November 28, 2004
US-VISIT, Dell inside

Joi found Paul Saffo's photo of the US-VISIT terminals: US Closed for the Day. I found only a bootup error showing a Dell Optiplex GX270 (PDF spec) missing its keyboard. (full image)

Of course, our civil liberties and those of our visitors are better off without the machines in service, since their function will be to take fingerprints and photos (no DNA samples yet) of non-citizens entering the country. Not such a warm welcome.

Posted by Wendy at 06:39 PM
Fisher Cats?

My brother Mark says there are fisher cats around his home in Vermont, so he's created a warning for those thinking of visiting him.

Posted by Wendy at 06:17 PM
Severance Ordered in More RIAA Suits

In another win for due process, Judges Sam Sparks and Lee Yeakel ruled that recording industry lawsuits in the Western District of Texas would have to proceed individually -- rather than 150+ "Does" at a time. See PDF Order. As the judges noted, the RIAA members' practice violates the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Rule 20(a), joinder, requires that parties be linked in the "same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences." Moreover,

The filing fees for the recent four cases totaled $600, whereas the filing fees for 254 separate cases would have been $38,100. That is a considerable loss of revenue to the public coffers.
Thanks Jon and Jim.

Similar orders have now been filed in Pennsylvania (2x), Florida, and in a movie industry suit in California, plus several DirecTV cases around the country. Note to lawyers and law students -- that CivPro is pretty important.

Posted by Wendy at 05:27 PM