Reader responds to federal court system story: I just finished reading Jeff Shesol's Supreme Power. A fascinating tale well written about the problem of the Supreme Court in 1934-1936 versus the New Deal legislation. There is quite a thorough examination of the federal judiciary under the Constitution which culminated in FDR's attempt to "pack the Court". These were his words, not a pejorative as the idea came to be seen in later years. A careful description of the stance and thinking of each of the Justices on a bench with a 5 to 4 conservative to liberal split. Also an illuminating description of the political scene of supporters and opponents nationwide and in Congress.

Since July, at least six suits have been filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against websites and companies that create advertising technology, accusing them of installing online-tracking tools that are so surreptitious that they essentially hack into users' machines without their knowledge. All of the suits seek class-action status and accuse companies of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other laws against deceptive practices. In 2001 and 2003, courts ruled that websites could place small text files called "cookies" on machines. Cookies allow sites to remember users, so they don't have to log in user information on each visit. But they can also be used to track users across websites, compiling a profile of a user's browsing interests. The new lawsuits challenge the older rulings because modern tracking tools are more sophisticated than early cookies. In one of the lawsuits, filed last week in the Central District of California, three California residents sued Cable News Network, Travel Channel and others over alleged tracking of Web surfing on mobile phones using technology that the suit says is particularly difficult to delete. A spokesman for Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which controls the Travel Channel, said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation. Time Warner Inc., which owns CNN, declined to comment. Another suit, filed earlier this month, accuses Fox Entertainment Group and the American idol.com website of using a new kind of cookie—known as a Flash cookie—that can "re-spawn" tracking files that users have deleted, without users' knowledge. News Corp., which owns Fox Entertainment Group as well as The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment on the litigation.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704416904575502261335698370.html

SISTER BAY, Wis.—Lars Johnson is proud of his restaurant's Swedish-meatball sandwich and pickled herring. But the signature offering at his Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant isn't on the menu; it's the goats grazing on the grass-covered roof. Some patrons drive from afar to eat at the restaurant and see the goats that have been going up on Al Johnson's roof since 1973. The restaurant 14 years ago trademarked the right to put goats on a roof to attract customers to a business. "The restaurant is one of the top-grossing in Wisconsin, and I'm sure the goats have helped," says Mr. Johnson, who manages the family-owned restaurant. Last year, he discovered that Tiger Mountain Market in Rabun County, Ga., had been grazing goats on its grass roof since 2007. Putting goats on the roof wasn't illegal. The violation, Al Johnson's alleged in a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, was that Tiger Mountain used the animals to woo business. The suit declared: "Notwithstanding Al Johnson's Restaurant's prior, continuous and extensive use of the Goats on the Roof Trade Dress"—a type of trademark—"defendant Tiger Mountain Market opened a grocery store and gift shop in buildings with grass on the roofs and allows goats to climb on the roofs of its buildings." Al Johnson's "demanded that Defendant cease and desist such conduct, but Defendant has willfully continued to offer food services from buildings with goats on the roof," the suit continued. Earlier this year, Mr. Benson agreed to pay Al Johnson's a fee for the right to use roof goats as a marketing tool in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Al Johnson's is on constant lookout for other cloven-hooved intellectual-property violations. Mr. Johnson says the restaurant's Milwaukee law firm has sent letters to other alleged offenders, such as a gift shop in Wisconsin with a fake goat on its roof. It removed the ersatz ungulate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704285104575492650336813506.html

Parody was identified as a literary mode by Aristotle, and you can find examples in English from the time of Chaucer, but the practice really came into its own in the nineteenth century. The work still commonly regarded as the supreme achievement in the genre, Max Beerbohm’s “A Christmas Garland,” was published in 1912. A.Y. Campbell has parodied the 13th-century round "Sumer Is Icumen In" with "Plumber is icumen in; Bludie big tu-du." James Thurber published "A Visit From Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner)" in The New Yorker in 1927. Hardboiled crime-fiction is like catnip to parodists and screenwriters. There is S.J. Perlman's Raymond Chandler spoof, "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer" and Woody Allen's "The Whore of Mensa." The New Yorker September 20, 2010

A parody ( also called send-up or spoof), in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody

Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing (usually very well known) musical ideas or lyrics—or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_(music)

Parody art Paintings frequently parodied: American Gothic, Mona Lisa, Mount Rushmore

The Satire/Parody Distinction in Copyright and Trademark Law—Can Satire Ever Be a Fair Use? Read this ABA SECTION OF LITIGATION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LITIGATION COMMITTEE, ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ONLINE at:
http://www.abanet.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf
See also: Copyright and Fair Use at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html

The Spiceman Cometh Flavor guru Kevan Vetter influences the taste of many fine foods—like Doritos. Over the past decade, Vetter's chosen flavors have found their way into nearly every corner of the processed food chain, including Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken frozen dinners, and Taco Bell's carne asada chalupa. Vetter, the executive chef at seasoning giant McCormick & Co. (MKC), joined the company in 1998 with the goal of enhancing its influence outside the supermarket. In his first Flavor Forecast, in 2000, he noted the rise of Latin American dishes and small plates. Vetter's flavors have a meaningful effect on McCormick's bottom line. "Within a matter of a couple of months, we'll get orders [for spices and flavors]," says Alan Wilson, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of McCormick. The company's share price has more than doubled in the decade since the 2000 forecast. Since 2005 between 13 and 18 percent of nonretail sales have come from new products launched in the three preceding years.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_39/b4196080854097.htm?chan=magazine+channel_etc.