Nota Bene

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Activision Inc. has sued Gibson Guitar Corp., saying its popular video game “Guitar Hero” doesn’t infringe on a Gibson patent.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, asks the court to declare the video game doesn’t infringe on the Nashville, Tenn., musical instrument maker’s patent for a “system and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert experience” and that Gibson’s patent is invalid.

“Despite being aware of the Guitar Hero game for many years, Gibson has encouraged Activision to manufacture and sell devices it now alleges infringe” the patent, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that Gibson notified Activision in January that it believed the “Guitar Hero” software and its guitar-shaped controller were covered by Gibson’s patent. Gibson asked that Activision obtain a license from the instrument maker under the patent or stop sales of the game, according to the lawsuit.

Time Magazine reports:

The parents of some 200,000 home-schooled kids in California were stunned last week when they learned that a judge had declared home schooling illegal unless conducted by a licensed teacher. For the moment, though, those parents can breathe a sigh of relief. Yesterday, Jack O’Connell, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, released a statement saying that the California Department of Education will not go after parents who do not have teaching credentials: “I have reviewed this case, and I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling,” O’Connell said in his statement. “Parents still have the right to home school in our state.”

The California Rules of Court were recently updated to allow for electronic service of briefs in PDF format in lieu of mailing four hard copies to the California Supreme Court. (See Rule 8.212).  Until recently, there was no way to implement this rule. However, the California Supreme Court has now set up a page for submitting PDF files in lieu of four hard copies. See the details here. The technical requirements for submitting the brief seem to be pretty basic:

Brief must be a single, text-searchable PDF file, no more than 5 MB in size, and an exact duplicate of the paper copy. Please do not submit scanned documents or any other documents associated with the case such as exhibits, applications, etc.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

“At first, there was a sense of, ‘No way,’ ” said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. “Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation.”

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California’s compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child’s grade level.

You can read the decision published by the Second District Court of Appeal here.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

When a Forsyth County couple sent 99-cent text messages trying to win a prize on the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal,” they engaged in illegal gambling and should get their money back, a lawyer told the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday.

So should all other Georgians who sent text messages in the show’s “Lucky Case Game” and lost, lawyer Jerry Buchanan said. A judge hearing the case has estimated the bounty could reach tens of millions of dollars.

The unusual federal lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed last year by Michael and Michele Hardin against NBC Universal Inc. and two other companies affiliated with the show.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The city council has unanimously approved restricting where sex offenders can live, responding to a communitys outrage over more than a dozen registered sex offenders living in the same 12-unit apartment complex.Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal had proposed the ordinance, which would keep sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of licensed child-care facilities or within 2,500 feet of “high risk” sex offenders. She also wants to limit the number of sex offenders that can live within a multi-family residence.

The council on Tuesday night unanimously approved Lowenthals measure, directing the city attorneys office to research and craft the new law, which will come back to council members for approval.

The Associated Press reports:

A state appellate court on Wednesday upheld a renewal of a civil judgment against O.J. Simpson in a decade-old wrongful death lawsuit.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected an argument by Simpson that the Los Angeles Superior Court no longer had jurisdiction over him because he now lives in Florida.

Fred Goldman filed a renewal in October 2006 because Simpson has refused to pay the $33.5 million judgment that would have automatically expired on March 10. The judgment has grown to about $40 million, with interest.

Goldman’s attorney David Cook said the renewal will not expire for another 10 years and can be renewed again at that time if the full judgment isn’t received.

“A plane ticket to Miami is not a free pass for a wrongful death judgment,” Cook said in an e-mail message.

The AP reports:

The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to civil rights and privacy advocates who oppose the Bush administrations warrantless wiretapping program. The justices, without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.The action underscored the difficulty of mounting a challenge to the eavesdropping, which remains classified and was confirmed by President Bush only after a newspaper article revealed its existence.

“Its very disturbing that the presidents actions will go unremarked upon by the court,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLUs national security project. “In our view, it shouldnt be left to executive branch officials alone to determine the limits.”

The Terrorist Surveillance Program no longer exists, although the administration has maintained it was legal.

LifeHacker reports:

Need to know the landlord laws for your state? Want to find incorporation forms for your home business? The Public Library of Law, a new search engine launched in collaboration with legal research firm FastCase, gives you access to laws, statutes, and legal decisions from all 50 states, as well as a wealth of free legal forms.

You can access The Public Library of Law here.

The OC Register reports:

A judge Monday allowed a lawsuit to proceed against a California Highway Patrol dispatcher in a high-profile case about graphic accident photos leaked onto the Internet.

A second dispatcher, however, was removed as a defendant in the complaint.

In separate rulings that keep alive the possibility of a jury trial against the CHP, Judge Steven L. Perk ruled that the alleged conduct of dispatch supervisor Thomas ODonnell was not protected by his constitutional right of free speech – as his attorneys argued.

Relatives of Nicole “Nikki” Catsouras sued the CHP, ODonnell and another dispatcher, Aaron Reich, after the agency took responsibility for improperly releasing the grisly images to the public. Accident-scene photos are supposed to be used only for investigative purposes.