The appeals court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate ruling 7-2. Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissented, siding with Sotomayor's position. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority's opinion, saying: "If there is demand for a freelance article standing alone or in a new collection, the Copyright Act allows the freelancer to benefit from that demand; after authorizing initial publication, the freelancer may also sell the article to others. It would scarcely "preserve the author's copyright in a contribution" as contemplated by Congress... if a newspaper or magazine publisher were permitted to reproduce or distribute copies of the author's contribution in isolation or within new collective works."

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so I don't want to say President Obama has a "secret agenda" on this point. Let's just say he has an agenda that he doesn't like to talk about in public much. Liberal he may be on other issues -- but in terms of RIAA-type hounding, he's arguably worse than George W Bush.

This is superfluous. She was Senator Moynihan's choice for the district court. As you know, Senatorial privilege means that senators have an effective veto over district court nominations for their state. As a result of this practice, there accumulated seven vacancies in New York district courts. GHWB, and Sens. Moynihan and D'Amato reached a compromise whereby each would get several picks for the bench. Sotomayor was one of Moynihan's picks. It does mean something that Bush was willing to nominate her as part of the compromise, but not nearly as much as Chris Ronk implies.

On the IP subject, it's difficult to discuss.  On the one hand, you can view her decision as an anti-IP one.  OTOH, it was also definitely a case of ruling in favor of Big Business and against the little guy, the freelancer.  If we're going to have IP, surely the freelancer's IP should be as respected as the big guys'

This is superfluous.

She was Senator Moynihan's choice for the district court. As you know, Senatorial privilege means that senators have an effective veto over district court nominations for their state. As a result of this practice, there accumulated seven vacancies in New York district courts. GHWB, and Sens. Moynihan and D'Amato reached a compromise whereby each would get several picks for the bench. Sotomayor was one of Moynihan's picks. It does mean something that Bush was willing to nominate her as part of the compromise, but not nearly as much as Chris Ronk implies.

What does her "background" in so-called intellectual property really mean? Will she be someone who will finally restore some sanity to copyright as a LIMITED privilege, or will she simply acquiesce to the likes of the RIAA or the MPAA and give them whatever they want at the expense of the American people.