Apparently, it's addictive. And the two major online players are warping the minds of young law students, says the author of this article. He's got a point. The bigger problem with legal research, in my view, is that no one is trained to think through how a particular legal issue is likely to have cropped up or to try to narrow their searches. Law students are, in essence, trained to carpet bomb the legal landscape by creating unfocused searches ( because searching is free to the students and is, therefor, the "default" method). Westlaw and LEXIS don't care. They give law students free research for the same reason that crack dealers give people free pipes. In both cases the free samples lead to an unhealthy state of affairs...
8:29:10 PM
Jenny Levine - Shifted Librarian or Tech Goddess?
Mitosis, it's not just for biology anymore. Jenny has become a Tech Goddess. But she will also continue to defend her title as The Shifted Librarian. Don't be confused; it's a good thing.
2:41:08 PM
"Community" is an offensive word.
At least it is to some people. But not to "people who need people." Rather, to people who operate weblogs called "Beers Across America."
2:13:28 PM
Roboform - My Personal Bot-Agent - Fasten your seat belt.
I just signed up for PopTech (this year's topic is Artificial Worlds). My wife and I had made travel arrangements and hotel reservations a few months back, but I never had registered. I was dreading having to fill out the forms with my address and credit card information. Well, I just got an E-mail from Buzz and it reminded me I hadn't filled out the form so I hit Google and typed Poptech, and got to the site in about 12 seconds. It took me another 12 to get to the registration page, and then Roboforms took over and filled in everything except the name I wanted to use on my badge (that was a tough one, and I decided not to use "Ernie the Attorney"). Another 20 seconds (18 of which was me pondering the badge question), and I was done. I'm signed up and ready to go. All in under a minute. Vrrrroooommmm!!!!
1:13:00 PM
Martin Schwimmer writes about the latest linking controversy from Denmark: "I thought link-blocking software was going to make these disputes go away, but the Danish newspaper guild is one of several entities accusing linkers of trademark infringement (and, more plausibly, unfair competition). In 1998 I wrote a paper entitled "Dismantling the Web With Trademark and Copyright Law." The hypothesis was that the Web was anti-thetical to everything media needed to maintain status quo. Encouraging linking was like encouraging channel-changing, and had to be removed (or seriously limited). Will the Web look more and more like cable tv?
Question for discussion: if link-blocking software is readily available and a website doesn't employ it, does that imply a license to link?" via [The Trademark Blog]
I think the answer to the question should be "yes" it is a license to link, but I don't wear black robes (at least not out in public). I realize that the Content Kings aren't going to make it easy for people to divert around their advertisements. However, with that view they need to stay off of the Internet. The Internet was designed to route around disaster, and it will route around them and their pesky lawsuits. The only people who are going to profit from these lawsuits are the lawyers involved in the cases.
12:23:53 PM
The Philosophy of Punctuation
The author writes "Rules are important, no question about it. But by themselves they are insufficient. Unless one has an emotional investment, rules are too easily forgotten. What we must instill, I'm convinced, is an attitude toward punctuation, a set of feelings about both the process in general and the individual marks of punctuation. That set of feelings might be called a philosophy of punctuation." [Story Link] via [Daypop Top 40]
Looks like a companion to the Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style."
9:33:36 AM
Who needs the Onion when you've got real headlines like this?
When journalists write stories they're often like attorneys: advocates looking for evidence that helps argue a case. Except with journalists, the case isn't for one side or another, but rather for the story itself. And since thebest stories are about conflicts, the case journalists often make is is for the conflict itself. A good story therefore works as a brief against the absence of conflict." via [Doc Searls Weblog]
As an attorney who is interested in how the press does its job I totally agree. Journalists are like writers who don't create the characters or the basic story. But they do cast the story in a certain light. And journalists learn early on that conflict makes a story more interesting. So they seek it out, and often manufacture it. And rarely does anyone call them on it. I'm glad that Doc did.
9:07:02 AM
Music will flow like water, free of the constraint of copyright?
David Bowie to Jon Pareles in the New York Times: "The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing." via [Doc Searls Weblog]
More and more musicians are taking this view. And let's not forget Don Henley's Recording Artists' Coalition, which was a major shot across the industry's bow. Tick, tick, tick....
Oh, and here's a link to an article by the folks at Corante Copyfight. Read it and cheer.
9:02:24 AM
