With a May 5 deadline for filing objections to the Google books settlement looming, opposition to and criticism of the settlement continues to cement. By Miguel Helft
I recently wrote about concerns among copyright and antitrust scholars and others that the settlement would grant Google a monopoly over millions of so-called orphan books, which are out of print and whose rights holders are unknown or cannot be found. I later gave more details of where the opposition was coming from. Now some of the opposition is starting to jell. The Internet Archive, which is currently working to match Google’s effort to digitize millions of books from major libraries, has filed a motion to intervene in the case. The Internet Archive argues that the settlement gives Google—and Google alone—immunity from liability for copyright infringement for scanning and displaying orphan books. Without similar immunity, “the Archive would be unable to provide some of these same services due to the uncertain legal issues surrounding orphan books.” The filing notes that the parties in the suit—Google, the Authors Guild and major publishers—plan to oppose the Archive’s proposed intervention. The Internet Archive is the second group that has asked the court to intervene. The first, spearheaded by a group of lawyers that includes Charles Nesson, a professor at Harvard Law School, has published its filing here.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/opposition-to-google-books-settlement/?em

Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, Illinois, has declared Thursday, April 23 as "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" to celebrate the 445th birthday of the man many consider the greatest playwright in the English language. While the bard's actual birth date is not known for sure, many scholars think it was April 23, 1564. It isn't as difficult as it sounds. After all, Shakespeare single-handedly contributed more than 1,700 words and phrases to the English language--everything from "foul play" to "monumental" to, of course, "all's well that ends well." But should you need some help, head over to talklikeshakespeare.org – Don't waste time saying "it." Just use the letter "t" ('tis, 'twill, I'll do't). To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with "methinks," "mayhaps," "in sooth" or "wherefore." When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth). For more ammunition, you can consult the random Shakespearean insult generator on the British site william-shakespeare.org.uk.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/21/talk.like.shakespeare/index.html
(Thanks, New York muse reader.)

An ugly dispute has erupted between West Publishing and two law professors who claim they were falsely identified as the authors of an annual supplement to a treatise on Pennsylvania criminal law even though they had nothing to do with writing it.
In a federal lawsuit, professors David Rudovsky of the University of Pennsylvania and Leonard Sosnov of Widener Law School claim that the December 2008 supplement, or "pocket part," to their book, "Pennsylvania Criminal Procedure -- Law, Commentary and Forms," was so poorly researched that it will harm their reputations if allowed to remain on library shelves.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429943280

Just Released: Ready Reference: The 2009 Fortune 500 April 19th, 2009
The 2009 Fortune ranking of America’s largest corporations is now available online.
Exxon Mobil returns to the top spot this year. Wal-Mart (last years #1) moves down to #2.
Top 10 (2009)
1. Exxon Mobil
2. Wal-Mart Stores
3. Chevron
4. ConocoPhillips
5. General Electric
6. General Motors
7. Ford Motor
8. AT&T
9. Hewlett-Packard
10. Valero Energy
+ Review the Top 50 Companies
+ Direct to Complete List
NOTE: The complete list consists of 1000 corporations.
+ Browse the List by Location
+ Fortune 500 CEO List
+ Review Past Rankings (Back to 1955)

Feedback from A.Word.A.Day
From: Charles Neame (c.neame cranfield.ac.uk)
Subject: French terms used in English
I remember once hearing an announcement on the Dover-Calais ferry. First in English: "Please note that the buffet is now open." Then in French: "Veuillez noter que le snack-bar est maintenant ouvert."
From: Carolanne Reynolds (gg wordsmith.org)
Subject: borrowing
For clarification and context since this week's theme is words 'borrowed' from French, for those interested in language it should not come as a surprise that the influence of French on English goes further than simple borrowing (as the word is commonly understood). After the victory of William the Conqueror/ Guillaume le Conquerant at Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Norman Conquest, French was the language of the court (aristocracy), the government, the law, that is of the rulers. Norman French then formed the 'upper layer' (freedom and liberty; work and labour; truth and veracity) on top of Anglo-Saxon, a Germanic language (with some Scandinavian). English ended up having two words for many things other languages (like French and German) have just one for (German: haus; French: maison; English: house and mansion). Vive la difference!

