"So what should I do if I think enough of a NPR story to recommend it to you? Quote it with no link so you have to rely on me to cite the relevant parts, or link directly to it so you can hear the whole thing and judge for yourself? Either could result in a letter from a lawyer." [The Shifted Librarian]
Interesting thoughts. Reading this made me think (always dangerous): what if Jenny saw an article on NPR about Neil Young and since she knows that I'm a big fan she wanted to point me to it? Well, let's play lawyer here. Jenny doesn't want to "link" and get a nasty-gram from NPR's legal team. But she does want me to know how to get to the article. She could tell me there's an article on NPR and hope I could find it. Or she could say "Hey Ernie, check this out:
It's not a link. Check it out; it doesn't do anything useful. But I can copy it, and then paste it in my browser address field and then...navigate there. So, as long as it's not convenient for me (i.e. as long as there is no "link") then NPR is happy, and Jenny hasn't violated their asinine policy. Now, this is the way the web is supposed to work. Right?
9:40:36 PM
WELCOME BACK, MR. WINER.
Oh, yeah, we tease him a lot 'cause he's got us on the spot. Welcome back!!!
8:42:33 PM
Jailbreak from Panamanian prisons is not recommended.
Escape from Panama jail, get eaten by crocodile. [Daily Rotten]
The Bush administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a law that denies federal funds for public libraries that allow patrons to look at pornographic Web sites. In May, a three-judge panel in Philadelphia overturned the "Children's Internet Protection Act" (CIPA), a two-year-old law that requires public libraries and schools to use Internet filtering software on their computers by July 1 or risk losing millions of dollars in federal money. [GigaLaw]
Doesn't the US Supreme Court have more intricate legal issues to deal with? They only write about 80 opinions a year. Keeping our libraries free from porn surfers sounds good (if you believe in the power of demagoguery), but somehow I'm thinking it is not a pressing problem. Most porn surfers like to operate in private, or that would be my uneducated guess.
7:17:34 PM
US Fifth Circuit decides important First Amendment case involving Dallas Strip Club
The name of the case ("Baby Dolls Topless Saloons, Inc. v. ....") says it all. And the issue, according to the court is "is whether the City of Dallas violated certain establishments' First Amendment rights when it amended its City Code to effectively require female performers to wear bikini tops, among other things, in order for those establishments to avoid being classified as sexually oriented business..." If you are interested read the opinion here. Sorry, no pictures.
2:14:57 PM
Interesting Idea for Lowering the Cost of Legal Research
A friend of mine who clerked for a federal judge sent me this link to a site that is run by someone who also clerked for her judge. If you need legal research done and can't do it yourself or don't want to maybe you can outsource it to someone who keeps the costs low by having people in India (which is a common law jurisdiction with English speaking people) do it. Obviously this is not something that big law firms will be interested in, and I suppose it will work for certain type of rote analysis. But it won't work for a lot of things, because there is actually a fine art to legal research. It's not just an intellectual scavenger hunt.
I taught legal research & writing for a year at one point, and since then I have observed closely the learning process that young lawyers have to go through to become proficient at finding answers to questions. Sadly, not everything is in the law books. For example, law schools will teach you that if you want to know the filing requirements of a particular court you should look up the local rules. True enough. But, as one who clerked in a court, here's how I often do it if I have any sort of unusual pleading or filing. I call the intake clerk and very, very politely (and with great deference) ask them if there are any "new" rules that apply to what I'm filing. Then they tell me either "yes" (and I learn about a rule that isn't in the books yet), or "no" and then they tell me the rule, and also usually some additional tidbit of information that will help me get the thing filed without any hitches. After several calls like this, I get to know the intake person, and they come to know me. And, guess what? When I do have problems they are usually inclined to help me out.
They don't teach you useful stuff like that in law school. They teach you how to research stuff in books and online. But research often involves calling someone who knows the answer and being nice to them to have them help you out. That's not something that you can outsource. Still, I'm sure there is some use for a company that hires Indians to do legal research at low cost. So, if you're interested, check it out.
1:52:07 PM
Litigation makes me.... so tired....
Andersen Jurors Allege Two Slept During Trial. Jurors in the recently concluded Arthur Andersen obstruction of justice trial allege two of their fellow jurors napped during the proceedings and, as a result, misunderstood such basic information as who exactly was being charged. One juror, Jack Gallo, says he wrote the judge about the concerns, but says the marshal to whom he gave the note told him "the judge is well aware of it." Gallo then threw away the note, he says. [Law.com]
For people who have spent a lot of time around courtrooms, the "sleeping juror" is a dog-bites-man story. Good judges will usually take care of the problem by talking to the offending juror. Bad judges sometimes get sleepy themselves...
1:36:13 PM
Really nice words from a homey...
A Web log from a very smart lawyer in my hometown of New Orleans: Ernie the Attorney. Read him, dig him. [Ken Layne]
Ken and I have another thing in common besides being from New Orleans. He's spent some time in Belize. I'm sure we could trade stories about that for a goodly while...
11:36:54 AM
This just in from Cory..."Yesterday, I was interviewed for Minnesota Public Radio's Future Tense, along with NPR's ombudsman, about NPR's link policy. The piece turned out great -- Jon Gordon, the producer, did a great job of framing the story, and he was kind enough to provide an MP3 of the interview for those of us without RealPlayer support on our OS of choice: LinkDiscuss (Thanks, Jon!) [bOing bOing]
I'm glad to see some response. Don't have time to listen to it now, but will soon.
11:31:24 AM
The best librarians are shifted, and the best lawyers are...
"professional information whores." But that's a good thing, as Adam explains. I agree. But I don't think that enough lawyers are embracing the technology tools that would enhance their practice. The financial incentive to be efficient isn't there. It is, as the particle physicists say, a "weak force."
Librarians are a different story. They always want to help, and they do what they do (almost uniformly) because they love information and love to help people. We should all fall down and worship a librarian. My favorite is of course...Jenny.
11:22:54 AM
WELCOME BACK, MR. WINER.
