Law on Rice

That’s right. The Supreme Court of the United States. I pull the MP3 files right from (the fantastic) oyez.org as I go to sleep at night. For about 15-30 minutes I’ll be interested in the case. Then, inevitably, I’m out cold.

For example, I’m studying for my securities regulation final a week from today. So, tonight I’m going to listen to Gustafson v. Alloyd Co. Don’t believe me? Here’s a bit from the transcript:

As the briefs indicate, this case turns in large part on whether or not the phrase, by means of a prospectus or oral communication, as used in section 12(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, is a phrase of limitation. The case also turns on whether, by section 12(2), the act covers negotiated private transactions even though the act does not otherwise intrude into such business arrangements. The House report answers both these questions, stating the bill affects only new offerings of securities. It does not affect ordinary redistribution of securities. As to liability provisions, the report states the bill’s civil liabilities attach only when there’s been an untrue statement of material fact in the registration statement or the prospectus, the basic information on which the public is solicited. This case involves no new offering of securities, and presents the paradigm example of a private transaction the act plainly left free from regulation other than by its section 17. Art Gustafson, Dan McLean, and Francis Butler sold their company to a sophisticated investor which conducted its own due diligence and negotiated the deal it wanted. The buyers had full access to information about Alloyd. Indeed, Mr. McLean and Mr. Butler were officers and shareholders of the buyer. . . .

Are you asleep yet?

Frederick Lardinois at ReadWriteWeb just posted on Songbeat asking if the service was legal. It’s a desktop app that lets you to record songs from last.fm. Lardinois says:

There are some obvious legal questions about the service. Songbeat’s founders Philip Eggersgluess and Marco Rydmann argue that Songbeat only creates a model for monetizing music that is already freely available online. However, it remains to be seen if the RIAA will agree with this line of reasoning.

Off the top of my head, it looks like it might be ripe with copyright issues. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to look into it too deeply right now. So what do you think?