Can Google-TV Help Liberate Cable-TV?

Tech nerds and media junkies have been buzzing lately about Google’s announcement that it will soon rollout Google-TV — a new device/platform that will turn people’s televisions into portals for online video and other web content.

Google representatives unveiled the project last week at a developers conference where they staged a Steve Jobs-like showcase that included animated demonstrations and bold statements about the end of TV as we know it.

Much of this was puffery, of course, but there is no denying Google’s determination to expand its dominion over the communications universe, nor the inevitability of the web’s eventual absorption of traditional television.

These two things terrify broadcast and cable executives. But the advent of web television might benefit traditional TV businesses –- particularly cable companies –- in one important category: First Amendment protection.

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Marquette Sports Law Abroad

Last month I had the opportunity to participate in a sports law conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.  This event–styled Arab Lex Sportiva–was billed as the first ever sports law conference in the Arab world, and it was held in the conference center where the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace accords were signed.

It was fascinating to see how a culture very different than our own is trying to come to grips with the globalization of world sport.  I spoke on the intersection of copyright law and sports broadcasting, particularly as it has been affected by the TRIPS agreement.  As always, I end up learning an enormous amount.

It was  also fascinating to see how well known Marquette is in sports law circles, even in Egypt.  To my surprise, the local advertising for the event touted the fact that there would be a speaker from Marquette University, as well as representatives from FIFA, CAS, and other international sporting agencies.  Several people attending the conference asked me about the LLM program for foreign lawyers, and expressed interest in enrolling (if they could figure out how to pay the tuition).  Most of the non-Arab speakers were from Europe, and almost every one of them inquired about Professor Mitten, who seems to be known by the entire international sports community.

My personal highlight came when a speaker from Greece mistook me for Marty Greenburg.

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The Unsolved Mysteries of “Unsolved Mysteries”

(Part 2 of 2) I fully expect that we will get some resolution to several important plot threads in Lost’s finale tonight, particularly matters that have been developed over the last season and Season 5’s finale: what “sideways world” is, what Desmond is up to, how MIB is going to be defeated, what happens to the remaining main characters, what Jack’s nuclear bomb explosion did, and perhaps more about what the Island is/does. The head writers have said that they don’t intend a Sopranos-style fade to black. Whether the resolution is fulfilling or not is a separate issue, but my guess is that I’ll like it.

But I also expect, just because there is limited time, that several key elements of the plot from past seasons are going to be simply dropped. I don’t mean comparatively trivial items like why Libby was in Hurley’s mental institution or where the polar bears came from. I mean crucial components of the plot from one or more seasons are going to get left behind like jettisoned cargo. Here’s my top 4.

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