Revenge of the Nerds with Briefcases

It's true: we're surrounded by IP lawyers.

First, we learned that the government may owe royalties on torture music.
As they say, ignore the Constitution if you like but don't mess with ASCAP.

Next, my colleague Anupam points me to the travails of John McCain's mashup.

And finally, my friend Toni reports on the word game that they play on Facebook. It's "Scrabulous," but when she logged on this morning, she learned:

Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.

When word games are outlawed ...

Update: The saga continues (link).