Another front in the intellectual-property wars: Who gets the royalties for prayers on coffee mugs?

In the warm and frothy bubble bath that is American spirituality today, it’s hart to think of anything quite as familiar and comforting as the mini-homily known as “ Footprints in the Sand” For anyone who has somehow manage to avoid the gantlet of Footprints mugs, calendars, greeting cards, and mouse pads- to name just a few of its incarnations- the poem is a soft focus retrospective that imagines life as a walk on the beach with Jesus, a pilgrimage traced by two sets of footprints, the Savior’s and the Narrator’s. The reverie is interrupted by the narrator’s shock that at his lowest moments there was just a single set of footprints, indicating that Jesus had bolted when he was needed most. Catharsis comes with the lord’s soothing assurance that he did not abandon his follower during the dark night. Rather, there was only one set of prints because” it was then that I carried You” Or as Jesus put it elsewhere, O ye of little faith”

The story can be read generously as a haiku of Christian belief vanquishing doubt, or perhaps as proof that there is more unalloyed emotion in religion than in any other field of human expression. But this being America, you can’t get something for nothing, and that goes for piety as much as widgets. Hence, the rather unseemly legal wrangling over this irenic tale, which is pitting three main contenders (there are apparently dozens of pretenders) for the right to claim authorship of “Footprints”-along with millions of dollars in licensing fees on all those Footprints tchotchkes.

Don’t like what you hear about broadcast flag? Neither does various consumers advocacy organizations, including the American Library Association, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge. At press time in April, these groups were fighting the FCC ruling in the Washington, D.C circuit court appeals.

Until the court renders a decision, expect flag plans to go forward as scheduled and flag-aware products to arrive in stores in July.

Disagreement over what the FCC can mandate lies at the heart of the case.

“Our contention is, the FCC can regulate broadcasts, but they can’t regulate consumer electronics without express consent from Congress,” says Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge. The V-chip, for example, which lets consumers block some TV shows, required U.S congressional approval, he says.

And because of the FCC plan’s legacy clause, the piracy loophole won’t really be closed anyway, says Wendy Seltzer, an EFF attorney who is working on the case. “Anyone determined to pirate HDTV content already has the equipment.”

The EFF further argues that the open-source community could be shut out of future digital TV-related products due to the FCC plan’s Demodulator Robustness Requirements”. The plan states that devices must be”robust” in preventing user modifications that allow access to the full digital TV stream, Seltzer says. This stipulation raises questions of how and whether open-source drivers- which are modifiable to some extent- could be used with flag aware products, she says.

What happens if the advocacy groups win and the FCC plan is killed or stalled? The networks wouldn’t broadcasts the flag code. And the updated devices would simply have an unneeded, un used capability in the demodulator chip.

The Byzantine Empire reached its greater size under the emperor Justinian. He ruled the empire from 527 to 565. The empire had a lasting impact on ideas about law and justice. Emperor Justinian, at the Height of his rule, ordered the scholars to make a summary of all existing Roman Laws. Consequently, they produced the so-called “Justinian Code”. The code kept the Roman Legal traditions alive. It also became the primordial source of Roman law in Western Europe.

The Byzantine Empire lasted over 1,000 years. All throughout its existence, the emperor was the law. The daily business of government was administered by a civil service. The empire’s economy and its loyal and well-trained army helped the government survive civil war and invasion.

The economy of the empire was under the complete control of the emperor. It was he who set laborers wages and prices of commodities. He also established monopoly on manufacturing.

Peasants formed the backbone of the empire, working the land, paying taxes and providing soldiers for the military. In the cities of the empire, trade and industry flourished. While Western Europe was reduced to a better economy, The Byzantine Empire preserved a healthy money economy. The Bezant, the Empire’s gold coin stamped with the emperor’s image circulated from England to china.

The city populace mirrored extremes of rich and poor extremes of rich and poor. While the government officials and nobles of the court spent big amount of money on clothing, jewelry and entertainment, the masses struggled for survival.

Christianity was as influential in the Byzantine Empire as it was in Western Europe. However, religious divisions grew between the two regions. The differences resulted from the act of the emperor of controlling church affairs although he was not a priest. He even appointed the patriarch or the highest church official in Constantinople. Further misunderstanding developed when the Byzantine clergy were allowed to marry unlike the priests in Western Europe. The Byzantine church chose Greek over Latin was their official language.