IPDuck: February 2017

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

My Latest EFF Amicus Brief

Today EFF filed the latest amicus brief on which I worked. The case, SAS Institute v. World Programming Limited, involves the copyrightability of input and output formats for computer programs. EFF has published a blog post explaining the case and our brief.

Why a Duck?

The "IP" part of this blog's title is self-explanatory -- the abbreviation for the shorthand term "intellectual property." But what to call the humor part of the name? It turns out that the duck is the funniest animal alive. A 2002 study confirms that jokes mentioning ducks are funnier than others.

If you think about it, that makes sense. Think of the funniest joke you know, and replace one of the characters with a duck. It instantly becomes even funnier. You might not even need the punchline. For example, which is funnier:
"A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar . . . "
-- OR --
"A priest, a rabbi, and a duck walk into a bar . . . "

And needless to say, "Weird Al" Yankovic's "I Want a New Duck" is MUCH funnier than Huey Lewis' "I Want a New Drug."