INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
December 2, 2001
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #49 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!
I hope each of you had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday, and that the crush of holiday shopping hasn’t gotten you down yet….
And away we go…..
News Update
EDGAR Online Offers Real-Time Filing Access
EDGAR Online announced a deal with the SEC to provide real-time access to SEC filings.Two Stories on Google – my favorite search engine was in the news a lot this past week. Remember a few weeks ago I told you that Google now has the ability to search for PowerPoint, Excel, and other special file types? Turns out this ability also lets Google find particularly sensitive data.
Also, Google is offering a new service, to allow users to vote on whether their search results were relevant.
Public Domain Papers Online
Duke Law School presented its annual Conference on the Public Domain in
early November, and they’ve posted all the papers online:
Help Desk
Occasionally when I look at my Favorites folder, I just see a big, unorganized mess. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can clean up your Favorites – the first is the most logical, by clicking on Favorites, then selecting Organize Favorites. But sometimes that feature isn’t very efficient if you want to organize several folders. Windows Explorer to the rescue! Just right-click on the Start button on the Windows taskbar, then choose Explore from the menu. Next, navigate to the C:\Windows\Folders folder. The layout here is much easier to manage.Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail– I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
ebrary ($$)
Ebrary claims to provide “secure online delivery of authoritative content.” The site offers the “ebrarian” solution, which combines software with content from an impressive list of publishers. Ebrary is primarily geared to libraries and other organizations, hoping to partner with them to give them online access to, as I said, authoritative material. The site has been adding publishers at a rapid pace,
including last weeks’ addition of John Wiley and Sons, a publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books. I couldn’t see more of the content without subscribing to the service, and I think the service is definitely geared to the employees of companies rather than the individual user. The content looks very promising, however.Freelunch.com
Freelunch has a motto I can learn to love – Why Pay Anything? This site offers free access to over 1,000,000 financial and data series. You have to register to use the services available here, but it’s all free and well worth the effort. You can enter search terms or browse the directory; choose from subjects such as GDP, Income and Earnings, Labor Markets, Consumer Markets, Industrial Trade, and much more. Once you find a report you like, you can download it – the one I chose came to me in Excel format. This is a great resource for economic information.Internet Law and Regulation ($$)
Pike & Fischer, a publishing division of BNA, presents the Internet Law and Regulation site, with a lot of great information on the Internet and its regulation. Unfortunately, you have to pay for all of the content you find – it’s $100 for 3 days, $150 for a week, and $795 for a full year. Once you’re a member, the resources are great – browse laws and policy, pleadings, motions and briefs, analysis and perspective, and other resources on subjects such as intellectual property, privacy, freedom of speech, securities, taxation, and more. If you conduct regular research on Internet law, you might consider a subscription.LegalTrek
LegalTrek offers you the opportunity to “explore the universe of legal research,” with cool Star Trek-like fonts. It is intended as a one-stop shop for lawyers, librarians, and other legal researchers. The front page is much too busy for my liking, but the site certainly seems to live up to its word – there are a lot of sites here. It just doesn’t feel too friendly to me, because the background of the site is entirely in black. If you’re in search of a legal portal, you might give this one a try.Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
The United States Trade Representative is America’s chief trade negotiator and the principal trade policy advisor to the President. There are some terrific resources here under the headings of WTO, World Regions, Sectors, Trade & Environment, Enforcement, and others. You can find statistics, speeches, reports, press releases, and a lot of other great information, in both PDF and HTML formats.FirstGov for Seniors
Another federal website, this one from the folks that brought you FirstGov. As the fastest-growing demographic group, senior citizens require special information, and as you might imagine the content provided here is geared to their particular needs. Select from Consumer Protection, Health, Retirement Planner, Seniors and Computers, Tax Assistance, and others. This site is a good federal resource for the elderlaw practitioner.National Client Protection Organization
NCPO’s primary purpose is to assist and fund organizations that protect legal consumers from dishonest conduct in the practice of law. You can read from the quarterly newsletter, The Client Protection Webb, find recent rulings on client protection, ABA rules regarding client protection funds, and links to useful sites.Email Address Search
Need to find an e-mail address? This e-mail search service lets you query five separate search engines, including Yahoo, Switchboard, WhoWhere, InfoSpace/America Online, and the Internet Address Finder. There are also links here to reverse e-mail searches, as well as a pretty amazing list of international e-mail directories. This is a great compilation site for finding e-mail addresses.AIRData
Presented by the Environmental Protection Agency, AIRData provides a database with estimates of the annual emissions of criteria air pollutants from power plants, houses, and transportation vehicles. In trying to find emissions information, I selected the state and county, the particular pollutant emitted (I could choose from seven), whether I wanted the statistics from 1996 or 1999, and the depth of information desired. There are also monitors and maps for you to peruse.Center for Immigration Studies Sanctions
Part of the larger Center for Immigration studies site, this Sanctions page allows you to find immigration sanctions issued to employers across the country. Just input as much information as you want (location, dates, the amount of the fine, etc.), and you’ll get a listing of all fines issued in that area for the time period specified. For example, I found that the Happy Family Chinese Restaurant, close by my house in Dallas, received a $2,960 fine in 1994.
And now, some fun things, and a useful site to visit.
The people at Timeless Mail probably want me to tell you their site is a useful one, but to be honest it’s just too creepy for me. There you can record messages for loved ones, who will receive these e-mail messages after you’ve passed on. The service costs about $12/month.
Now for a truly useful site. Banxquote offers the ability to check the latest rates on all types of financial services. Just plug in the required information and you can find the best rates on CDs, money market funds, mortgages, personal loans, and other services. Very cool.
Well, that’s it for Issue #49 – I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.
Tom Mighell
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