Copyrighted briefs?

Something I saw over at the Law Librarian Blog:

Lawyer Copyrights Briefs, Sues West And Lexis for Distributing Them
February 24, 2012
Law Librarian Blog
Two lawyers have opened a can of copyright worms by filing a class action suit against West and Lexis for using briefs in the brief banks sold by their respective companies. (cont)

Ohio Inmate Sues the State Prison System over Law Books

An inmate sues the state prison system for replacing legal books with computers that have access to Westlaw. Read more

Juror Tweets, Facebook Updates Now a Crime Under CA Law - Mobile Phones / Smartphones - Technologist

Juror Tweets, Facebook Updates Now a Crime Under CA Law - Mobile Phones / Smartphones - Technologist

If you're in California, leave that smartphone at home!

Copyright cases in academia

The Out of the Jungle blog has a post about copyright cases looming in the academic universe.

Copyright Cases Looming over Academia - June 5, 2011

More lawsuits over infringment

Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit

By DAN FROSCH
Published: May 2, 2011
New York Times
More about the company, Righthaven, that has been suing bloggers and others who have posted materials without permission.

Discovery Dispute

I came across this on Above The Law in my RSS feed this morning, and thought it was very interesting. Here's a snippet from the post:

If you’re a Biglaw litigator searching for a published opinion addressing discovery issues, well, today is your lucky day. Check out this great opinion, just handed down — not by a mere magistrate or district judge, but by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit…

Source: "Biglaw Litigators, Rejoice! A Circuit Court Opinion on a Discovery Dispute" By David Lat, Above The Law, posted 03 May 2011 at 6:34 PM.

Case referenced: Markyl Lee v. Max International, LLC [U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit]

Copyright for court filings?

I almost missed this one - the Law Librarian Blog discusses a current case in which court filings are being discussed in the light of whether or not the filings are subject to copyright. Wade in here.

Libel laws in Britain under review

This caught my attention this morning.

Britain, Long a Libel Mecca, Reviews Laws

By SARAH LYALL
Published: December 10, 2009
New York Times

LONDON — England has long been a mecca for aggrieved people from around the world who want to sue for libel. Russian oligarchs, Saudi businessmen, multinational corporations, American celebrities — all have made their way to London’s courts, where jurisdiction is easy to obtain and libel laws are heavily weighted in favor of complainants.

Embarrassed by London’s reputation as “a town called sue” and by unusually stinging criticisms in American courts and legislatures, British lawmakers are seriously considering rewriting England’s 19th-century libel laws. (cont)

Is it first sale or license? Still murky

Ars Technica has published articles before on the AutoCad case in the 9th circuit.

AutoCAD resale ruling a messy win for first-sale doctrine

Despite Autodesk's claim it has never "sold" a copy of AutoCAD to anyone, a federal judge found that restrictive software licenses can act much like sales. Thanks to the decision, AutoCAD can be resold on eBay—but courts are still all over the place on this issue.

By Nate Anderson
Last updated October 7, 2009 6:15 AM CT
Ars Technica

Legal issues with dinosaur hunting

Did you know there are legal implications of digging up dinosaur bones? There could be if the bones happen to be on public land. See more details in Smithsonian.

Donovan Webster. "The Dino Wars", Smithsonian Magazine. April 2009, pp. 49-57

New patent rocket docket

I ran across this article on law.com this am.

New Patent Rocket Docket Rises in Wisconsin
Sheri Qualters
The National Law Journal
March 21, 2008

Patent attorneys are hailing the Western District of Wisconsin as the nation's newest so-called rocket docket, characterized by speedy trials and a jury pool friendly to patent holders. cont.

Restrictions on venue changes

I saw this in the Texas Lawyer.

5th Circuit Restricts Trial Courts' Discretion in Venue Motions
John Council
Texas Lawyer
November 5, 2007

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has made it easier for defense attorneys to move their clients' cases out of the Eastern District of Texas.

The Oct. 25 mandamus opinion In Re: Volkswagen of America Inc. could stem the tide of tort suits filed in the district, which is popular with plaintiffs. The 5th Circuit ruled that a federal trial judge abused his discretion by not granting a defense motion to transfer venue to another district.

cont.

More doctors in Texas?

Does Texas Really Have More Doctors as a Result of Medical Malpractice Reform?Why a New York Times Article Making that Claim Is Seriously Misleading
By ANTHONY J. SEBOK ---- Tuesday, Oct. 09, 2007

Interesting FindLaw commentary on a recent New York Times article that announced that more doctors are flocking to Texas after the medical malpractice tort reforms of 2003. Sebok examines the facts and concludes the truth is somewhat different.

Jury verdict in copyright trial

There's been a flurry of articles about various recording companies and their downloading suit against Jammie Thomas, a woman went through with the trail against her regarding illegally downloaded and distributed music. (See for example: Jury finds woman violated copyright law in download trial, victory for record companies). A post yesterday on Ars Technica suggests that an appeal may be in the making over a disputed instruction to the jury. Instruction #15 was changed from

The mere act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network without license from copyright owners does not violate the copyright owners' exclusive right to distribution. An actual transfer must take place

to

The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown.

How the RIAA tasted victory: a perfect storm which might not be repeated
By Eric Bangema

Response to Lawsuit

If you have been reading about last week's news about a lawsuit by a senator who is suing God, read the article from today's Law.com:

Answer to Lawsuit Against God Shows Up, but No One Knows Who Filed It

"A Nebraska court has received two filings -- both signed by "God" -- in response to last week's lawsuit by a state senator who alleges that God has caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants." One of the filings "miraculously appeared on the counter. It just all of a sudden was here, poof!" said a court clerk. Listed as a witness: St. Michael the Archangel."

How is this tied into Texas? At the end of this article it says that the lawsuit was filed by an attorney in Texas.

SCO loses lawsuit against Novell

Novell wins rights to Unix copyrights
SCO also owes Novell for licensing revenue paid by Sun and Microsoft
August 11, 2007
Computerworld

My summary: If you haven't followed this for the past few years, this is pretty sigificant. Short version: SCO sued IBM for copyright violation for programming code used in Linux, saying it was based on copyrighted Unix code that SCO owned. Novell stepped in and counter-sued, saying, no, we own the copyright, we just licensed it to SCO. So, SCO cannot sue IBM for copyright infringement. This is good news for the open source community.

For many additional details, go to the Groklaw blog (http://www.groklaw.net/), maintained by Pamela Jones, a paralegal. This blog has timelines and documents for the entire SCO/IBM/NOvell round of lawsuits.

Interview with Stacy Stern of Justica

The LibraryLaw Blog has an interview with Stacy Stern of Justica, who describes the new tracking services they have. It looks like right now you can track regulations and some federal court cases. Worth a look.

Lawsuit Climate 2007: Rating the States

From the Institute for Legal Reform

Texas ranks 44 on the list for Worst Legal Systems. Texas is mentioned a few times in other lists on the survey(see Worst Local Jurisdictions).

Check out the information at http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/lawsuitclimate2007/index.cfm