Via Sabrina at BeSpacific.com:
Reporters Without Borders has released a new Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents (46 pages, PDF).
Bruce Schneier notes the significant implications of recent Florida court decisions throwing out "driving under the influence" (DUI) cases because the manufacturer will not disclose how the breathalyzer machines work, including some fascinating comments about open source vs. closed source software.
Thanks to John Robb for pointing out Schneier's post and raising this important question:
"If you don't have access to how a system works, how can it be used to indict you?"
This week's Coast to Coast is called Katrina's Aftermath: The Gulf Coast Legal Community, and features — along with members of the Texas bench and bar who are extending southern hospitality to their displaced neighbors in myriad ways — blawgers Ray Ward and our own Ernie Svenson, who provide their firsthand accounts.
My colleague and former clerk to the Honorable William H. Rehnquist, Tom McGough, describes standing vigil for the Chief Justice.
Congratulations to our friend Jim Calloway who was recently inducted as a fellow in the College of Law Practice Management. Check out Jim's blog and you'll see why he is so highly-respected and a favorite legal blogger for so many.
Here's the Supreme Court Watch Podcast from Alliance for Justice, featuring (per its press release) "live blogging [of the Roberts confirmation hearings] to provide response and commentary in real time, as well as daily wrap-up podcasts to provide further in-depth discussion and analysis available to listeners at any time, anywhere."
Weblogs Work is running a series of interviews with blogging lawyers (I was one of the interviewees, and John Day's is also up): "Weblogs seem to work well for lawyers. We tried to find out why."
Skype + Innovation + People Who Care (Like Dina Mehta) = An effort to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that will change the way you think about grassroots help for others in need. Imagine the possibilities.
Between Lawyers's Ernie Svenson is among the bloggers quoted in the Washington Post's article, "Blogs Provide Storm Evacuees With Neighborhood-Specific News." (Registration (free) required).
Patty Noonan on the performance of leaders so far (and on bloggers).
Jack Vinson's pre-hurricane post "Becoming Your Own Filter" strikes me as prescient and right-on-target as we try to find real news and information in these post-hurricane days.
Here's FindLaw's lawyer marketing page, launched this week, including this article mentioning BL, quoting Tom, and weighing in on the "are blogs advertising" issue: "Do lawyers need to be concerned about the ethics rules on lawyer marketing when they blog? Well, yes. But no more so than in any other forum in which a lawyer writes or speaks."
Windows SharePoint Services Applications Template: Legal Document Review: "This application for Windows SharePoint Services is for company legal departments to post legal documents and templates, communicate requirements and processes, and provide contact information. It also features a legal document review tool for managing, prioritizing, and tracking employee requests to review contracts and documents." (Thanks, Steve!)
The Inquirer reports that "According to an NOP World survey, 50% of law firms in the UK are missing basic security measures and just under half have no budget dedicated to digital security..." (Thanks, Steve!)
Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy of Between Lawyers recently presented a webcast with Raza Hasan of Thomson FindLaw called "Blogs for Lawyers: Building an Audience to Build Your Practice." A free replay of the webcast is available here.
Dennis Kennedy has a vision of sorts on this whole RSS thing while in Phoenix for the ILTA legal technology conference. Details here.
Doug Sorocco unpacks the Microsoft/Apple/iPod interface patent hype: "[F]olks need to do their research and understand the issues. If the claims don't cover it - it doesn't infringe." Ahh, that's better!
Just register your site with GVisit, copy and paste a line of JavaScript to your home page, and you can then track the last 20 visitors to your site using Google Maps.
Quoting from Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter:
"An attorney in Australia has successfully used the MD5 Defense -- the
fact that the hash function is broken -- to fight a highway camera that
photographs speeders.
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/08/10/1123353368652.html>
<http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16204811-1242,00.htm>
This is interesting. It's true that MD5 is broken. On the other hand,
it's almost certainly true that the speed cameras were correct. If
there's any lesson here, it's that theoretical security is important in
legal proceedings. I think that's a good thing.
<http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0409.html#3>"
Implications for all digital photgraphy used as evidence in courts? You betcha.
