From The Recorder:
Small-firm San Francisco practitioners are expressing dismay over the superior court’s plans to take over the space in the local civil courthouse that houses the law library’s reference room.
Though small, trial lawyers say the fifth-floor reference room is the only place they can make photocopies, look up cases and codes, and find a [...]
Archive of entries posted on November 2008
Courthouse Library to Be Squeezed Out
OpenCongress Blog – Compare the Voting Records of Any Two Members of Congress
From the OpenCongress Blog:
Today we’re excited to be launching a new tool that gives you an at-a-glance way to see where every senator and representative stands on the hottest issues facing Congress:
Head-to-Head Vote Comparison
Choose two people from the drop-down menus for a side-by-side view of their votes, plus information on how often they vote together, [...]
Violations of Law May Be Classified, Court Rules
From Secrecy News:
Information that would reveal a violation of the law may be properly classified as long as it is not deliberately classified for the purpose of concealing the violation, a federal judge indicated this week.
That view, in a ruling (pdf) against the ACLU by DC District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, all but nullifies one [...]
Harvard Slams Google Settlement; Others React with Caution
From Library Journal:
If a major theme has emerged among the reactions to Google’s sweeping $125 million settlement with publishers and authors over its library scan plan, it is cautious optimism, tempered by uncertainty. As LJ noted in its initial report, most observers say that the success of the deal will be in the details—and, as [...]
Minerva Research Initiative: Searching for the Truth or Denying the Iraqis the Rights to Know the Truth?
New Essay by Saad Eskander, Iraq National Library and Archives, posted to the Social Science Research Council:
What has prompted me to write this paper is the continuing refusal of the U.S. to pay serious attention to Iraqi calls for the repatriation of the Iraqi records illegally seized by its military and intelligence agencies. Most recently, [...]
EFF Marks 10th Anniversary of DMCA with Report on Law’s Unintended Consequences
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Ten years ago Tuesday, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law. In a report released to mark the anniversary, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) documents the ways in which this controversial law has harmed fair use, free speech, scientific research, and legitimate competition.
“Unintended Consequences: Ten Years Under the [...]
Harvard-Google Online Book Deal at Risk
From The Harvard Crimson:
Harvard University Library will not take part in Google’s book scanning project for in-copyright works after finding the terms of its landmark $125 million settlement regarding copyrighted materials unsatisfactory, University officials said yesterday.
Harvard had been one of five academic libraries—along with Stanford, Oxford, Michigan, and the New York Public Library—to partner with [...]