The latest: A $25,000 bill from the league for two messages, totaling 49 words, that he posted via Twitter on Friday night. Both tweets complained about the officiating in that night’s Mavericks-Denver Nuggets game.

Cuban’s response? This tweet, posted Sunday afternoon: “just found out got fined25k by nba.) nice.” And then, upon further reflection, he penned this beauty:

Cuban is now wondering aloud, via Twitter (of course) and his blog whether his tweets ought to be considered copyrighted–that is, whether blogs and other publications need his permission to reproduce the stuff he posts. I don’t think so, obviously.

But for what it’s worth, I did check Twitter’s terms of service, and was a little surprised to see that the micro-blogging service doesn’t exert any claim on its users’ work. That’s a refreshing change of pace compared to Twitter’s Web 2.0 peers.

1. Things are brutal! We’re about to see companies falling like flies this year as they run out of money. And those that are able to get money are getting it on terrible terms.
2. Things are great! We’re about to see companies falling like flies this year as they run out of money. Which means that the remaining ones will be worth investing in–at reasonable valuations.

Put Mark Cuban in the second camp. More or less: The billionaire investor claims he’s never been that interested in valuations, period–just whether or not the companies he’s looking at can make money.

The SEC might argue with that, but Cuban didn’t talk to me about that when I saw him last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, where he was promoting a live 3-D broadcast of the BCS college football championship.

He did explain his start-up investing philosophy, though. Key takeaway–if you’re pitching Cuban for an investment, don’t tell him that you plan on flipping your company.

Bonus advice from Cuban, who prominently posts his email address everywhere he can, and consequently gets 500 to 5,000 emails a day: How to manage a full inbox using Gmail and a Sidekick. He’s got some (off-color) advice for Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, by the way: That kicks in around the 3:30 mark, if you’re interested.

At Sony’s keynote presentation yesterday, CEO Howard Stringer devoted a good chunk of his presentation to the wonders of the technology and showed off a 3-D short from Disney’s (DIS) Pixar. And last night a few hundred of us got another demo–a broadcast of the Florida/Oklahoma BCS championship game, on a giant screen, live, in 3-D.

This sounded great in theory. A brace of companies, including Cinedigm, 3ality, Carmike Cinemas (CKEC), News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and Sony (SNE), partnered up to create a special 3-D broadcast that went out to a handful of movie theaters across the U.S. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site.) And they’d like to replicate this a dozen times a year for other special occasions: Other big sports events, concerts and the like.

This stuff is still a bit rough around the edges. The 3-D cameras seem to have a hard time keeping up with high-speed action like a pass, some images didn’t seem to focus that well, and the broadcast, which was created separately from the show everyone else in the country saw, seemed to be several cameras short–not enough overhead shots of the action, etc. But that’s OK: CES is usually stuffed with vaporware that never makes it to market, so we’re willing to cut an actual product some slack.

The bigger question is whether the 3-D experience will be amazing enough to convince people to pay money to watch a big game at a theater instead of their living rooms or at a sports bar. I’m not convinced, but I’m willing to give it another shot.

Here’s some video footage from the event; I can’t show you what the broadcast looked like because my not-so trusty Flip Mino doesn’t have any kind of flash. And there’s not much point in watching a clip of a 3-D broadcast in 2-D anyway, right? Instead, I chatted with Cinedigm CEO Bud Mayo, recent Carmike investor Mark Cuban (more from him later), and Nate Westheimer, a New York-based tech guy around town who filled in as my volunteer cameraman and one-man focus group.

[Image Credit: Life/Google]

If you’re at all interested in sports and business, it’s worth a quick read–Cuban has a nice touch at the keyboard, and really, how many other billionaires can you describe that way?

But for the time-pressed, here’s the upshot: Given that the Zell’s Tribune Company has turned into a nightmare for Zell, that price should come down, which seems to be Cuban’s thinking here:

So when it came down to it, I did what I thought was the only smart thing to do. I asked for an extension. I knew that if they got the money they wanted for the team, well my bid was not going to be high enough anyway. If they didnt, or the other bidders couldnt come up with their money, they would come back to me.

I’m still waiting.”

But I’m quite glad I’m wrong. Cuban can’t help himself, and has already begun waging a high-profile campaign against the regulators who are suing him.

Yesterday, someone in Cuban’s camp gave the New York Times what is purportedly an email from a SEC lawyer to Cuban; the letter seems to indicate that Cuban and the SEC had already been feuding over “Loose Change,” a documentary Cuban had funded that is critical of President George Bush.

Today, Cuban uses his personal blog to sound off against the SEC once again. Here’s the complete text, in case Cuban (or his lawyers) has second thoughts about carrying this on in public. But we don’t think he will:

November 18, 2008

On behalf of

Mark Cuban

RE: SEC Civil Action in the United States District

for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division

The SEC knows their case centers on one telephone conversation between two individuals–4 years ago. The SEC claims there was an agreement between these parties to the conversation to keep certain information confidential. We interviewed Guy Faure, the former CEO of Mamma.com Inc., with whom the SEC claims Mr. Cuban made an agreement. We had a court reporter transcribe the interview. There was no agreement to keep information confidential. Here is a relevant excerpt from the interview with Mr. Faure:

CHRISTOPHER CLARK :

1) Q- We spoke earlier about you were telling Mr. Cuban in words or substance : “I have confidential information for you”.

A- Right.

2) Q- Do you recall anything Mr. Cuban said in response or reply to that statement by you ?

A- No, I do not.

The SEC knows this-they have the transcript, yet they brought the case anyway. Why? Do they have a different statement from Mr. Faure ?

Why did the SEC end their multi-year investigation of Mamma.com Inc. for alleged securities laws violations days before interviewing present and former Mamma.com Inc. executives about this matter? Was the timing a coincidence? We think not.

Any inquiries respecting this release should be directed to Stephen Best at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP (202) 346-8735.

——————————

——————————Stephen A. Best

Partner

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP

1101 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 1100

Washington, D.C. 20005″

[Disclosure: I once bought Mark Cuban an Amstel Light.]

That’s because the SEC has filed insider trading charges against Cuban, alleging that he “avoided losses of $750,000″ by dumping shares of search engine Mamma.com after learning about a secondary offering. The SEC’s complete complaint is embedded below (to make legible, click icon on top right of document, then on the “+” key to increase document size).

And Cuban, understandably, is biting his tongue, very hard. Here’s his complete nonresponse, published on his personal blog:

The SEC

Nov 17th 2008 1:20PM

RE: SEC Civil Action in the United States District for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division

November 17, 2008

Mark Cuban today responded to a civil complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States District for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In its complaint, the Commission charges that Mr. Cuban engaged in violations of the federal securities laws in connection with transactions in the securities of Mamma.com Inc.

I wish I could say more, but I will have to leave it to this, and let the judicial process do its job.

This matter, which has been pending before the Commission for nearly two years, has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Mr. Cuban intends to contest the allegations and to demonstrate that the Commission’s claims are infected by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement Division.

Mr. Cuban stated, ‘I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.’”
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