David Hammond’s Comments

• Jul 21st, 2010 @ 11:06am

  (untitled comment)

  on Would A Moron In A Hurry Confuse Military Equipment With A Bamboo Fishing Rod?
  I'm getting a little annoyed by the way these article headlines are worded. The issue of trademark -- at least as I see it -- isn't an issue of whether you would confuse two different products, it's whether you would confuse two different brands or manufacturers. I wouldn't confuse a bamboo fishing rod with military equipment, but I might assume the same company created both if they both have similar branding.
  
  I don't see much value in copyright or patent law (in fact, I believe they generally harm society and take away important liberties), but I do see value in trademark law. I consider trademark law a sort of anti-fraud mechanism which helps to ensure that customers know what they're buying. I feel that these headlines that mock trademark lawsuits too often miss the point of trademark law.
  
  Would a moron in a hurry confuse a hamburger with a pretzel? No, but if a pretzel shop opened up with the name "McDonald's Pretzels" with a yellow "m" logo that looks close enough to the famous one, the average person could make a reasonable assumption that the pretzel place is part of some division of the McDonald's fast food franchise. This *would* be confusing, and might affect people's purchasing decisions. Trademark law is there to help clarify the situation for the customers, making it clear that the two aren't related.
  
  I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that a manufacturer of military equipment might also manufacture fishing rods. In this particular case, skunkworksflyrods.com definitely doesn't look like something a wealthy weapons manufacturer would make, but this headline (and numerous other Techdirt headlines in the past) is asking the question in general. In general, yes, a moron in a hurry (or an average person) could reasonably confuse the brands of two very different products, if the branding is similar enough.
• May 21st, 2010 @ 7:26am

  My proposal

  on Sarcasm Wars: Proprietary SarcMark Gets Some Sarcastic Open Competition
  I propose the Greek small letter upsilon with dialytika and perispomeni as the new sarcasm indicator.
  
  ῧ
• Feb 20th, 2008 @ 3:45pm

  Think outside the box

  on Deflating Rumors Of Google Offering Broadband-By-Balloon
  I don't know much about this company, but maybe there's some infrastructure it has that Google is interested in experimenting with for other uses. Maybe Google wants to try putting cameras on balloons and getting more frequent updates to the satellite photo imagery in certain areas. Google has made many purchases in which it abandoned the company's original product but made other use of its infrastructure.
• Feb 11th, 2008 @ 3:51pm

  Establishment of religion

  on Congress Wants To Separate Church And NFL From Copyright Laws
  If you look at the writings of the likes of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, it's quite clear that the First Amendment was intended not just to prevent the establishment of a state church, but to prevent congress from passing any law which respects anything on the basis of religion. Thomas Jefferson himself described this as a "wall of separation between church and state," and James Madison frequently cited "the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government," insisting that "Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
  
  The First Amendment does not say, "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of a state religion," as so many people seem to interpret it. It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." A church is an example of an establishment of religion, and so congress has no right to give special respect to churches.
• Dec 7th, 2007 @ 12:48pm

  Distribution

  on Would A Customized Newspaper Save The Industry?
  Unfortunately, I suspect you haven't taken a look at the newspaper distribution centers. Here's basically how it works: You have mountains and mountains of stacks of each section of the newspaper. Cheap workers (usually illegal immigrants) work like machines putting one section onto the next to assemble the newspaper, fold, rubber band, and dump into the big sack for the carrier. The carrier goes out and at each customer's house tosses whatever paper is at the top of the pile.
  
  Sometimes you have a day when a single carrier is tossing two separate subscriptions on a single route, depending on the customer. On these days, lots of mistakes happen, and every mistake costs the company money. Remember, these are rather low-paid people tossing papers in the middle of the night, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in near pitch black, and this is often one of several separate jobs the carrier has. Plus, in order to get the job done on time, the carrier is expected to memorize the subscriptions of most of the customers.
  
  Adding such a higher degree of complexity as you suggest could be devastating to the distribution centers.