Strategic lawsuit against public participation

A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. In some cases, repeated frivolous litigation against a defendant may raise the cost of directors and officers liability insurance for that party, interfering with an organization's ability to operate. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. A SLAPP is often preceded by a legal threat.

There is a difficulty in that plaintiffs do not present themselves to the Court admitting that their intent is to censor, intimidate or silence their critics. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims. Thus, anti-SLAPP laws target tactics used by SLAPP plaintiffs. Common anti-SLAPP laws include measures such as penalties for plaintiffs who file lawsuits ruled frivolous and special procedures where a defendant may ask a judge to consider that a lawsuit is a SLAPP (and usually subsequently dismiss the suit).

Slapp Happy

Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-pop group, formed in Germany in 1972. Their lineup consisted of Anthony Moore (keyboards), Peter Blegvad (guitar) and Dagmar Krause (vocals). The band members moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow, but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. Slapp Happy's sound was characterised by Dagmar Krause's unique vocal style. From 1982 there have been brief reunions to work on an opera, record a CD and tour Japan.

History

Germany

Slapp Happy was formed in 1972 in Hamburg, Germany by British experimental composer Anthony Moore. Moore had recorded two avant-garde/experimental solo LPs for Polydor Germany, but they rejected his third because it was not commercial enough. As a result of the rejection, he proposed a pop project with his girlfriend (and soon to be wife), Dagmar Krause from Hamburg, and a visiting American friend, Peter Blegvad. At the time, Krause couldn't sing because of problems with her voice, but when she heard Blegvad's singing she agreed to sing for the group.

Slapp Happy (album)

Slapp Happy (also known as Casablanca Moon) is an album by German/British avant-pop group Slapp Happy, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor Studio in 1974.

This album was originally recorded in 1973 in Germany under a working title of Casablanca Moon with Faust as Slapp Happy's backing band, but Polydor Germany rejected it. After moving to London and signing with Virgin Records, Slapp Happy re-recorded it (at Virgin's request) and it was released in 1974 as Slapp Happy. Virgin later re-issued the album as Casablanca Moon.

It was not until 1980 that Recommended Records released the original recording (with Faust) as Acnalbasac Noom (the title Casablanca Moon reversed). For a comparison of Slapp Happy and Acnalbasac Noom, see Acnalbasac Noom.

Writing in The Rough Guide to Rock, Mark Ellingham noted: "Slapp Happy found themselves at Virgin's Manor studios, recording the album with a virtual chamber orchestra of musicians."

Track listing

All music composed by Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad, except where noted.

Noun

A noun (from Latin nōmen, literally meaning "name") is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Linguistically, a noun is a member of a large, open part of speech whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

Lexical categories (parts of speech) are defined in terms of the ways in which their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns are those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase.

History

Word classes (parts of speech) were described by Sanskrit grammarians from at least the 5th century BC. In Yāska's Nirukta, the noun (nāma) is one of the four main categories of words defined.

The Ancient Greek equivalent was ónoma (ὄνομα), referred to by Plato in the Cratylus dialog, and later listed as one of the eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax (2nd century BC). The term used in Latin grammar was nōmen. All of these terms for "noun" were also words meaning "name". The English word noun is derived from the Latin term, through the Anglo-Norman noun.

Acnalbasac Noom

Acnalbasac Noom (also known as Slapp Happy or Slapphappy) is an album by German/British avant-pop group Slapp Happy, recorded in Wümme, Germany in 1973 with Faust as their backing band. It had a working title of Casablanca Moon but was never released at the time because it had been rejected by their record label, Polydor. Slapp Happy later re-recorded the album in 1974 for Virgin Records, who released it in 1974 as Slapp Happy. The original 1973 recording of Casablanca Moon, was released as Slapp Happy or Slapphappy by Recommended Records in 1980, and reissued as Acnalbasac Noom in 1982. The title Acnalbasac Noom appears in the lyrics of the song "Casablanca Moon", and is Casablanca Moon with the words written backwards.

The track titles on Acnalbasac Noom are identical to those on Slapp Happy, except for the track sequence, and that "Haiku" on Slapp Happy is replaced by "Charlie 'n Charlie" on Acnalbasac Noom. An instrumental version of "Charlie 'n Charlie" had been released as the title tune of Slapp Happy's first album, Sort Of. Musically, Acnalbasac Noom is arranged quite differently from Slapp Happy: it has a raw and unsophisticated "rock" feel about it, whereas Slapp Happy tends to be more sentimental and "dreamy" with complex arrangements, including a string orchestra. While the unsophisticated feel of Acnalbasac Noom still appeals to many fans, it was the sentimental sound on Slapp Happy that the band became best known for.