The world is hectic at the moment. In the meantime, go and read this excellent piece on IP battles from The Register – a site that features some of the most interesting writing of the moment, online or offline (it also features articles by Andrew Orlowski, but these should be reasonably easy to spot and skip).
You may not be surprised to learn that Tom DeLay is an appalling hypocrite, both for his attitudes on right-to-die and on his attitudes towards frivellous lawsuits (via Crooked Timber). And I’m certainly not surprised (but still pleased) to see the Conservative party tearing itself apart in comedy fashion just after starting to make some electoral headway.
Jonathan King is free, is a patently ridiculous person, but has a reasonable point to make: while pulling 15-year-olds isn’t a classy thing for a middle-aged man to be doing, it’s somewhat insane to treat it as a serious crime worthy of a seven-year jail sentence. Not quite as insane, however, as criminalising possessing the name and address of a soldier. Spyblog has more on the latter.
Finally, is it libellous to call someone who keeps sueing his critics for libel a nasty, litigious piece of work?
On an historical point was Bill Wyman, aged 47, charged with anything after admitting to a sexual relationship with Mandy Smith, aged 13? I think he should have been, but I don’t recall.
I believe that Wyman, ludicrously, claims that their relationship was chaste for three years until sanctified by marriage shortly after her sixteenth birthday. Smith demurs, but hasn’t pressed charges.
He married her shortly after her 19th birthday, so it’s even more ludicrous if he claims that*. Julie Burchill wrote a column about the affair, which makes some good points though goes a bit loopy towards the end…http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,492961,00.html
* Did you know to find that out I had to read a website that called him ‘one of the greatest bassists in rock and roll history’.
gosh I see what you mean about loopy toward the end. Although she does get off a couple of good shots at Chris Woodhead.
Hey speaking of which, look what turned up as I was looking around for stuff on Woodhead. Seems that there is a brotherhood among shaggers.