potter books. Over the years, Rowling has become beyond wealthy, and has spurred interest in reading to thousands of children and adults alike, during a time where electronic media thrives. The lady has done good in her life.

Based on the popular children’s books, which encompass thousands of pages, a librarian by the name of Steven Vander Ark has compiled together a dictionary, “The Harry Potter Lexicon.” The book has exact passage from the novels, and is some 400+ pages long, including references to obscure characters even the most die-hard readers might not remember.

However, Rowling feels like Vander Ark is stealing 15 years of her life. Who’s to blame? Is Vander Ark committing copyright infringement, or is Rowling just being a bitch? I feel the issue here is Fair Use.

Fair use is the most common defense in copyright infringement. Let’s take a look and see if this encyclopedia can be classified as fair use.

The first factor of Fair Use is Purpose or Character. The first factor is about whether the use in question helps fulfill the intention of copyright law to stimulate creativity for the enrichment of the general public, or whether it aims to only “supersede the objects” of the original for reasons of personal profit. Of course this guy is looking for personal profit. Fair Use in this instance does not cover the lexicon.

The second factor is the Nature of the Copyrighted Work. This factor aims to prevent private ownership of material that should rightfully belong to the public. Time magazine purchased the Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy. However, courts ruled that this is material that should belong to the public, and overturned Time’s copyright. Again, this does not apply to this case.

Next there is Amount and Substitutability. The third factor assesses the quantity or percentage of the original copyrighted work that has been imported into the new work. This is where thing start to turn in favor of Vander Ark. There are 4224 pages in the entire Harry Potter series. The Lexicon is slated at around 400 pages, less than 10% of the entire series. Of this 10%, only a small percentage of that can be considered direct quoting.

In Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters, the use of less than 400 words from President Ford’s memoir by a political opinion magazine was interpreted as infringement because those few words represented “the heart of the book” and were, as such, substantial. Can we consider the quoting of passages used to describe certain people, places or things substantial to the heart of the Harry Potter series? I think hardly. One cannot grasp story ideas or plot lines by simply reading about who John X. is, or where the Magic Place in the Sky is.

Lastly is the effect upon the author’s work’s value. The fourth factor measures the effect that the allegedly infringing use has had on the copyright owner’s ability to exploit his original work. The main question here is whether or not the claimed infringing work can harm the original owner’s market value. This is quite possibly the most important factor of fair use, and in fact the Supreme Court has labeled this factor “the single most important element of fair use.”

So the question is whether the Harry Potter encyclopedia affects the market value of the Harry Potter books. I must side with Vander Ark on this. In fact, I believe that the lexicon INCREASES the value of the books. I can foresee people going back to reread books with the reference along side to better understand the subjects and plot. I can see this increasing awareness for the few people who have not already read the books. This book is essentially notes to let a reader further enjoy a series of books they might not be able to read fast enough. Is there a character one doesn’t remember? That’s fine, there is a desktop reference to find out what they did in Book 1.

In my humble opinion, there is no copyright infringement, as Vander Ark’s work falls under the case of fair use. The only worthy thing Rowling has to say is that she was planning on writing an encyclopedia, but has been too busy. Well…sorry. Put out an “official” lexicon when you get around to it, but until then, there will be reference for people who want it. No one is going to sit down and read the damn encyclopedia without having your book first. This doesn’t steal from your 15 years of work, it flatters your work in a way that will allow more people to enjoy your life’s work.

Chill out bitch.

Sunday at the Palace

So, I had 4 tickets to Sunday night’s Pistons vs. Raptors game. I knew that the Pistons weren’t going to be playing their starters much, but we had sweet tickets, so I went anyways. We pull up to our RESERVED parking spot, and realize were about 30 yds away from the entrance. Baller dare I say?

Our tickets were in row AA. For those of you who aren’t sweet enough to have tickets this awesome, at the Palace, rows start at AA, go to around FF, then start at A again. AA = Row 1. But, there are some pretty crappy row 1 seats, but ours were completely half-court! Well, techincally there’s an aisle at half-court, but we had the 4 seats right next to it. Here’s a shot from the introductions.

This is opening tipoff. I wasn’t lying. We’re right fucking there. You’ll notice people in front of us. You gotta understand, floor seats are completely different. However, unless you are in the front row of the floor seats, you’re better off in Row AA. Floor seats are very tight, and there’s no incline, so if you are in rows 2-4, it’s kind of hard to see (trust me).

Here’s a shot of some of the Automotion dancers as they get ready to fuck with Hubie Brown.

Here’s the final bell, with the Pistons coming out victorious, even though starters only played like 10 minutes.

So, these are probably the best seats for any game I’ve had in a while. The club level seats at the Lions game last year were pretty sweet, but I think these were better. It’s great being better than everyone else because you have servers that come wait on you.

Also, Row AA are the only seats in the place that you have leg room for. There is walkway between the first row and the floor seats, so they are the only place that you can stretch out your legs. Its very nice living the high life.

5K Training

Had another outside run yesterday. My first attempt was around 33:15. This time, I was able to bring it all the way down to 31:30. My goal is 30:00 at the June 8th 29th Annual Scleroderma Walk/Run at the Detroit Zoo.

More importantly, as soon as I can figure out how to get pictures into a  post using this new interface, I’ll have some pictures up from Sunday night’s Pistons game.

Ace and Dutch – Episode 5

The fifth episode starts years ago when Ace and Dutch first met. They were best friends from the beginning.

Trial

OK, so I woke up at 7:00 am yesterday to prepare for my trial. 8:00 am rolls around, Joe comes over, and we head out to the Toledo Municipal Courthouse. The paper I have says that I should be there at 8:30, we arrive shortly after.

My attorney says that stuff usually starts at 9:00, so I expect him there before. An hour after I arrive, nothing has happened, and he finally shows up.

He walks around talking to people for a while, and hours later, we have to reschedule.  Mother fucker.

So, the new trial date is set for April 23. Fucking legal system.