INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
March 16, 2003
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #105 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 visit Inter Alia and fill out the subscription form -- it's free!

And away we go…..

News Update

Public Records on LoisLaw
Westlaw and Lexis aren't the only games in town -- companies like LoisLaw and VersusLaw offer some of the same services at greatly reduced prices. I have always argued that these companies will never truly replace West or Lexis, because they simply don't offer the full range of research services needed by a lawyer. Last week, LoisLaw took a step closer, when it announced the availability of its public records database. Users will now be able to search for individuals, property, motor vehicles, and parties in civil action. There are certainly better public records sites on the Internet, but this is a start.

Beware the new PayPal scam
If you use PayPal and you get an e-mail from the company asking you to re-submit credit card and/or bank account information, read the article below first. There's a new scam e-mail making its way around the Internet, and it's apparently pretty convincing.

Image search engines reviewed
TASI, the Technical Advisory Service for Images, has a nice review of image search engines. If you need to perform a search for images, this report will give you some good guidance on the best tools to use.

Intro to copyright law
Dr. Robert N. Diotalevi, the Program Coordinator of Legal Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, has a great primer on copyright law -- a nice overview of the subject.

Oral arguments online
Rory Perry has been maintaining a separate weblog called Court Webcasting, featuring links to trial and appellate courts that provide online webcasts of oral arguments and other events. Just this week Rory added the Supreme Court of Indiana and the Supreme Court of Missouri to his list, which already includes seven other courts. While watching streaming oral arguments is not my idea of passing a lazy Saturday afternoon, there's no denying these sites are terrific resources.

Where's YOUR Intranet?
Law.com reports on the rise in use of law firm intranets. An intranet is an invaluable addition to the law firm environment -- it's a great way to get information cheaply and easily to lawyers and staff.

The parolee next door
Most of you are familiar with sex offender registries on the Internet -- the Supreme Court validated their existence last week. That's all well and good, but personally I would rather know what murderers live in my neighborhood. In Georgia you now have access to that information. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has made its parolee database available to the public. You can search by zip code, name, or inmate number, and you'll get the current location of 21,000 registered parolees. The results will also display a red "Wanted" box if the parolee has disappeared -- yikes!

A pair of Google articles
The Net's love affair with Google continues (as does mine, I suppose). The first article, "Got Long-Lost Kin? Google 'Em" discusses -- surprise! -- how you can use Google to dig up dirt on people. Now there's something we haven't heard before. In another article, Mark Evans is getting tired of Google. With the recent onslaught of Google's innovations and purchases, it's hard to disagree with him.

The week in Blawgs
Time for our weekly roundup of what's new and interesting in the world of law-related weblogs. First, Jurist's Paper Chase, Professor Bernard Hibbitts' "info-overloaded syllabus of new law, learning, and links," has a terrific new page. Check it out! Class Actions comes to us from the Alabama law firm of Dice & Gregory. The blog's goal is to collect information about class actions and complex litigation and offer observations on current issues in complex litigation. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is a terrific way to get your law firm noticed on the Internet.

Another single-issue weblog is How Green is My Country, a blawg devoted to environmentalism and the law. And the first presidential blog is up -- it's the Howard Dean 2004 Call to Action Weblog. I wonder how many other presidential candidates will follow suit.

Selected Computer and Technology Law Resources

When I sat down to gather information for this article, I discovered two things: 1) the subject of computer and technology law is a many-headed hydra, with far too many subtopics to discuss in one article; and 2) the major law directories are woefully out-of-date on this subject. FindLaw, Hieros Gamos, and several others seriously need to update their links. So this week I'll share some selected computer and technology law resources, with an emphasis on law school journals.

Before we get to the journals, let's start with a few well-known technology law websites. One of my favorite sites is GigaLaw, which provides legal information for Internet and technology professionals, Internet entrepreneurs and the lawyers who serve them. On the home page you'll find articles on subjects ranging from Accessibility to Trade Secrets, all written by lawyers or law professors. You can also get an update of technology-related news e-mailed to you every day. Now that you know about the Giga-, I'll tell you about the Bit- -- BitLaw describes itself as "a comprehensive Internet resource on technology law, containing over 1,800 pages on patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet legal issues." It's maintained by IP lawyer Daniel Tysver, and is a terrific basic resource on the subject. My one government site in this article is Cybercrime, which provides policy, cases, guidance, laws, and documents on various cybercrime issues. There are several customized pages for different viewers, including lawyers.

