INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 17, 2008
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #288 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!
It's just one month from ABA TECHSHOW! If you haven't registered yet for this great legal technology conference, there's still time -- but it's running out fast! The conference takes place March 13-15 at the fabulous Hilton Chicago -- for more details and to register, visit www.techshow.com.
News Update -- from the Inter Alia Weblog
Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the best law-related blogs I covered on Inter Alia the last two weeks:
- As electronic discovery becomes an increasingly important issue for lawyers, the number of blogs reporting on electronic evidence issues correspondingly grow larger. One such blog is E-Discovery Bytes, billed as "a practical resource for issues in e-discovery." It's published by multiple authors from the nationwide firm of Quarles & Brady.
- I'm always excited when I find a new legal technology blog -- well, new to me, anyway. John Heckman's Does It Compute? has been around for almost a year now. John Heckman is a legal technologist specializing in document management as well as other law firm technologies. This blog presents his "take on practice and document management, and other legal technology."
- Law21 is the blog of Jordan Furlong. He's currently the Editor-In-Chief of National magazine at the Canadian Bar Association. His introduction to the blog says it better than I can: "In the 21st century, the practice of law is shaking loose from its traditional moorings and heading out into uncharted territory. Opportunities abound, but so do pitfalls. Most of the old rules won’t apply anymore, while some will matter more than ever. Welcome to the new legal profession, powered by collaboration, innovation, and client service. This is your front-row seat."
- The Columbus, Ohio firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur is talking about employment law issues at the Employer Law Report. Several members of the firm's Labor and Employment Group are reporting on recent legal developments and trends affecting employers.
- The firm of Sheppard Mullin has a ton of great blogs -- one if its newest is adbriefs, otherwise known as "covering your ads." The blog covers legal issues affecting interactive, sports and entertainment marketing and promotions.
- Sam Conforti is a Chicago lawyer, and the bulk of his experience is in the software industry and the financial services industry for the procurement of high technology. At his Software Licensing and Master Service Agreements Blog he is reporting on the current developments in the software industry and discussing software licensing and the consulting contracts necessary for the software's implementation.
Caught in the 'Net
Reprints of Public Domain Works
Now this is seriously cool. Let's say you're looking for a book, but it's out of print. Head over to Google Books and do a search for a book. Once you find one you want, copy the URL and take it to PublicDomainReprints.org (if you don't want to use Google Books, there's a search feature here where you can search over 1.7 million titles). Paste the URL into the Reprint Request box, enter your email address, and in a while you'll get a message that your book is available to purchase at Lulu.
I did a search for books containing my family name, and came up with a book of cases argues in the Great Britain Court of Chancery, published in 1820. I requested a reprint, and a few days ago was told that the book was now available in paperback for $14.99. Like I said, seriously cool.
If you're going to use the service, be prepared for a bit of a delay. I had to wait a couple of weeks before my reprint request was fulfilled. Also, because the pages are taken from the scanned documents of Google Books and other online digital archives, the quality of some of the pages may be less than ideal. Still, I think this is a great extension of the Google Books service.
Help Desk
Here's a tip for those of you who use the Firefox browser. One of the best features about Firefox (and IE7, as well) is the ability to open up different sites in multiple tabs in the same window. Sometimes I find that my mouse finger gets a little itchy, and I wind up closing a tab I still wanted to keep open. Have you ever had that happen to you? Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to get back the tab that most recently closed.
First, just press CTRL+SHIFT+T, and voila! The tab is back. To close the tab again, just press CTRL+W, and it's gone. Another way to open multiple closed tabs is to click on the History menu, and then select Recently Closed Tabs. You'll get a menu of the tabs you closed in the recent past. Unfortunately, this won't work in IE7 -- I understand there's an add-on for IE7 called "Open Last Closed Tab," but I haven't tried 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
Consumer Products Safety Commission
I've been reviewing government agency sites for a couple of months now, to find out what these federal agencies are doing new. The CPSC should hopefully be familiar to everyone -- this is one of the best resources for finding information on products and recalls and safety issues. In addition to the usual data on recalls and other safety information, the CPSC is now offering a weekly podcast, six RSS feeds, and the ability to view recall information on your mobile device. The folks at the CPSC are definitely providing information in new and interesting ways.High Court of Australia Opinions
This is just a simple page from AUSTLII, the Australasian Legal Information Institute, but it packs a punch. It lists over 7,000 decisions from the High Court of Australia, dating back to 1903. You can view the database at no charge, either by date or case name. Unfortunately there's no keyword search, but it's still nice to have the cases available here for free.Homethinking
This isn't really a legal research site, but it's a useful tool if you're looking for a real estate agent. Just plug in a city, state or zip code, and you'll get a listing of real estate agents in that area. The page for each Realtor shows not only his or her rating, but also the realtor's coverage area and current open listings. You can communicate with the Realtors online, if you find one you like. If you're looking for just the right Realtor to sell your house, or to buy a house, this might be a good place to start.Initiative and Referendum Institute
Located at the University of Southern California, the IRI aims to inform people about the nature of ballot measures that appear on election ballots, other than candidates for office. You'll find lots of election results here, as well as the initiative and referendum processes in each state. The site isn't designed very well, but the information is helpful, nonetheless.IrishLaw
Another international law site for you today -- and another page that could use a better design. Hosted by the faculty of the University College Cork, Ireland, you'll find a whole bunch of resources here on Irish law. There are links to mailing lists, the Irish Constitution, legal systems and the courts, government issues, finding Irish law on the Web, the Irish Law Blog, and much more. The layout is a bit overwhelming -- but if you're patient, you'll find some great stuff here.
Finally, a few useful and fun sites to start off your week.
Are you a classical music fan? Here's something you might not know about YouTube -- there are literally thousands of classic videos online with recordings of some of the greatest classical performers in history. Just go to YouTube and enter the name of a performer -- Rubenstein, Perlman, Toscanini -- and you can see videos of some of their performances.
In Tarnation, you have to stop the bugs made of tar from attacking the garden's water supply. Oh no!
Well, that’s it for Issue #288 – 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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