RIP: Matthew Perry, aged 54!

Bit of a surprise. He was found in his swimming pool, apparently an accidental drowning. I'm guessing that he suffered some form of medical emergency and the drowning was a consequence of that.

While best known for his role in the hugely successful TV series Friends, he did a lot of work outside of that. He also did a huge amount of drugs, which may have contributed to his rather early death. That's one of the risks and consequences of the Hollywood lifestyle: even if you're clean now, the fact that you were a hard user a couple of decades ago can have consequences.

RIP, dude. Lots of your fans will miss you.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/matthew-perry-friends-star-dead-obit-1234865185/

RIP: Richard "Shaft" Roundtree, 81

Best known for appearing as Shaft in three TV movies, the actor passed from pancreatic cancer last week. He had also been diagnosed with breast cancer in '93 and was an advocate for testing. In addition to Shaft, Roundtree also appeared in Roots, among other things.

He was a talent and quite an inspiration to a generation of actors. He also saved MGM: Shaft was made on a $500,000 budget and grossed $12 million!

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/richard-roundtree-shaft-dead-obituary-1234861830/

Appeals court upholds free public access to laws and regulations

This is a VERY important case! A guy founded a website, public.resource.org, and began posting public laws, rules, and regulations that were passed and codified. Things like electrical regulations, etc.

Naturally he got sued by trade organizations that published these rules and made lots of bucks! Can't have people giving away our bread and butter!

Last month an appeals court confirmed an appeal of a 2022 decision upholding the site's right to publish this information.

From the EFF post: "As part of its mission of promoting public access to all kinds of government information, Public Resource acquires and posts online a wide variety of public documents, such as nonprofits’ tax returns, government-produced videos, and standards incorporated into law by reference. These standards include electrical, fire safety, and consumer safety codes that have been mandated by governments. But without Public Resource’s work, they are often difficult to access, much less share with others, which means that areas of law that profoundly affect our daily life are obscured from our view. Even courts have had trouble accessing the laws that they are supposed to apply.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), National Fire Protection Association Inc. (NFPA), and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) are organizations that develop private sector codes and standards aimed at advancing public safety, ensuring compatibility across products and services, facilitating training, and spurring innovation.

ASTM, NFPA, and ASHRAE sued Public Resource in 2013 for copyright and trademark infringement and unfair competition."

It's nice to know that we do sometimes get our tax dollars worth, though sometimes it takes quite the fight for it to happen.

I might be able to use this as a source at my library. I've had requests for legal citations, and we don't have the material. THIS might have it! Definitely worth looking in to. And some of those nonprofit tax returns could also be interesting reading.

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/appeals-court-upholds-publicresourceorgs-right-post-public-laws-and-regulations

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/23/09/17/1647253/public-resource-wins-2012-case-judge-rules-posting-regulations-online-is-fair-use