Monthly Archives: March 2009

Guide to Trial Transcipts in England and Wales

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Searching for docket information and trial transcripts in the UK can be tricky. The Inner Temple Libary has posted a 50 page guide to transcripts of judicial proceedings in England and Wales. Besides providing contact information for requesting transcripts, the document serves as a useful guide to the court system in England. 

Transcripts of Judicial Proceedings in England and Wales: A Guide to Sources

Sarah McLaren, Inner Temple Library

http://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/Guides/Transcripts%20Guide.pdf

No Tears for the Newspaper?

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A new Pew Center Research report on the end of local newspapers is very telling.

“Fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot.” Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.”

And:

“About half of Democrats (49%) and 47% of independents say civic life would be hurt “a lot” if the newspaper shut down, compared with 33% of Republicans.”

The Wayback Machine and More From Brewster Kahle

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Really nice 2-page spread on Brewster Kahle, “The internet’s librarian,”  in this week’s issue of The Economist.

The Economist

March 7th – 13th 2009

Technology Quarterly insert

Brain scan

The internet’s librarian

Brewster Kahle wants to create a free, online collection of human knowledge.  It sounds impossibly idealistic — but he is making progress

It is easy to dismiss Mr. Kahle as an idealist, but he has an impressive record of getting things done.

I have used the Wayback machine — i.e., The Internet Archive — to find needed documents that were not otherwise available online anymore.  And apparently I’m not the only one:

The most famous part of the archive is the Wayback Machine (its name inspired by the WABAC machine in the 50-year-old television cartoon featuring Rocky and Bullwinkle). This online attic of digital memorabilia stores copies of internet sites . . . Paul Courant, the dean of libraries at the University of Michigan, equates what the archive does for the internet with what the British Museum did for the British empire. . . . The Wayback Machine “gives us access to what people were producing at different points in time,” he says.  Evidentially this is of more than just academic interest: the site gets 500 page requests per second.

The article also discusses “Mr. Kahle’s wider goal:

to build the world’s largest digital library.  He has recruited 135 libraries worldwide to openlibrary.org, the aim of which is to create a catalogue of every book ever published, with links to its full text where available. . . .

The article notes that “this activist for online privacy is also a staunch supporter of openness” and details efforts and litigation Mr. Kahle has been involved with.

Wikipedian Justice

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“Wikipedian Justice”

RAGHAV SHARMA, National Law University, Jodhpur

This short article highlights the increasing reliance by Indian courts on Wikipedia. The Supreme Court seems to have accepted Wikipedia as a reliable source of information. The article discusses how far such judicial reliance is warranted on Wikipedia.

Source: LSN Law & Courts Vol. 3 No. 21,  03/10/2009

President Obama and Signing Statements

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An excerpt from today’s new White House Memorandum:

“In recent years, there has been considerable public discussion and criticism of the use of signing statements to raise constitutional objections to statutory provisions. There is no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused. Constitutional signing statements should not be used to suggest that the President will disregard statutory requirements on the basis of policy disagreements. At the same time, such signing statements serve a legitimate function in our system, at least when based on well-founded constitutional objections. In appropriately limited circumstances, they represent an exercise of the President’s constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and they promote a healthy dialogue between the executive branch and the Congress.”

“With these considerations in mind and based upon advice of the Department of Justice, I will issue signing statements to address constitutional concerns only when it is appropriate to do so as a means of discharging my constitutional responsibilities.”

Read the Bill & More

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Lots of fresh air today: 

-Noon-time twitter ‘rally’ for the Yes We Scan campaign (#yeswescan) for Carl Malamud

-Just in from the Sunlight Foundation:

In our Read the Billcampaign we are advocating that all bills be placed online for 72 hours prior to consideration. Specifically, the Read the Billcampaign asks that bills be accessible, in text format, online and posted to a commonly visited web site, GPO or THOMAS.

And, midnight tonight (ET):

“Wired is officially launching “Data.gov Is Coming — Let’s Help Build It,”a wiki designed to find and identify important and valuable data sets held by the federal government, and to make them available and usable. ” [snippet from the  Sunlight Foundation]

Twitter Rally Transcript – #YesWeScan

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Transcript (transtwit?) of today’s Twitter rally for YesWeScan Campaign of Carl Malamud:

[tap tap] Is this thing on? We’ll be starting in 10 minutes. Nice crowd! Please make yourself comfortable. Thanks for coming!

