March 11, 2007

Welcome to Issue #261 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!

In the Chicago area (or contiguous states), and looking for some GREAT educational programming on legal technology? Join me at ABA TECHSHOW on March 22-24, at the Sheraton Chicago. TECHSHOW features 3 days of CLE sessions on legal technology, with over 50 experts in the field. We're also offering a Solo/Small Firm Day on March 23 -- 8 sessions dedicated specifically to Solo/Small Firm Lawyers, at a reduced price. And if you don't have time for the whole conference, pick up a FREE pass for the EXPO Exhibit Hall -- over 100 legal technology vendors waiting to demonstrate their products. For more information, visit www.techshow.com.

Simple Screen Sharing
How often do you get a call by someone less tech-savvy than you, asking for help with something going on with their computer -- that you have to see to understand? Sure, you could use Windows' Remote Desktop Connection, but I have found it to be unwieldy and clumsy. I tried another program this past week that's light on its feet, and really easy to use. It's CrossLoop -- a free download that can literally have you sharing your computer screen within a couple of minutes. Both of you have to download the program, and then you need the access code of the other computer you're trying to see. Both of you click Connect, and that's all there is to it.

Webmail -- E-Discovery Treasure Trove?
I'm a little late mentioning this article, but the issue's still important: in Firms Fret as Office E-Mail Jumps Security Walls (Registration Required), the author discusses the fact that "a growing number of Internet-literate workers are forwarding their office e-mail to free Web-accessible accounts offered by Google, Yahoo and other companies." In addition to the obvious security issues implicated in this practice, it also raises another issue where e-discovery is concerned: are the personal web mail accounts of employees also subject to a discovery request? Maybe an even better question is directed to in-house counsel, or lawyers representing corporations -- should the "litigation hold" orders you issue to your companies include an instruction to employees to keep business-related e-mail on their web-based mail accounts? Something to think about.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the great law-related weblogs featured on my blog this past week:

Resources for Springing Forward

Are you ready for the big change on Sunday morning? I'm referring to the new earlier-than-usual Daylight Savings Time. Because it's beginning earlier (and ending later) this year, our poor computer systems are not equipped to deal with the hour's shift. Fortunately, the major manufacturers have got you covered. Here are links to update your computer and handheld device with the appropriate patches.

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!

Workers Compensation Administrators Directory
Although this is from the North Carolina Workers Compensation site, it's a great page to keep handy -- it's just a simple directory page of the Workers Compensation Administrators from all 50 states. You'll get names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and websites -- this is a great resource!

American Pain Society
The American Pain Society is a "multidisciplinary community that brings together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians and other professionals to increase the knowledge of pain and transform public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering." Although most of the resources on this site are for members of the Society, a lot of information is also available to anyone -- including Continuing Education materials, Publications, links to special interest groups, surveys, and special links for people in pain, clinicians, and pain researchers.

Child Care Aware
This site claims to be "America's most trusted child care resource." Here you can learn the five steps to choosing the best child care, types of child care available, how to evaluate a provider, and more. Then you can enter your zip code to connect with your local Child Care Resource and Referral Organization. I tried to find average rates for child care in various areas, but that information isn't currently available -- so I'm not sure how up-to-date the site is.

International Court of Justice
Gee, for what I thought was an important entity, the International Court of Justice has a very primitive website. The site *is* available in English and French, with links to all the information you'd expect -- current Docket, Decisions (all the way back to 1947), General Information, and Basic Documents (charters, statutes, rules of court, etc.). You'll find a ton of stuff under the Publications link -- judgments, orders, pleadings, oral arguments, etc. -- although it's just a reference to find the actual print publications.

Creative Commons
IP lawyers are no doubt very familiar with Creative Commons, which was established back in 2001 to address problems with existing copyright rules -- its goal is "to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules." In other terms -- CC "provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry." You can do a lot here -- learn more about the types of Creative Commons licenses available, find CC-licensed work, or license your own work.

To end up this week, we're only doing fun stuff -- nothing useful to see here. In fact, just games:

Flatland looks like an old 80's style Space Invaders type game, but it's oddly addicting.

In Rings, you have to drag rings around a board to make complete sets, before time runs out.

Well, that’s it for Issue #261 – 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.

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.