INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 4, 2004
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #140 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…..
The past week was a big one for "best of 2003" articles. You'll find a few of these below:
Pest Removal
Intranet Journal has a great tutorial on Identification and Removal of Spyware. This is a basic, but really good, explanation of the whole spyware mess; I especially like the tips the articles gives on recognizing the major types of spyware. Although programs like SpyBot Search and Destroy and AdAware are terrific for ridding your computer of spyware, it's not enough to use this software -- learn why your computer is becoming infected in the first place.The Year in Spam
The spam problem continues to worsen, and it looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better. PC World presents the 2003 Spam Awards, with the top spam trends, tricks, and tips that have surfaced in the past year. And here's proof that the spam problem is not getting any better -- Congress finally passes an anti-spam law, but it doesn't apply to their own spam.Did you KaZaA this year?
If you did, you were in good company. It was one of the most searched-for words of 2003. By looking at the top 10 list, I can tell that legal researchers didn't get much of a say in the results.....Archives galore
This story's just a bit old, but definitely worth mentioning. The New York Times is now offering its archives of articles from 1851 through 1995 online. And the cost ain't bad, either -- $2.99/article, unless you decide to buy in bulk, in which case the price drops.A blow to pop-ups?
Finally, a court has issued a ruling against pop-up advertising. A Manhattan federal judge says that WhenU.com's pop-up ads for Vision Direct that appear when users visit the 1-800 Contacts website are likely to cause confusion between the two companies. The judge enjoined the company from delivering the pop-up ads.The Best of 2003 on Steroids
Did you miss any "best of 2003" articles in December? Not to worry -- Fimoculous appears to have collected every single Best-Of-2003 list in existence and placed them on one page. Give it a look, if only to marvel at the sheer size of it.E-Mail becomes even MORE ubiquitous
In E-Mail: Where It's Going, Gregg Keizer takes a brief look at how e-mail is going to become even more a part of our cyberculture, and enable greater collaboration among users.The year in search, from Google Zeitgeist
Google Zeitgeist, which provides a monthly snapshot of the search engine's top searches, offers its 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist, showing that the U.S. and Canada both searched for Britney Spears most often during the year. ::sigh::Inoculate yourself for 2004
Wired thinks that based on the rate of new viruses appearing in 2003, the Internet is a very sick place. If you regularly read this blog or the newsletter, you know what it takes to protect yourself against these nasties.On the horizon
As part of the long parade of end-of-the-year "what's ahead" articles, CNN offers the 10 Technologies to Watch in 2004.Start the New Year out with a fresh, clean keyboard. Here's how to do it:
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)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
GPO Access Multiple Database Search
Those of you who routinely use the Government Printing Office site know how terrific it is. Here's an interior page to the site that will make your searches even faster. There's a list of nearly 150 databases; you can select multiple databases here (hold down the alt key while you click on the databases to choose more than one) and then enter your search terms. The databases include the Budget, Congressional Bills, Congressional Record, Federal Register, Public Papers of Bill Clinton, U.S. Code, and much more.National Criminal Justice Reference Service
The NCJRS offers justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide. It's sponsored by the Justice Department, the Office of Homeland Security, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The home page is a bit unorganized; I didn't know just where to start. In the center are headlines on new stories relating to criminal justice. In the left menu you'll find links to information on Corrections, Courts, Drugs & Crime, Juvenile Justice, Law Enforcement, Victims of Crime, and other issues. The right menu allows you to search abstracts or a full-text database, see the calendar of events, and order print publications, among other things.Privacy & American Business ($$)
A project of the Center for Social & Legal Research, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think tank exploring U.S. and global issues of consumer and employee privacy and data protection, Privacy & American Business offers a number of interesting services to subscribers. P&AB sponsors several programs that assist businesses with their privacy issues, which include the Global Business Privacy Project, the Model Contracts Project to meet the EU Directive, and the Human Resources Data Consortium. Membership is $50 for students, up to $350 for corporate employees; subscribers have access to the newsletter, as well as (for an additional fee), the Privacy Policy Database.PubKLaw
This site isn't designed very well; however, the topic is no doubt interesting to some lawyers. PubKLaw provides news of Federal Public Contract Law issues of interest to attorneys and other procurement professionals. There's a calendar of upcoming meetings of ABA committees related to the subject, and a list of links on "Hot Items of Interest" to procurement/financial assistance officials, including federal and defense acquisition regulations, legislative items, treasury interest rates, and more. There are also links to court opinions and other decisions on the subject. For between $100-$180, you can subscribe to an e-mail list and regularly receive updates and information on procurement issues.National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics
Another criminal justice site this week. SEARCH is "a nonprofit membership organization created by and for the States, which is dedicated to improving the criminal justice system and the quality of justice through better information management, the effective application of information and identification technology, and responsible law and policy." You'll find a number of resources here on technology and criminal justice in areas such as Courts, Integrated Justice, Law & Policy, XML, Law Enforcement IT, and Sex Offender Registries. There's information on upcoming conferences, publications, job listings, news, training, and more. There's also a "Members-Only" section, but I couldn't figure out how you become a member.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to start off your week:
We all have them -- those bottles of unidentified stuff that have been in the cabinets underneath our sink for far too long. Want to see if they pose a health risk to your family? Head over to the Household Products Database, a service of the National Library of Medicine.
Relive your youth (or maybe your child's youth) playing Electro Air Hockey:
Well, that’s it for Issue #140 – 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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