Welcome to RALLY FOR THE PUBLIC DOMAIN! http://tinyurl.com/apbfyk or #YesWeScan to follow. Rally will be my 13 tweets + whatever you add.

For soundtrack, we recommend this patriotic medley by U.S. Military Bands. http://tinyurl.com/azz4u2 Enjoy! via http://loc.gov  #YesWeScan.

[ahem] My fellow netizens. Thank you for tweeting with me today. #YesWeScan is a vision and a plan for how GPO and .gov talk to the world.

Platform has emphasized jobs, librarians, and security of all Americans. Nation’s publisher since 1861 must be ready for future. #YesWeScan

We should embrace new role for GPO, a center to public domain based on principles of open data/open source as key role for .gov. #YesWeScan

A strong and vibrant publisher for 3 branches of government will maintain jobs, refocus GPO to publish across all media. #YesWeScan

Am announcing today concluding front porch portion of campaign at end of week, will journey to Washington, DC, nation’s capitol. #YesWeScan

Will engage in dialogue with all 3 branches of .gov. Video from congress, PACER from courts, offer to donate data to executive. #YesWeScan

1,000+ of you have sent Acks-of-Approval, Tweets-of-Endorsement. Am very grateful. Will channel Gus, create nomination book. #YesWeScan

I wish to ask you now to join with me and send message to Washington. Will harvest your tweets, forward them to the White House. #YesWeScan

#YesWeScan I ask you: Can we work together to make America’s Operating System open source, so that law is accessible for all? Can We Scan??

#YesWeScan! Can we have a .gov that listens as well as it talks? A government that uses the Internet instead of fearing it? Can We Scan!?

#YesWeScan! Can we all work together to reclaim the public domain? Can We Scan!?

#YesWeScan! #YesWeScan!

#YesWeScan! Thank you for your support, I hope we can continue this dialogue from DC. Thanks so much for coming! Feel free to hang around.

[takes off suit and tie, puts on leather apron, starts working on nomination book. wow. that was cool!! thanks folks!]

You folks are great … thanks so much for your support! #YesWeScan!

The 10 major newspapers that will either fold or go digital next

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This happy headline from a recent Yahoo News story, “ The 10 Major Newspapers that will Either Fold or Go Digital Next.”  Here is the list:

1. The Philadelphia Daily News. 

2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune 

3. The Miami Herald 

4. The Detroit News 

5. The Boston Globe 

6. The San Francisco Chronicle. 

7. The Chicago Sun Times 

8. NY Daily News

 

9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram 

10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer

[Hat tip to Ross Runkel]

Law, Journalism Students Team Up to Cover Trial

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“Law, Journalism Students Team Up to Cover Trial” according to a new posting on LegalBlogWatch:

“Law, meet journalism. Journalism, meet law. The Grace Case Project is an innovative joint undertaking of the schools of law and journalism at the University of Montana. Students from both schools have teamed up to blog and tweet the federal criminal prosecution of W.R. Grace & Companyand five of its executives and managers in U.S. District Court in Missoula.”

The most exciting part about this collaboration: the students will regularly tweet about the trial under the name UMGraceCase.  

And, the question that we all want to know: how to cite to these tweets according to the Bluebook? 

[First tweeted on LegalBlogWatch and Bob Ambrogi]

FT interview with Reed Elsevier CEO

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The “Monday Interview” in today’s Financial Times is with Sir Crispin Davis, the outgoing chief executive officer of Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis’s parent.

The Monday Interview
Sir Crispin David

Reed’s leader from dusty to digital
The outgoing chief executive tells Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson how the publisher prospered as others suffered in the internet maelstrom.

According to the piece,

 
Almost three years ago, he decided Reed needed to “raise the bar again”, refining its strategy beyond simply digitising content to embedding it in productivity-enhancing online tools for lawyers, scientists and doctors.  The number of technologists employed by the company has grown from 400 to 4,800 in ten years and the share of revenues coming under the ungainly banner of “workflow solutions” has risen to more than 50 per cent.”