INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
November 3, 2002
Tom MighellWelcome to Issue #88 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!
If you didn’t visit Inter Alia this week, you missed out on FIFTEEN stories (that’s 15, folks!) you aren’t reading in this issue. That’s FIFTEEN potentially very helpful computer or research tips (or fun stuff) for you to use! What are you waiting for?
And away we go…..
News Update
The definition of "public information"
The Washington Post reports that Reuters is being sued for obtaining an earningsreport on a company from a web page considered to be private. Apparently, the URL was live, but not available to the public through the company's website.A not-so-Friendly Greeting
Have you received an e-mail inviting you to download an E-Card fromFriendGreetings.com? If so, don't. When you attempt to download the e- card, the site tells you that you must first download a small program -- but included in the licensing agreement is acknowledgement that you are consenting to e-mail all the Contacts in your Outlook Contacts List! Pretty ingenious, asking for permission before they spam all of your friends. Make sure you update your antivirus files, folks!A Pop-up Free Portal?
Tired of pop-ups at Yahoo! or whatever portal you use? The people who brought you the pop-up monster iWon introduce MyWay, an ad and pop-up free environment. The site uses Google as its search engine. Gee, it looks like Yahoo! did when that site first debuted.Study on web credibility released
Consumer Web Watch has released the results of a study it commissioned on How Consumers and Experts Rate Credibility on the Web. Not surprisingly, the reportshows that while many Internet users know what to look for in determining whether a website is credible, few actually take the trouble to do so. It's a long report, but very interesting -- worth a read.SearchDay teaches Anatomy Lessons
Search engine newsletter SearchDay ran two articles this week getting into the guts of two of your favorite search engines -- Google and AllTheWeb.
Help DeskIf you have a color inkjet printer, you are probably frustrated at how quickly you run out of color ink. Unbeknownst to you, many inkjets print color ink underneath black ink to make text look better. This results in an unnecessary loss of color ink. If you want to conserve your color ink, go to your printers folder, right click on the printer you use, and select Properties. Put a check mark by Print in Grayscale and click Apply. You can do this on a per-print-job basis too, by making the same selection from the File|Print option.
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
Standard Occupational Classification System
The SOC is used by Federal agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting and calculating data. The database has 449 broad occupations, with each containing more detailed occupations requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience. There is also a standard definition for each occupation.Transboundary Fresh Water Dispute Database
A project of Oregon State University, this database is intended to aid in the assessment of the process of water conflict prevention and resolution. Included on the site are databases on international freshwater treaties, U.S. interstate freshwater compacts, case studies on conflict resolution, and the international river basins register. You can also find details on the various projects taking place on this site, and links to several publications on the subject. And if you just can't get enough fresh water dispute information on this site, there's a nice set of links to other sites with related data.Endometriosis Association Online
If you have a healthcare or toxic tort practice, you might find this site of interest. The Endometriosis Association claims to be the first organization in the world created for people with endometriosis. It's primarily intended for patients, but you'll find lots of information here of use to those in the legal profession, including an interesting section on research and news.FindLaw for Business
An extension of the fantastic law portal, FindLaw for Business is directed at business owners who need to find a lawyer or just basic business law information. There are articles and guides on starting a business, accounting and taxes, business organizations, debt and bankruptcy, human resources, dissolution, intellectual property, and more. These resources are not just for business owners, though; this is a great resource for lawyers and others in the legal field.Michigan eLibrary "Best of the Internet"
This is a nice collection of links selected by Michigan librarians as part of that state's eLibrary project. It's about what you would expect -- organized by topic, from Arts & Humanities to Social Issues and Social Services. Give it a look.TranStats
TranStats is described as "The Intermodal Transportation Database," intermodal meaning between several different means of transportation. The goal of this site is to provide one-stop shopping for transportation data, with access to over 100 databases across every mode of transportation. You can create statistical summaries of data, generate graphics online, then cut and paste them or download them into the report on your PC. The databases can be searched by the type of transportation, or by subject, such as safety, freight transport, passenger travel, infrastructure, energy, environment, and others. This is an incredible website!Business360 Research
Business360 is a business research site offering services to top-tier companies as well as individuals. Business360 Express is a free service (registration required); just choose a subject area, from accounting to utilities, and add your own keywords or description. You'll receive a listing of articles from the Internet that fit your search. For example, a search for recruiting trends for undergraduate and graduate hires yields 10 articles, from sites such as Career Journal, JobWeb, AviationCareer, BusinessWeek, and others. Business360 Enterprise edition costs $199/month with a $499 setup fee, and presumably you get a more comprehensive range of services at that price.Corporate Financials Online
This service is for chief financial officers, investor relations officers and other managers of publicly-held corporations who want broad, rapid dissemination of their companies' quarterly earnings news releases and other investor information. But those of us who just want company information can use it too, and this is a great place to get news and press releases on publicly-held companies. The home page shows a listing of recent press releases (at this timeof year, most of them are about 3rd quarter earnings), but you can also search the news by keyword or category. The categories include earnings, dividends, legal, financing, personnel, and others.Equine Law and Horsemanship Safety
I love websites on obscure areas of law. And it doesn't get much more obscure than equine law. This site is maintained by Professor Robert Dawson at the University of Texas School of Law, but I believe his wife is the expert on
horses and other matters equine. Here you'll find statutes and case law for horsemen, HorseLaw articles, and resources on horsemanship safety. A simply-designed site with great resources -- and the burnt orange color doesn't hurt, either (Hook 'em, Horns!)Law Dictionaries
Finding a good law dictionary online is not easy. Law Dictionaries wants to change that, by providing links to many (if not all) of the legal dictionaries and glossaries on the Internet, grouped by area of law. Just click on the tabs at the top of the screen, and you'll get a listing of available dictionaries for that subject. Choose from General Law, Commercial, Crime/Human Rights, Family/ADR, and International Law/Other. A nice reference resource to keep.
Now for some fun and useful sites this week:
Does anybody still own a Rubik's cube? If so, then Aim for the Brain should be an easy exercise for you. My only question: what are those astronauts doing there?
Here's a funny (and scarily accurate) cartoon from the New Yorker.
If you have a few hours to waste today or this weekend, check out Stereotypes from Eric Meyer Photography. It's pretty darn addicting.
I don't know if this a fun OR a useful site, or both. If you watch shows like the West Wing, Law and Order, and Saturday Night Live, often you will see references to political and cultural issues that need a bit more explaining. Enter FootnoteTV, a site that provides background information on the issues included in each episode of these shows, as well as JAG, The Sopranos, and the Daily Show with John Stewart. Pretty cool.
Well, that’s it for Issue #88 – 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
Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail, or visit Inter Alia sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just send me an e-mail and I'll remove you from the list.
Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.
Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail.