INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
July 7, 2002
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #74 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!

And away we go…..

News Update

A Facelift for Yahoo!
Yahoo has redesigned its home page – the new page is cleaner and allows more room for advertising. It’s just a shame that the feature that got Yahoo! this far – the directory – is pushed down to the bottom of the page:

AltaVista Also Makes Changes
AltaVista, trying to keep up with the other search engines, introduced Prisma this week. The new feature takes your search results and groups them into related folders. Give it a try:

Call the Credit Cops
An anti-fraud education group has set up a cool website that lets you see if your credit card information has ever been stolen. They got the information by monitoring Internet chat rooms where thieves post the numbers to make sure they are still good:

Company Information on the Internet, Part II

Last September, I started a series on finding information about companies and businesses on the Internet. Ten months later, it’s time for Part II. Today we’ll look at two specific types of business resources: SEC filings and Company profiles.

All publicly traded companies are required to file certain disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission. One of the most useful resources on the Internet today for finding information about those companies is the database that stores the filings, EDGAR. For those of you not familiar with how EDGAR works, there’s a quick and helpful tutorial showing you how each feature works. There are a number of ways to find information here. First, you can do a lookup by company – I typed in Worldcom, and got a listing of all the company’s filings, the most recent at the top of the list. Reports can be viewed in HTML or Text – they look the same to me, though, and you’ll have to reformat them if you want to make them presentable. You can also do special purpose searches, including Latest Filings, Quick Forms Lookup, Current Events Analysis, Mutual Funds Retrieval, and Prospectus Search.

There are other EDGAR services out there, but most of them charge fees to retrieve much of the same data you can find on the SEC website. FreeEdgar allows you to search and view EDGAR filings, but if you want to print or download them you’ll have to purchase a subscription from EDGAR online. You must contact the company to find out the subscription price, but the features offered are substantial. Not only can you search for company information, but you can also track certain companies, and receive e-mails whenever new filings are received. There are also links to IPO information and annual reports on over 3,000 companies. Another site that tracks SEC information is 10K Wizard; like Edgar Online, you’ll need to subscribe to get to the good stuff, with prices starting at $125/year.

Now that you have access to Worldcom’s filings, let’s find a company profile. Again, you won’t be able to find much without forking out some dough. The king of company profilers is, of course, Dun & Bradstreet. If you just want the company profile on Worldcom, you can spend as little as $35 for the Business Background Report or as much as $117 for the Comprehensive Report – there are other reports available at other prices. However, there are many more types of services available, including Activity Scope, Business Scope, Business Information Report, Client Certificates, Commercial Credit Scoring Report, Continuous Monitoring, and dozens more. If company research is your thing, this is the place to be.

Hoover’s Online is also a terrific site for finding company profiles. Here you can find a lot more free information; just search for Worldcom and you’ll get a free Company Capsule, which includes Subsidiaries, Competitors, and Company News. There’s also free information on the Company Profile, but to get most of the information you’ll need to subscribe. Like Edgar Online, Hoover’s doesn’t disclose its pricing information. But you’re sure to get a good deal of value for your money here.

If you’re looking for information on manufacturers, there’s no better place than the Thomas Register. I searched for automotive battery manufacturers (since my battery died this week), and found a list of sixty-seven companies. The Register is not rich with information, but it will provide links to company websites, and the ability to request a quote online. If you want to search for worldwide manufacturers, check out the Thomas Global Register or the Thomas Registry of European Manufacturers.

Finally, let’s look at some other sites that provide more general company information for free. First up are the 500s, Fortune and Forbes. At the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 pages you can get a snapshot of each company on the list, as well as other rankings for Most Admired, Best for Minorities, Fastest Growing, and others. The Forbes 500 offers similar information, along with other lists that might grab your attention. The last site we’ll look at is Wall Street Research Net -- the free information you’ll get there is considerably more comprehensive than the Fortune or Forbes list, but unsurprisingly if you want more information you’ll have to pay for it.

Do you use any Internet services to find SEC filings or company profiles that I didn’t mention in this article? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net and I’ll include it in an upcoming issue!

Help Desk

I’m on a Word kick, so this week let’s look at a few shortcuts you may find useful in Word:

Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net– 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

Brennan Center for Justice

Hosted by the NYU School of Law, the mission of the Brennan Center for Justice is to “develop and implement an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity, while safeguarding fundamental freedoms.” Clear as mud, huh? I’m not sure what the true purpose of the Center is, but some of the projects include the Community Justice Institute, Campaign Finance Reform, Judicial Independence, Voter Choice, Access to Justice, and more. Here you can find information on these issues, and view briefs and other documents from cases that Brennan Center attorneys have litigated.

Consumer Protection

This is a fairly simple site provided by the Federal Trade Commission. Here you’ll get a menu of various consumer topics, including Abusive Lending, Advertising, Identity Theft, Investments, Telemarketing, Travel, and others. The links lead to a list of very helpful articles on each topic, available in both HTML and PDF format.

Government Research Center

The Government Research Center is a partnership of several government agencies to provide a single access point to valuable government research information. Amazingly, this is the first federal government site I’ve come across that charges you for access; subscriptions run from $860 for one person to $2,915 for ten users. But the information you can access is amazing – over 14 million records. Available databases include AGRICOLA and Agrobase (for agricultural information), Energy Science and Technology Database, Federal Research in Progress Database, NIOSHTIC (occupational safety and health), NTIS Database, Nuclear Science Abstracts Database, and the Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances. If you’re interested, try out the 30-day free trial, or a $15 day pass.

IP @ the National Academies

The National Academies engage experts from industry, law, and academe to exchange views on intellectual property issues; this website is a guide to their work and a forum to discuss ongoing work. Articles are available in a number of categories including Antitrust, Copyright, Database Protection, Licensing, Litigation, Patent Administration, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, and various sectors including Agriculture, Biotech, Business Methods, E-Commerce, Internet, and Software. There’s a forum for discussion, although it does not appear to be used often. You can also sign up for a newsletter that provides e-mail updates on various topics.

Library Law

A nifty page of links for those interested in legal issues and news affecting libraries, Library Law starts out providing sites with news, court cases and legislation regarding libraries. It then lists links to specific issues involving libraries, including copyright, disability law, employment, Freedom of Information Act, Privacy, UCITA, First Amendment, and that’s just scratching the surface. Give it a look.

Now, some fun and useful sites. First, a fun site for cat lovers – Clifford’s Cat Hats will sell you a tiny cat hat for any occasion (although I’m not a cat lover, I do enjoy seeing cats in ridiculous clothing).

And a useful site for the parents in our audience – if you want to make sure the movies your kids are watching are appropriate, check out Screen It. Movies are reviewed there in such categories as Alcohol/Drugs, Blood/Gore, Disrespectful/Bad Attitude, Frightening/Tense Scenes, Guns/Weapons, and many more. I read the review of Men in Black II, and while some of the comments might strike you as overprotective, it certainly does cover all the bases.

Well, that’s it for Issue #74– 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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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tmighell@swbell.net.