Monthly Archive for October, 2007

beginning an interesting story — Hemp activists get the joint jumping

Published by nesson on October 29, 2007 in General. Closed

Boston Herald, Sept 16, 2007

By O’RYAN JOHNSON

Two of the nation’s leading advocates for legalized marijuana were arrested on Boston Common yesterday for lighting up a joint during the Boston Freedom Rally, a pro-hemp event that promotes decriminalizing the drug.

R. Keith Stroup, 63, founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and Rick Cusick, 53, an editor at High Times magazine, were charged with possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. “We were smoking a joint behind the booth here,” Stroup said. “I’m sure the police would rather be chasing real criminals. We’re both productive, hard-working taxpayers.”

High Times and NORML are co-sponsors of the annual rally that celebrates pot culture and traditionally results in dozens of arrests of addle-brained youths who mistakenly believe it is legal to toke up for just that day.

“A lot of them said they thought it was an amnesty,” said one of the cops at the makeshift booking area where plainclothes police led the shame-faced youths who were caught smoking reefer. The 60-plus arrested found it was not only not legal for that day but would cost them a day in court.

Despite the number of arrests, while Stroup was onstage telling the crowd about his own arrest he also prompted the audience to “stand up, light up and let the world know how you feel.” The advice was heeded by men who identified themselves as Anthony Martins, 22, of West Bridgewater, and Josh Hatfield, 22, of Weymouth, and passed a joint back and forth during Stroup’s speech.

“No, I don’t think it’s legal,” Martins said, when asked if he thought there was an amnesty. “It’s something I’m proud of. It’s not like I’m a heroin addict.”

Asked why he was smoking pot, Martins said, “To fight the power.”

Stroup, who was arrested once before 24 years ago, said he and Cusick were relaxing and smoking a joint in the park, an activity he said was no harm to anyone.

Both men said police treated them well and professionally during the booking process.

“I’ve been waiting 33 years to get arrested,” said Cusick, chuckling. “When it happened I was calm, like a monk. I told them I’d call my lawyer, but he got arrested with me.”

Tim Hwang

Published by nesson on October 29, 2007 in harvard and poker. Closed

To Whom It May Concern:

Tim Hwang is a prime candidate for law school and for the legal profession. He sees and understands social networks. He is a student of how to build them. He understands that the structure of a functioning social network in the integrated media environment of cyber space is connected layered interests to a single focal point each object and audience for the others. He sees this in the structure of argument that makes a winning message in the space.

I refer you to his blog description of a breakfast at my house as my evidence.

Tim explores how social forces manifest themselves, for better or for worse, in technology and law. He thinks about how economic and social forces influence the design of the internet.

Tim is skilled in organization and detail-oriented work. He enjoys dealing with logistical problems, assembling resources for a
project, and collaborating with others towards a goal. He is a valuable person to have on your team. I have asked Tim to help me design and build a social educational network with poker thinking at its core. I recommend him.

nov 10 – EDUCATIONAL UTILITY OF POKER

Published by nesson on October 26, 2007 in poker. 1 Comment

***
truth
the evidence to prove it
the question to ask
what is the game
who are the players

[this is the entire session of cyberone: hold’em history with howard lederer and crandell addington — a wonderful hour (the opening sequence with crandell addington previously posted is followed here now by howard lederer in discussion with andrew woods and my real-world avatar.]

vision for nov 10
we are building poker university to take full advantage best we can of the utility of poker in education. we gather people together who have been educating in and through poker and in and through the strategy of learning and teaching with games of skill. we bring them together with people of technical and business skill who can build the environment we design. we invite singapore (both govt and game conference) and the harvard pitf program, gambit and the gaming coders. we invite the online poker industry and its founders. we invite them to a meeting in second life on Berkman Island and on the net at gpsts.org and if they can come in person or want to send their designee in Austin East on the Harvard Law School campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, Planet Earth.

our mission is to set the specs for the university we are building.

***
read Christopher Costigan. he’s right on..

 

Published by nesson on October 26, 2007 in General. Closed

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Charles Nesson
Date: Oct 25, 2007 10:52 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: re Professor McDew
To: “Andrew M. Woods”

Who do we exclude. Let’s think back over our history and include everyone who can help us and who would be interested in coming and participating, and if you are worried about budgeting the cost of flying everyone in and putting them up at hotels, let’s turn the default the other way: “please come if you can, but you have to pay your own way.” Except for commitments already outstanding I don’t see a problem with that. Make it really nice for them when they get here.

I see a conference keynoted by macmanus and sexton with the sessions in discussion format moderated by you and me, dedicated in process to fred friendly and in substance to Bob Moses and John Doar. I see the room full of people who have worked at educating through and about poker. I want to invite them by saying come talk with me and Andrew about how to design our school. I want to explore collaboration with full tilt and world series in the formation of an educational environment built to my specs, including code of conduct, “absolute” transparency, state-of-the-art registration and tracking, return of part of the rake to the university and country of player origin, with instruction and tests and freeroll tournaments at which kids earn a stake, start at the bottom and then move up in stake only as they earn from that point forward. Earn and learn. I want to do it as an incentive based program for learning.

I’d like lunch at the hark and food-for-thought dinners (are you familiar with these) at local restaurants, followed by a charity poker tournament in the hark. Invitees may write a check to charity for any amount as an entry fee, the tournament to be played for the pleasure of place of finish and for the honor of the bracelet, awarded as a prize. I’d like every attendee to get a lance armstrong type bracelet designed for gpsts. This event should be covered by media and could be amazing. I’d like to urge as many of the poker players who were in dc as possible to come up for some or all of the day’s events.