Next up are two sites discussing Internet law and policy. The first is the Internet Law and Policy Forum (), which is dedicated to the sustainable global development of the Internet through legal and public policy initiatives. Unless you're a member, you won't find much of substance here, although there is some information on the organization's working groups, including jurisdiction, electronic authentication, content liability, and self-regulation. The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy is also nothing special, but it does contain some helpful links to recent cases, the decade in cyberspace law, links to other cyberspace law sites, and more. Speaking of cases, one site that IS helpful is the Phillips Nizer Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions. Maintained by attorney Martin Sampson, the site is regularly updated with the latest technology law case summaries. You can sign up for e-mail updates here, too.

Before we head over to the law schools, one non-academic journal. The Tech Law Journal will charge you $250/year to receive daily updates of legislation, litigation, and regulation affecting the computer and Internet Industry. If you can wait 45 days to read the news online, you can do that for free (the journal posts its issues online 45 days after original publication). At about a buck an issue, this looks like a pretty good value, considering the amount of information in each issue.

As you might imagine, law schools are excellent sources of information on computer and technology law, and many journals are being published on the subject. The nice thing about these journals is that many of them publish their articles online, which is an exception to the online law journal rule. When you're writing on computers and technology, it just makes sense to publish them on the Internet. Here's a list of several law school technology law journals from around the country that I found interesting -- this list is by no means exhaustive, so if you know of one I missed, drop me an e-mail:

Help Desk

For those of you who regularly use a scanner, here are a few tips and tricks to get the most out of your scanning:

  • Prescan! Do any cropping or adjusting of brightness, contrast, and color in
    the prescan phase -- otherwise, it will be too late.
  • Pick the right resolution. For photos you plan on using online, use a resolution between 72dpi and 100dpi. For faxing or OCR documents, 200-300dpi should do it. If you want to print photos, use 240dpi for matte paper and 360dpi for glossy paper.
  • Keep it clean. Make sure that both your images and scanner glass are always completely clean. This is especially important when you're using a slide -- what looks tiny on the slide may be huge when you enlarge it.

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

Copyrightlaws.com
Created by Canadian lawyer Leslie Harris, this site is intended as an informative Web site devoted to Canadian, U.S. and international copyright law, digital licensing, e-commerce, digital property and Web related legal issues. It's mostly an online brochure for her services, but there are some good freebies here under the Newsletters and Articles links. If you're interested in buying books on copyright law, you can do that too.

Working Knowledge Research Notebook
A service of Harvard Business School, the Research Notebook provides tips, techniques, and observations about business research. The topics covered include Business History, Career Effectiveness, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Marketing, and more. There are also links to current news issues like corporate governance, crisis management, managing uncertainty, and moral leadership. You can sign up to receive free updates of the articles on the site.

Internet Law Library
I should have included this website in the article above. It's maintained by lawyer Judith Silver, and offers articles, statutes, cases, and research on Internet law. It's not as substantial as I would like it to be (and its caselaw section is nothing compared to Martin Sampson's site, above), but it's a well- put-together site.

Alert and Current Awareness Services
Just one page from the Terrific Virtual Chase site, here you can find various Internet services that will notify you when websites change or new articles are posted. The services include Infominder, Scholarly Articles Research Alerting, TrackEngine, WatchThatPage, and more. Subscribing to services like these are so much more convenient than having to revisit a website on a regular basis.

MultiState State and Local Links
Multistate is a company founded to assist companies, trade and professional associations, and others in efficiently meeting their state and local government relations needs. The State and Local Links page provides some nice resources; a chart with 2003 legislative deadlines for all 50 states, another chart with the breakdown of legislators by parties and chamber, and links to each state legislature, major city, and state newspaper.

Finally, some fun and useful sites for you to visit this week:

If you use the Internet to research your purchases, Consumer Review can be a terrific companion. The site allows users to write reviews of products, from audio equipment to mountain bikes. Before you make a major purchase, you might want to find out what others have to say about it.

March Madness is here, and I know that tomorrow many of you will be puzzling over your NCAA brackets (for sport only -- no wagering please). Mike Greenfield provides the odds and power rankings for you.

Well, that’s it for Issue #105 – 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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