More on Library Filtering from Volokh - The Child Internet Protection Act decision
From Volokh Conspiracy: "The CIPA required libraries (in schools and out) to filter Internet access as a condition of getting federal funds.
A few key points:
The court held that under the First Amendment, public libraries, whether or not funded by the federal government, may not filter access for adults.
The court did not resolve whether public libraries or school libraries could filter access for children (see pp. 130-131 and footnote 32).
Most cases start out in front of a one-judge federal trial court, and can then be appealed to a three-judge federal appellate court; the Supreme Court may then be asked (using the so-called "petition for certiorari") to rehear the case, though the Court is under no obligation to do so, and can just ignore the case, without making any decision about the case's merits. This statute provided for an initial decision by a three-judge federal trial court -- this is the decision that just came down -- and then an appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court must consider the appeal; it can just affirm the lower court decision using a one-line affirmance, but it has to consider the merits of the case to do so. And in a situation like this one, where the lower court struck down a federal statute, it's highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will agree in a one-line opinion. The Supreme Court will almost certainly have to rehear this case, a prediction that I very rarely make.
For now, the federal government is enjoined not to enforce CIPA. What about public libraries, which are virtually all run by state governments? May they continue filtering adult access (and I don't know how many do -- I suspect that many don't, given a trial court decision four years ago in the Mainstream Loudoun case that also held library filtering of adult access to be unconstitutional), or must they stop?
Well, the court didn't issue any such injunction; and its decision isn't even binding precedent as to states in any part of the country, since only appellate courts can set binding precedent. But the decision, handed down by a three-judge trial court rather than a one-judge court, is probably going to be persuasive to many lower courts. The chances that a local state or federal court will enjoin any particular library's policy of filtering adult access have just increased substantially.
He explains the reasons behind the decision etc. so if you are interested just go to his site.
From GigaLaw: "The European Parliament has voted to ban the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail. The new European directive should be in place some time next year and would mean that people will have to "opt in" or ask to receive commercial e-mail."
I think that John Cleese should make the announcement for obvious reasons.
5:16:40 PM
TechnoLawyer discussion group - latest discussion is about tech support
If you are a lawyer and interested in Technology you should subscribe to the Technolawyer E-mail group (actually there are several categories to choose from). The most recent E-mail (yes, unfortunately I have to read it as an E-mail) is about tech support. Here's what one person had to say about my friend Buzz:
"For enthusiasm and follow-through, it is hard to beat Buzz Bruggeman of ActiveWords, a surprisingly powerful universal macro utility on steroids"
I agree. Buzz and his company not only have a great product, but their tech support is amazing. One other person had a Dell computer horror story and concluded that though she likes Dell computers the service would keep her from buying one next time she bought. I think John Robb had reported a Dell horror story. I've got my own, which is basically the same old plot line: company has people on the phone who have limited information and really aren't any help. I can't say that my next computer will be a Dell either.
4:38:25 PM
New Law Blog about KM is booting up...
From excited utterances: "Tacit knowledge My favorite example of tacit knowledge--so far.
From The Social Life of Information, authors John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, discuss the importance of human contact within office space as opposed to working alone at home in cyberspace. To illustrate their point, they write this story: There's a story told of a typesetter working on a Greek text at the Oxford University Press who announced he'd found a mistake in the text. As the typesetter couldn't read Greek, his colleagues and then his superiors dismissed the claim. But the man insisted. So finally an editor came down to the compositing room. At first, she, too, dismissed the idea, but checking more closely, she found there was an error. Asked how he knew, the typesetter said he had been hand picking letters for Greek texts for most of his professional life and was sure that he'd never made the physical move to pick the two letters in that order before."
I like this site and it looks like it is going to produce some interesting discussion that Rick and others will appreciate. The font size seems kind of small, but maybe it's just me. Anyone else have trouble viewing it?
4:01:59 PM
Old Music - Why can't they just make it available on the web?