Here's a survey worth spending a few minutes to take: Amy Gahran is conducting an online survey on the "Professional/Personal Overlap" on blogs. I'm in favor of most things that tend to make us more human, but I know that others like their blog reading without the injection of anything personal in nature. The final survey results should be quite interesting, but I suspect that the personal will ultimately push its way into even the most dedicatedly professional blogs over the long haul.
I originally posted about this on the LexThink blog, but I can't get the "Not Insane To Do List" off my mind and wanted to share it with the Between Lawyers audience. It seems so, well, not insane. See what you think.
((litefeeds)) -- because lawyers don't have enough to read on their Blackberries...
The July-August issue of the ABA's Law Practice Magazine is all about blogging, and features the roundtable we did here. Also there are a fun profile of Ernie "wrong profession" Svenson, and many a great tip from Rick Klau.
Even though e-filing is easy, a slow computer won't justify a missed deadline.
From Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion: 10 technology-driven trends that will revolutionize how companies (and people) communicate.
NY Lawyer: Associate, denied partnership, sues firm for fraud.
The August issue of Fast Company has this succinct and on point guide to Business Blogging for Beginners (which is useful even, or maybe particularly, if you're not into cocktail parties).
NY Lawyer: : Firm can sue former associate for allegedly jumping the gun as to soliciting clients for her new firm, however firm didn't plead defamation with particularity with regard to alleged comments by associate that her former boss was abusive, nasty and difficult.
IBM has released a trial enterprise blogging tool that will integrate with its Workplace Collaboration Services: "Weblog Preview provides the basic functionality usually expected of personal weblogs. For instance, Weblog Preview supports the posting of content in a journal format, emphasizing a personal point of view. The weblogs are public by default; that is, any authenticated Workplace user can read the blog. In addition, all authenticated users can comment on or link to the posts via 'permalinks.' The weblog owners, however, can restrict access to their blogs via the Workplace membership portlet, just as with any Workplace component." I don't know much about "portlets," but this strikes me as a positive and useful step in encouraging weblog use by businesses. Via Techworld, which has this quote from IBM's Ed Brill: "By putting that into Workplace, we are saying that we expect everybody in an organisation to be able to be a publisher, not just a consumer of information." Mr. Brill's blog looks like an excellent related resource.
Here's a brief and sensible set of Guidelines Useful in Blogging aimed at businesses, from the London Free Press and authored by Ontario lawyer David Canton.
I don't have anything to add to Dennis on the parallels (or desired parallels) between tax and copyright policy, except that I enjoyed it (and I assume his concluding sentence is either rhetorical or hoping to prompt a discussion). In somewhat similar vein, don't miss Marty's post on blogs, print, and trademarks.
From Swissinfo.com, Registered E-post will soon be reality: "Since the beginning of 2005, the electronic signature in Switzerland has had the same status as a handwritten signature for contracts and business transactions."
This blog account of jury duty begins with this passage: "Oftentimes people will watch news coverage of trials and react with bewilderment when the defendant is found not guilty. They ask 'How could any jury possibly find that person innocent? How stupid can these people be?' When you actually take part in the process you come to realize how complicated finding someone guilty actually is, and you start to understand some of what may have been going on in the deliberations of those newsworthy trials that led the jury not to convict. The fact of the matter is you don’t find someone innocent: you have to find someone guilty..."
For cutting edge and up to the minute discussion and analysis of the today's Grokster decision, check out the Wall Street Journal's Grokster Roundtable, which includes Denise Howell of Between Lawyers among its imposing list of expert panelists.
At this moment, of the five most recent comments to this blog, two are about poker, and three are about penis enlargement. What precisely did the Cluetrain Manifesto say about conversations?
I never miss an opportunity to use the word Champerty in a sentence. Via Overlawyered, a story on how casino operators are funding litigation by Shinnecock Indians to claim land in the Hamptons.
Here's a little tale of ketchup, pants, and email to add to your collection of lawyer emails and voicemails that have gone feral and taken on a life of their own. (Via Boing Boing)
Any person in a business or other organization who cares about the entity's financial and technological well being would be better off for listening to Dan Bricklin's Software Licensing Podcast.