Tuesday, July 23, 2002 at 7:51AM Declan McCullagh's Politech has two items today that impact the future of digital fair use:
Senator Hollings' letter of July 19, 2002, to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, encouraging the FCC to act "without legislation" to implement a "broadcast flag" system.
Declan's c | net News.com article about new bills planned to target peer-to-peer networks. [Politech post here]
Tuesday, July 23, 2002 at 7:28AM "[W]hen a researcher finds a case of interest on Westlaw, if the case is also cited by any of the documents in the firm's internal archives, the firm's icon is automatically displayed on the case. The researcher can click the icon to review the list of internal documents. The researcher can then retrieve the full text of any of these internal documents from the firm's DMS to edit it, or incorporate portions of it into a new document." Genie Tyburski's TVC Alert points to this press release about a new knowledge management product from West. If this is just one thing the system can do, it's got my attention. (Now, if it can fold in material that may not be in the document management system -- how? got me -- I'll be really impressed.)
Monday, July 22, 2002 at 7:59AM Law.com reports that a congressional hearing is taking place tomorrow on the question of splitting the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and creating a new Twelfth Circuit. [Howard had a pointer to this story on Friday.] The hearing will be before the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, starting at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Audio is available during the time of the hearing from this link.
Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 7:50PM You've no doubt already heard or read that WorldCom, Inc. has filed what is widely being reported as the largest bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history. See, e.g., MSNBC. My father called up wondering how they pulled it off on a Sunday. Seems the digital era knows no weekends: the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York accepts filings via the ECF/PACER system, which lets registered attorneys file court documents 24/7. More about ECF (Electronic Case Files) is here, from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and here is a comprehensive list of courts which have implemented or are implementing the system. (Sadly, these factoids will do nothing to prop up the morning's markets; see news.com.au.)
--Update: Here is the Petition, in all its e-filed splendor. [Via FindLaw]
Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 9:48PM Seth Schoen of Consensus At Lawyerpoint drops a classic mnemonic for the proposed CBDTPA: "Consume, But Don't Try Programming Anything." This joins the one Cory Doctorow mentioned in a recent interview as proxy for the BPDG ("Billionaires Producing Damaged Goods").
Ernie points out the EFF hopes to find a volunteer to provide training on litigation-specific word processing issues. (Acronym refurbishment skills also a plus?)
See also NASA's "Mnemonicizer."