John Robb writes "Listening to Todd Rundgren's Hello it's me reminds me of the days I was on the road 230 days a year. Since this album is currently, for all intents and purposes not making money for the distributor, why can't I pay $1 for it??
Yeah, I don't get why they don't do that either. I used to work in a record store when I was in college and so did most of my friends. The cost of keeping a huge inventory of old albums (now CD's) is tremendous. I would have to believe that more sales would be made and more revenue earned on older albums if they would just make them available for download for like $1. It would be a good way for the companies to acclimate buyers to use their official site, and it would give them direct marketing information that they could use to target potential buyers. I mean it seems like a win-win deal (except for the record stores, at least until they can find a way to get rid of their inventory and then repurpose the unused space where the vast collection of old CD's used to be).
2:38:10 PM
From Wired: "A controversial library filtering law is unconstitutional, a special three-judge court ruled on Friday. The Philadelphia court unanimously said that a federal law designed to encourage the use of filtering software violated library patrons' rights to access legitimate, non-pornographic websites."
More good news for the First Amendment.
2:31:55 PM
From Law.com: In a first-of-its-kind suit, several Texas watchdog groups and individuals are challenging the Texas Supreme Court's policy of not disclosing the justices' votes on petitions for review. The suit wants the federal district court in Del Rio, Texas, to declare that the supreme court's failure to make the justices' votes public violates their rights under the U.S. Constitution's First and 14th Amendments and federal common law. [Story Link]
Now this is interesting, but I'll predict that the federal court says no. Judges have a tendency to look at things from the self-interest of judges, and I can't see a federal judge (unless its a maverick judge) thinking that it is a good thing to let the public peek behind the scenes of the Texas Supreme Court. Judges worry about too much public intrusion into court workings, which I guess is to be expected. This is why most judges are not in favor of cameras in the courtroom; the O.J. Simpson debacle is a sham reason.
2:12:43 PM
From Law.com: "When a disabled worker asks for a transfer to a job that he can perform, the employer can't require him to watch for job openings and file formal applications for the posts, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court revived a lawsuit brought by a former emergency medical technician who said he was denied a transfer to a post as police dispatcher after he injured his back. [Story Link]
From Law.com: The Engle case is the landmark Florida smokers' class action. Opening statements began Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court as John Lukacs became the first smoker to stake claim to a piece of the $145 billion verdict. [Story Link]
1:18:44 PM
More Law Firm Nuptials...
From Law.com: "Accelerating an industrywide consolidation trend, four firms are moving ahead with two separate merger plans to create mega-firms of more than 800 lawyers each. On Thursday, Boston's Bingham Dana and San Francisco's McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen announced their union, one of the largest transcontinental mergers to date. Last week, St. Louis' Bryan Cave voted to merge with New York's Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman.
From GigaLaw: "A notorious anti-abortion Webmaster who Geraldo Rivera described on TV as an accomplice to the murder of an abortion doctor has lost a libel suit against the talk show host. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Rivera was protected by the First Amendment when he called Neal Horsley an accomplice to murder for posting the crossed-out name of Dr. Bernard Slepian to an online abortionist 'rogues gallery' that Horsley calls the Nuremberg Files."
Score one for the good guys. I mean the First Amendment, not Geraldo.
12:40:16 PM
From KenLayne.com: "Edward Boyd" has found (through Ted Barlow) a blog by a former congressman. Is this the first such blog? Imagine if all congressfolk had blogs. First, we'd have to get rid of 89 percent of Congress. Writing honest stuff would break most of them."
The new blog is by current attorney and East Valley Tribune columnist Sam Coppersmith. Coppersmith, a Democrat, served one term in Congress (1993-95) and ran for Senate in 1994.
12:13:59 PM
From PR Web - Legal: "Today, a new publication on patents, copyrights and other intellectual property was released. The free Internet newsletter is written by scholars in economics and law to an audience of both researchers and interested non-academics."
Looks interesting, but it's a E-mail thing that you have to subscribe to. RSS feed? No, not even close so I doubt I'll be keeping up. I have too much crap in my E-mail in box as it is.
12:09:18 PM
