Image via Wikipedia The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama’s administration refused to disclose due to “national security” concerns, has leaked. It’s bad. Secret copyright treaty leaks. Its bad. Very bad. — Boing Boing. Michael Geist has more: Despite the efforts to combat leaks, information on the Internet chapter has begun to emerge (just as they did with the other elements of the treaty). The ACTA Internet Chapter:... Read Full Story

This is an excellent write-up about how fair use works, along with its complexities (and areas where it is more straightforward, generally where courts have already ruled on a very similar use previously): If you kill someone, you’ve committed murder, right? Yes — unless he was about to shoot you first, in which case we call it self-defense. Fair use takes that same concept to copyright law. It is all about justification, and this is a key to understanding it. Fair use allows use of a work th... Read Full Story

An add-on that Microsoft silently slipped into Mozilla’s Firefox last February leaves that browser open to attack, Microsoft’s security engineers acknowledged earlier this week. via Sneaky Microsoft plug-in puts Firefox users at risk ( — Internet — Software — Security ). I suppose somewhere in Microsoft’s licensing language there is an acknowledgment and release of liability for actions like this. Even so, I certainly don’t think most Microsoft customers expect updates to so directly comprom... Read Full Story

It could mark one of the biggest changes for lawyers joining the profession since the first U.S. bar exam was given in Delaware in 1763 — a single bar exam aimed at standardizing attorney credentials nationwide. via Law.com — Uniform Bar Exam Drawing Closer to Reality. Law is slow to develop, so this will take a while — but it’s a step in the right direction. Additional related articlesTheory v. Practice in Law School EducationLaw school vs. graduate schoolIs virtual lawyering the future? ... Read Full Story

Image via Wikipedia Cory Doctorow points out that the first 80% of creating a media center is easy: a decent computer (I used an old Pentium III and an old PowerBook, but you can use new machines tech if you’re not a poor student), video out (S-Video to an old-school TV, VGA or HDMI to a new HDTV), big hard drives, maybe network sharing (I used an Airport Extreme I inherited) so you can access media from multiple rooms. But what about content — “the other 20 percent”? Now, onto the other 20... Read Full Story

Image via Wikipedia Last May I finished my 3L year, and am now the proud possessor of a JD. On Thursday I began my first year program as a graduate student in the history of science. The experiences, perhaps unsurprisingly, have been strikingly different: law school is, ultimately, preparatory to practicing law as an attorney, and much of its emphasis is on tracking students in that direction.  Graduate school in the humanities and social sciences, meanwhile, is about training future a... Read Full Story

1. Login LockDown — adds extra security to WordPress by restricting the number of failed login attempts. 2. SexyBookmarks — sure, there are many ways to add lists of sharing icons and links to your posts — but this one is pretty. 3. wp-Typography — easily improve the typography on your site, em and en dashes, hyphenation, and much more. 4. WP Greet Box — give a simple little welcome message to visitors coming via various referrers, like Stumbleupon or Digg. 5. WP Minify — compress CSS and Jav... Read Full Story

Image via Wikipedia IBM’s Lotus Symphony is a free-of-charge alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite, based on Sun’s open source OpenOffice software. It purports to remain compatible with Microsoft’s “.doc” format (and newer incarnations), while removing licensing costs (but, not of course, support costs, since people still need training, technical support still costs money, etc.). Now they’ve decided to walk the walk: 360.000 IBM workers have been told to stop using Mic... Read Full Story

Image via Wikipedia Jim Calloway points out a troublesome issue for traveling attorneys: The Department of Homeland Security recently clarified its position to restate that if you cross the border, any of your digital information devices can be seized and searched without the government giving you any reason whatsoever. They did promise to try to return them in a more timely manner. This includes everything from a laptop to an iPod to a USB flash drive. (Wow, wonder how many flash driv... Read Full Story

An interesting paragraph from an article dealing with the idea of “Good Enough” — services or products that may not have all the “bells and whistles” of their more-expensive competitors, but do enough at the right price to be runaway successes: It turns out to be a remarkably efficient way of offering what Granat calls legal transaction services — tasks that are document intensive. For everything from wills to adoptions to shareholder agreements, elawyering has numerous advantages. Its cheape... Read Full Story