payaat

  As we feared, the “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act”—the CASE Act—that we’ve been fighting in  various   forms  for  two years  has been included in a "must-pass" spending bill. This new legislation means Internet users could face up to $30,000 in penalties for sharing a meme or making a video, with liability determined not by neutral judges but by biased bureaucrats. The CASE Act is supposed to be a solution to the complicated problem of online copyright infringement. In reality, it creates a system that will harm everyday users who, unlike the big players, won’t have the time and capacity to negotiate this new bureaucracy. In essence, it creates a new “Copyright Claims Board” in the Copyright Office that will be empowered to adjudicate copyright infringement claims, unless the accused received a notice, recognizes what it means, and opts out—in a very specific manner, within a limited time period. The Board will be staffed by “claim...

  Facebook has recently launched a campaign touting itself as the protector of small businesses. This is a laughable attempt from Facebook to distract you from its poor track record of   anticompetitive   behavior   and   privacy   issues  as it tries to derail pro-privacy changes from Apple that are bad for Facebook’s business. Facebook’s campaign is targeting a new  AppTrackingTransparency feature  on iPhones that will require apps to request permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites or sharing their information with and from third parties. Requiring trackers to request your consent before stalking you across the Internet should be an obvious baseline, and we applaud Apple for this change. But Facebook, having built a massive empire around the concept of tracking everything you do by letting applications sell and share your data across a shady set of third-party companies, would like users and policymakers to...

D es Hommes et Des Chatons (Men and Cats) is a single-topic blog that pairs similar photos of attractive men with pictures of adorable cats. The brilliant match-ups feature a variety of heartthrobs (including celebrities like Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender) posing seductively alongside shots of cuddly felines striking a pose that makes the viewer question which subject they're more interested in looking at. Whether the guy is having a hearty, open-mouthed laugh, giving a come-hither stare, or just drinking a carton of milk, the clever blog pairs the image up with a cat doing almost the same exact thing, props and all! The more you browse through the growing collection of juxtapositions, the more uncanny the resemblance between the two subjects seem. Des Hommes et Des Chatons blog

An employer was not required to consent to a change of physicians where claimant, who sustained a pulmonary injury and initially chose to see a physician who was not a pulmonary specialist, later decided to undergo treatment from a pulmonary specialist, because the initial physician sent claimant to other specialists skilled in treating pulmonary injuries, and thus the initial physician provided the care of a specialist whose services are necessary for the proper care and treatment of the compensable injury pursuant to Section 7(b) and 20 C.F.R. §702.406(a). Senegal v. Strachan Shipping Co., 21 BRBS 8 (1988). Section 7(b) and its accompanying regulation, 20 C.F.R. §702.407, address the authority of the Secretary and the deputy commissioners to oversee an injured employee's medical care. The provisions, do not, however, address the issue of payment or reimbursement, which is governed by Section 7(d). Thus, where employer refuses to authorize a change in physician, claimant is entitl...

Where the administrative law judge found, based on a doctor's opinion, that claimant would be "better off" remaining with his family than being cared for in a nursing home, the Board rejected employer’s argument that it should be liable only for the costs of nursing home care and affirmed the administrative law judge’s decision holding employer responsible for paying for home health care services, as employer is liable for the costs of keeping claimant at home. The Board also affirmed the administrative law judge's conclusion that employer must reimburse claimant's wife for home health care services she paid for in excess of 8 hours per day because there is no evidence that the parties' informal agreement that employer was liable for only 8 hours of care per day was approved by a deputy commissioner or administrative law judge. Falcone v. General Dynamics Corp., 21 BRBS 145 (1988). The Board affirmed the administrative law judge's finding that modification...

The Board remanded the case for the administrative law judge to address the proximity of a physician's office to claimant's residence in determining whether claimant was entitled to the services of Dr. LaRocca, a Board-certified orthopedic surgeon to whom claimant was referred by her treating physician, as Dr. LaRocca's practice is some 313 miles distant from claimant's home, employer offered the services of a nearby specialist and Section 702.403 provides that 25 miles is generally a reasonable travel distance for medical care. Welch v. Pennzoil Co., 23 BRBS 395 (1990). The Board affirmed the denial of medical benefits where the administrative law judge rationally found that the doctor's treatment was duplicative of the treatment claimant was receiving from other doctors and therefore was unnecessary. Hunt v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 28 BRBS 364 (1994), aff'd mem., 61 F.3d 900 (4th Cir. 1995). The Board affirmed the administrative law judge...

The Board remanded the case to the administrative law judge for a determination of whether claimant's hearing loss is work-related; if so, claimant is entitled to medical benefits for a neck injury sustained during the course of a medical examination for the hearing loss. Weber v. Seattle Crescent Container Corp., 19 BRBS 146 (1986). Where relevant evidence establishes that claimant's psychological condition was caused, at least in part, by her work injury, and that she was treated, at least in part, for her workrelated condition, claimant is entitled to benefits for this treatment. The Board also held that there is no evidence to support the administrative law judge's conclusion that the degree of claimant's pain is not sufficient to justify psychological services. The Board accordingly remanded for the administrative law judge to enter an award of medical benefits for those expenses deemed reasonable and necessary for treatment of claimant's psychological conditio...