This conference is a tremendous opportunity for us, as well as challenge. We have captured a lot of attention. We should take full advantage of it to further our mission.

U v. riaa: Motion to Quash Subpoena

Published by nesson on October 26, 2007 in harvard, poker and rhetorical space. Closed

Professor Nesson,
I am a freshman at the University of Alabama, and last week the
University forwarded “pre-lawsuit” letters from the RIAA to fourteen
students, and one of them happens to be my good friend. I have found
that the University of Alabama has the best interests of its students
at heart, but I think some lack of understanding about this issue was
shown on the University’s part when these letters were forwarded. I
read an op-ed you helped write in May of this year
 http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2007/05/…), and I wish
that our administrators would take a similar view of this situation.
The RIAA is clearly afraid to go after Harvard, no doubt because it
knows it would face a hard fight (that they would probably lose) in
doing so. I’m afraid that our administration just wants to take the
easy way out. It’s like they think “Ok well the law says this, and we
don’t want our school to look like it is causing trouble, so here’s
this letter, sorry.” We’re only 18 years old, so the idea of this huge
and powerful association coming after us is intimidating to say the
least. Basically, I want to let the U of A know that our students need
more support. However, I can already see the email they would send back
to me. It would say that the University makes its students a priority
and everything is being done to handle this situation in the best way
possible. So I guess I just want some advice on what to do…if
anything at all.

Sincerely,
Elena Roca

***
dear elena,
the pressure point in the RIAA’s assault on universities is the subpoena to the university for the names of students to fill in the blanks on their john and jane doe law suits. it is at that point that the university has an opportunity to resist in a court of law. without resistance by the university the students are lost. without resistance by the university the university itself signs on to be industry’s copyright police under a legal regime that all the world knows makes no sense in an internet age.

i’ve blogged it. the federal rules of civil procedure which would guide the motion to quash instructs the judge to allow the university to demonstrate that the enforcement of the subpoena imposes an undue burden on the university. enforcement of one subpoena means, of course, enforcement of all like subpoenas, so that the whole policy of the university is forced to conform, and if one university, then all university unless one resists. the question for the future is: do we prefer a world in which the dead hand of the past in the form of bloated copyright law wielded and preserved by riaa’s litigation campaign changes university for ever — or should we preserve the open trusting scholarly relationships and roles in college campus life by recognizing their loss as an undue burden the music industry is imposing by its strategy of enforcement of outmoded law.

see if you can interest the crimson white in picking up this correspondence. crimson white for alabama. crimson for harvard.

eon

Poker: Public Policy, Politics, Skill

Published by nesson on October 20, 2007 in poker and rhetorical space. Closed

Invitation to the Poker Players Alliance Policy Forum

October 24, 2007 10:00 am – 11:00 am in Rayburn 2200

Poker in its many different variants has seen a proliferation across the United States of unprecedented proportions. Despite its growing popularity, poker is still a controversial
activity that sparks emotions and debates in elections and legislative battles. A year after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was signed into law, this panel will
discuss its impact on the poker community and the current Congressional proposals that seek to create a U.S. regulatory framework for Internet gaming and classify poker as a game of skill.

Moderator:
John Pappas, Executive Director, Poker Players Alliance
Panelists:
Howard Lederer, professional poker player
Professor Charles Nesson, Harvard University Law School
Andrew Woods, Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society
Radley Balko, Sr. Editor, Reason Magazine  www.theagitator.com)
Kenneth Adams, lead attorney in federal poker tax appeal, Dickstein Shapiro LLP.

Please RSVP to  ppaforum at pokerplayersalliance.org
Questions? Contact the Poker Players Alliance in Washington D.C.
1111 19 th
Street NW, Ste. 1150
Washington, D.C. 20036

Yesterday our second club tournament.

holdem’ early days — crandell addington

Published by nesson on October 18, 2007 in poker. Closed

hold’em poker
the story told by cradell addington of its start in texas
the formation and travels of the texas road gang
gathering in vegas
start of tournament play

thank you 1-2-3
thank you bodog news
thank you pokerati

we held a two-table tournament in the evening after our meeting in which both crandell addington and howard lederer played, won by justin liu, a first-year law student. crandell finished #2. howard made it to the final table.

From the Second Life Insider

Published by nesson on October 17, 2007 in General. Closed

Harvard explores the case against Addis

    Posted Oct 16th 2007 9:00PM by Tateru Nino
    Filed under: Educational, News, Events, Mixed Reality, Teaching

    You may remember Harvard Law School’s extrusion into Second Life, via the Harvard Extension Program, particularly the Evidence at Large subject on trial advocacy and evidence that took place in January this year, exploring the Bragg vs Linden Lab case. It was certainly one of the more interesting and fascinating things I’ve seen and done in Second Life so far.

    Tomorrow (Wednesday), at 4PM SLT (US Pacific), there will be a second mock trial. This one will be exploring the case/charges against Paul Addis – the man who allegedly set fire to the Burning Man ahead of time. Second Life users are invited to attend and observe, or to serve on the jury. If you’re interested, get on down to Harvard’s Berkman Island with a little time to spare.

    Incidentally, if you haven’t looked at this course (lectures and office hours are open to at-large participants – no fees and no enrollment) you really should take a good look at what they’ve got going on. It really is a treat.

    (Thanks to Madison Kotobide for the heads-up)

hlspst first meeting – mission

Published by nesson on October 14, 2007 in General. Closed

just went to gpsts.org
love it
it welcomes

USA v. ONLINE POKER

Published by nesson on October 13, 2007 in poker. Closed

Prosecutorial abuse of Online Poker.