A handful of U.S. Supreme Court justices have gotten serious over the so-called Shakespeare authorship question--uncovering the true identity of the writer of Hamlet, Macbeth and Titus Andronicus, which many have called the Bard's worst play. Click here for the story, from the WSJ's Jess Bravin. Justice John Paul Stevens feels strongly that the writer of the plays was not Shakespeare, but the 17th earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere. Several justices across the court's ideological spectrum say he may be right. That makes Justice Stevens a so-called “Oxfordian.” A judge ruled April 17 that former President George W. Bush will have to give a statement in the lawsuit against Southern Methodist University. If the ruling stands up, Bush would become the first current or former president forced to give testimony in a state civil case. Click here for the Dallas Morning News story. The plaintiffs in the case have alleged that SMU bullied condo owners to sell their units to the university without disclosing plans to build a presidential library there. They allege that SMU officials showed Bush plans to put the library at the University Gardens site even before they tried to buy it. WSJ Law Blog April 20, 2009

The Boston Public Library is poised to sell or even give away a handful of items from its extensive special collection, as the landmark institution culls its vast holdings.
So far, the library's collections committee has discussed parting with three items, according to minutes from meetings: a Crehore piano, the first type of piano made in the US, a series of large-scale Audubon prints, and a collection of Tichnor glass printing plates that were once used to make postcards. The library has had the Aububon prints since the mid-1800s, while the piano and glass plates were acquired in the last several years.

Featured American poet: Diane Lockward
A former high school English teacher, she now works as a poet-in-the-schools for both the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Lockward is the recipient of a 2003 Poetry Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and has received awards from North American Review, Louisiana Literature, the Newburyport Art Association, and the Akron Art Museum.
http://www.nyslittree.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/db.persondetail/PersonPK/846.cfm
See Diane Lockward’s blog at: http://dianelockward.blogspot.com/

Stimulus Watch http://www.stimuluswatch.org/ informs citizens about proposed "shovel-ready" projects in your city. These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes. As of this writing, four states of muse readers are represented: Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

Four corners no longer square with modern survey methods Tourists may need to stretch their arms and legs at little further to straddle Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all at once. A report in the Deseret News claims that modern surveys put the US monument marking the geographical union of the four western states in the wrong place. The error is due to subtle effects such as imperfect bulges on the Earth's surface which were difficult to incorporate in 1868, when the US government first surveyed the site, the chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey told Colorado's Channel 9 news: "The 2.5 mile discrepancy that was originally reported is not accurate... At most, the difference between the location of the monument and where the actual four states should meet geographically is approximately 1,800 feet."
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/04/four_corners_no_longer_square.html

U.S. News and World Report: Our New Best Grad Schools Rankings
Find out which schools stand atop each rankings list.
Search: Law | Med | Business | Education | Engineering
http://www.usnews.com/

Some have quite impressively detailed the length to which law schools game the system. Still, much to the chagrin of law school deans and faculties, the rankings matter--to students and hiring partners and judges and others--and in our opinion they'll continue to matter so long as 1) a more visible and reliable ranking fails to emerge and 2) the practice of law remains a profession that trades so heavily on status, prestige and pedigree. With all that behind us, let's bring you this year's rankings, at least through the top 35. They are: 1. Yale, 2. Harvard, 3. Stanford, 4. Columbia, 5. NYU, 6. Berkeley, 6. (tie) Chicago, 8. Penn, 9. Michigan, 10. Duke, 10. (tie) Northwestern, 10. (tie) UVA, 13. Cornell, 14. Georgetown, 15. UCLA, 15. (tie) Texas, 17. Vanderbilt, 18. USC, 19. Wash U, 20. BU, 20. (tie) Emory, 20. (tie) Minnesota, 23. Indiana, 23. (tie) Illinois, 23. (tie) Notre Dame, 26. Boston College., 26. (tie) Iowa, 28. William & Mary, 28. (tie) George Washington, 30. Fordham, 30. (tie) Alabama, 30. (tie) UNC, 30. (tie) Washington & Lee, 35. Ohio State, 35. (tie) UC Davis, 35. (tie) Georgia, 35. (tie) Wisconsin. U.S. News and World Report also ranked, for the first time, part-time programs. Of the 87 accredited law schools with part-time programs, here are the top 15: 1. Georgetown, 2. George Washington, 3. Fordham, 4. American University, 5. George Mason, 6. Maryland, 7. Temple, 7. (tie) University of San Diego, 9. University of Denver, 10. Illinois Institute of Technology, 11. New York Law School, 12. Seattle U., 13. Loyola Marymount, 13. (tie) Suffolk University, 15. Georgia State. WSJ Law Blog April 22, 2009

April 23 is the birthday of novelist Vladimir Nabokov, (books by this author) born in St Petersburg, Russia (1899). He said he grew up "a perfectly normal trilingual child in a family with a large library." They had a large town home in St. Petersburg and a country estate. His governesses taught him to read and write English before his native Russian. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, Nabokov's family was forced to flee. They escaped to Germany, but had to leave behind their fortune. The Writer’s Almanac