Happy Caturday!

Ten commercials starring cats.

17 Unnecessary Signs

17 unnecessary signs.  Best ones: Nos. 2, 5, 12, 16, 17, 19.

Who's on First?

Baserunner on first steals second.  Later that same inning, the same baserunner . . . is back on first base, and is thrown out trying to steal second AGAIN.  Yep, it happened.  A text explanation is here.

YouTube Wins Summary Judgment Against Viacom (Again)

Yesterday, following further briefing, the district court granted YouTube's renewed summary judgment motion against Viacom.  EFF, Eric Goldman, and Techdirt all have detailed (and sometimes biting) writeups of the ruling.

Animated GIF Showing 40 Years of Music Industry Change

Someone created an animated GIF showing 40 years of changing formats in the music industry, from 1973 to the present.  It's interesting to see that by the early 1990's, both vinyl albums and singles had disappeared in favor of the CD format, but CD sales had not included any significant amount of CD singles.  This enabled the music industry to charge a full album price even if you only wanted one song.  By today, digital music sales of single songs claimed a significant percent of the music market.

April Fool's Update

OK, here are the best April Fool's jokes so far.  Note that some of these links won't work after today.

• Google Nose Search.
• YouTube is shutting down.
• Twitter is going to start charging if you want to use vowels.  I m n bg trble.
• Cats.  (Today only.) 
• More cats.  (Also today only.)
• Still more cats.  (And today only.)
• Yet more cats.  (This one might be good tomorrow.) 
• And even more cats.  (Also might be good tomorrow.)
• Penguins!  "A Tasmanian colony of fairy penguins has connected to the internet using a specially designed tablet to send out a puzzling message: "42". . . . Software engineering student Adelie King said she developed and installed a flipper-friendly email application on a first-generation iPad, which she then wrapped in plastic to avoid water damage."
• On the tech front, lots of news from EFF.
• Extension class of the day.
• "Swedish archaeologists find Thor's Hammer": Really good news for The Avengers 2? 
• Hungry?  Click here, but I'd avoid "Option 3" if I were you.
• Oh darn, I am one day too late.
• Lots more if the above weren't enough.
• Finally, an oldie but goodie from last year.

Further Summary Judgment Briefing in Viacom v. YouTube

I wrote previously about the long-running saga in Viacom v. YouTube, a case involving the "safe harbors" for user-generated content websites.  My analysis of the April 2012 Second Circuit opinion is here; earlier posts are here, here, here, and here.

On remand from the Second Circuit, YouTube has again asked the district court for summary judgment.  Techdirt has an excellent summary of the briefing on that motion.