Thursday, February 13, 2003"GrepLaw is a SlashCode weblog at Harvard Law." [Scripting News] From "Democracy-in-the-Dark: Public Access Restrictions from Westlaw and Lexis Nexis. Melissa Bar has written an insightful article on how Westlaw and Lexis Nexus [sic] restrict public access to case law databases. She writes, "[T]he courts and the court's words belong to us. In more ways than one, the American people have already paid for the case law produced by our courts. Commercial vendors must not be allowed to highjack our law or dictate who may have access to it. By refusing to allow public libraries to purchase electronic subscriptions that can serve their patrons, Westlaw and LexisNexis are closing the door on information. Individually purchasing the documents over credit card is incredibly expensive, making it virtually inaccessible to most library patrons. (/. thread here)" Responses from West and LexisNexis are included in the article, which also has an informative discussion of the states with full and free internet access to the courts, and loads of other helpful information. And Louisiana even gets a nod for having its online statutes "up and running." Melissa Barr is a Legal Resources Specialist for the Cuyahoga County Public Library.
11:29:16 PM
"U.S. backs merging Net, telephone numbers. The Bush administration is lending its support to an international proposal to map telephone numbers to Internet addresses. By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com." [CNET News.com] You had to see this one coming. I mean, there are only so many domain names, and why not synchronize all your communications devices to a master address. ENUM -- a great idea whose time has come.
11:19:57 PM
"THOMAS NEPHEW has changed his mind and come out in favor of war with Iraq...." [Instapundit.com] IMHO, this is a clear-headed, right-on, point-by-point analysis of the Iraqi situation, including:
The world is not what it should be; the right solution to the Iraqi crisis either demands the realism of a soldier or the idealism of a peace activist. Either choice brings danger and sorrow with it: peace means continued repression now, and may well mean a greater war later; war means death and destruction now, and untold unwanted consequences later. At this point, either choice may be plausibly claimed to accelerate WMD proliferation elsewhere in the world. I don't see how anyone can be anything but regretful, anxious, and uncertain about what lies ahead.
9:45:59 PM
"Daniel Brandt: Google As Big Brother. Mind-bending. Read it and think. Google may not be the friend we all think it is." [Scripting News] Now, this is really scary. I mean, I use Google exclusively. Imagine the legal implications. Does this mean that Google's records of someone's web-surfing habits can be subpoenaed in a criminal case? A civil case? Has this been done?
9:07:32 PM
Paralegal Blawg [Blawg - Law Blog - Links & Information on Legal Weblogs - Blawgs]. Pleasantly surprised to find this in my news aggregator, and couldn't resist linking to it for posterity. (So sue me.) And there's also a *new* link for law student blogs here.
9:05:00 PM
"Casting-Couch Bolsheviks. SADDAM HUSSEIN has put the people of Iraq on an 'Orange' alert this week in response to Iraqi intelligence picking up an increase in 'chatter' out of Hollywood. Actors go into a frenzy whenever they sense that world events could pre-empt their appearances on 'Entertainment Tonight.' They've been in March Hare mode lately, so Iraq is in a state of high alert." [Ann Coulter] I've been meaning to make it to Ann Coulter's site. And she doesn't disappoint. Read the article here. She's got a .org site, and no readily apparent RSS feed.
8:54:44 PM
