Thursday, 12 September, 2002

human rights casualties in the war on terrorism Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Report. Via JURIST: Civil liberties lost since Sept. 11. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has released a detailed report chronicling actions taken by the United States government since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that it says have gradually eroded basic human rights protections, including fundamental guarantees that have been central to the U.S. constitutional system for more than 200 years. I actually heard about this report last week through the law-lib listserv.  I want to recommend that other libraries do what I did:  print out the report, send it to your copy center for binding, and add it to your collection.  Folks will want to read this stuff at some point, if not now.  On the main page is also a link to a PowerPoint presentation of a chronology of changes to U.S. law, which I also added to the collection.  It's now also available in PDF.  Finally, the main page contains a link to a PDF list of court cases related to Sept. 11. [Leah's Law Library Weblog] I linked to this - in passing - in my previous rant on September 10. I think it's important enough that it deserve a repeat and clearer mention. 3:21:23 PM    comment []

A New Book on Judging Information Quality on the Web [The Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk] 3:17:39 PM    comment []

"Disney, you've bought your last copyright extension." More must read Brad DeLong pens a "Platonic Dialogue on Eldred v. Ashcroft", considering how the Supreme Court might rule on the case challenging Congress's extension of the length of copyrights. Conclusion:   The court won't overturn the copyright extension. They won't use the chainsaw. But they will take the chainsaw out of the garage and make sure its fuel tank is full. Its opinion will mean, "Congress, there are some limits, somewhere, to your copyright power." It will mean, "Disney, you've bought your last copyright extension." It will mean, "Congress, next time find someone more serious than Sonny Bono to lead the issue." It will mean, "We're not going to tell you where the line is exactly -- that would be dicta, and we hate dicta, except when we don't -- but we are telling you that if you move to extend copyright again, you first need to ask yourselves the Clint Eastwood question: 'Do you feel lucky?'" [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment] I posted this more for Scott's comments than for the Platonic dialogue, which can be a little difficult to skim & absorb at times. 3:16:23 PM    comment []

associates and support staff Play Nice. I don't think this article accurately conveys the importance of paralegals (and it completely ignores secretaries). I'm pretty sure that it's always a bad move as a first-year to assume you know more than the support staff. They know more than you do about the actual practice of law, they can do it better, and are smarter (if for the... [a mad tea-party] This is good to see. I wish that there was a way that some of these social skills could be incorporated into a law school's curriculum. There's nothing more annoying to me than arrogance - when people who assume they are better because of their job title, degrees, bank balance etc. 1:31:08 PM    comment []