Congressional Research Service

American Libraries May, 2007 issue reports briefly on a change of policy at the Congressional Research Service (about CRS link). The director, Daniel P. Mulhollan, issued a memo on March 20 instructing staff to that the service now requires prior approval from high-level staff before ANY CRS report can be released to any non-congressional recipient. Such requests will be honored where the administration finds "the distribution benefits the Congress by assisting CRS in its work" (as through reciprocity sharing info back to CRS or through peer review or expert opinion).

The Federation of American Scientists (link) is offering a collection of Congressional Research Service reports through their weblink given here. And they also refer searchers to a collection here at the Department of State, here at the U. S. Embassy in Italy, Open CRS, and Digital Library at University of North Texas. This link at the National Council for Science and the Environment also has searchable archives of CRS reports.

2Act.org offers this web page explaining how to search for other CRS reports on the Web, and info on ordering reports from Penny Hill press, which will sell any CRS report for $29.95. They also include this link to Memory Hole, which has archives of CRS reports, and BeSpacific blog where you can search for CRS or Congressional Research Service.

Various congressmen have filed bills to make CRS reports available on the Web or otherwise to the public. John McCain and Patrick Leahy are two, but many others support this idea. A quick search turns up entries in the Congressional Record from both of them in 1998 and again in 2003, seeking to amend the law to offer open access to CRS reports. The taxpayers underwrite the research, they should have access to the results.

Making electronic legal practice a reality

Also in this month's ABA Journal, a story reviewing and advising firms on the use of thumb drives. Now the tiny thumb drive can hold slimmed down programs, so you can actually carry all your productivity tools with you, and also maintain client confidentiality even at a public computer. See the complete story at the link in the title. Here are a few highlights:

Portable core programs on thumb drives extend data portability to the ultimate.

You can have in your pocket a fully functional version of OpenOffice, giving you a Microsoft Office-compatible suite set to your preferences.

But most impressive to us is Lotus Nomad. Plug a 1 gig (or half-gig) USB thumb drive into any computer, and Nomad presents a fully func­tional Lotus Notes desktop. It will even run Domino Designer for those who want to program.

Our jaws dropped when we first saw this (and we don’t easily drop our jaws). Not only was everything there, but the speed was good. If the computer had an Internet connection, not only were the calendar and e-mail accessible, but so were all our Lotus Notes databases—running off the server in our office. We have a paper-free law office that scans 99.9 percent of its paper into databases. Now our entire office is accessible from a $20 thumb drive.

Even without an Internet con­nection, the current generation of thumb drives has enough storage to take along a few critical databases.

Work to your heart’s content locally, saving to the thumb drive, and then rep­licate the updates the next time you have an Internet or network connection. Virtually no trace of what you do stays on the computer you plugged the thumb drive into. Nomad installs items into the host computer registry and then removes them when you unplug.

Patenting Legal Strategies!

The ABA Journal reports that some practitioners are patenting legal strategies. In Crisis Pending, Steve Seidenberg reports that there has actually been a suit filed against a client for using their own lawyer's advice, claiming that the action infringed a patent held by another attorney. A snippet:

...the first-ever infringement lawsuit seeking to enforce a legal strategy patent is already under way.

The Patent and Trademark Office issued the first tax strategy patent on May 20, 2003, to Robert Slane, a financial adviser in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The patent gives Slane exclusive rights to a certain type of grantor retained annuity trust.

GRATs are well-known estate planning devices often used to slash the amount of gift taxes that must be paid when a donor gives large amounts of wealth to family members.

On Jan. 6, 2006, Slane’s company scored another first, filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Con­necticut alleging infringement on its patent. Wealth Transfer Group v. Rowe, No. 3:2006cv00024. The suit alleges that, after Slane’s patent issued, John Rowe—the former chair and CEO of insurance giant Aetna—funded several GRATs covered by Slane’s patent. The suit seeks treble damages, an injunction and attorney fees. The suit does not name Rowe’s estate planning attorney or any other financial advisers as defendants. (Attorneys handling the litigation declined to comment for this story.)

When a GRAT is set up, the donor funds it with assets that are expected to grow in value. The donor receives a fixed annuity from the GRAT during the life of the trust.

When the GRAT expires, the corpus is distributed to the trust’s beneficiaries—and the amount of gift tax is based on the discounted future value of the assets at the time they were placed into the GRAT, not the (larger) actual value of the assets at the time they are distributed to the trust’s beneficiaries.

What Slane claims to have invented—and what his patent covers—is the use of unqualified stock options to partially or fully fund a GRAT.

Many tax experts ridicule the patent, saying GRATs typically are funded with whatever appropriate assets a client may have. “Coupling a GRAT with a specific asset should not be patentable, because there’s nothing unique about coupling a congressionally authorized estate planning technique with any asset,” says Belcher, a past chair of the ABA Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law.

Tax and trust experts fear Slane’s patent limits the extent to which they and their clients can use GRATs. If they want to put any unqualified stock options into a GRAT, they can do so only if they can obtain a license from Slane’s company, the Wealth Transfer Group, to which he has transferred the patent. Other­wise, they face the risk of being sued for patent infringement.

I predict that vendors will develop some product that will survey patents, scanning for law practice patents. Evidently, there are hundreds waiting decision at the Patent and Trade Office. If they make a good search engine and include a good editorial summary that makes it more findable with alternate terms and methods of practice, it should be a big seller for anxious attorneys.

Also, what's up with suing the client and not the lawyer who gave the advice? Is that professional courtesy?

Cool New Technology: RFID kit and Foldable solar panel

Wow! I haven't been this excited since Mr. Wizard went off the air. The Boston Globe tech reviewer Mark Baard has some online videos reviewing interesting technical innovations (see the complete and growing menu at this link to Globe Biz page), scroll down near the bottom of the page, left hand column, "Tech Lab" or see individual videos at links just after the 2 reviews I highlight below.

Portable Solar Charger
A Foldable array of solar chargers so you can recharge portable electronics anywhere. Put it in your car; it includes jumper cables, or take it camping, or put it in your emergency kit. You can get either a 12 or a 26 watt Solaris foldable solar panel. See them at Brunton (the link takes you right to the 26 watt model which should power a laptop at need or jump-start your car in a pinch (after it sits in the sun a while, natch!). Cell phones, blackberries, PDAs would take a smaller charge, and you could use the 12 watt Solaris 12. Take your electronics camping or have a back-up system for emergencies. The company's home page is www.brunton.com and they have all kinds of camping equipment. (Link to Globe video review here)


RFID Kit
Wow! You can tag your kid or your cat or your spouse and then track them. I'll bet librarians can think of a bunch of other things to track with this kit. It includes a nice array of RFID tags (that can dangle, stick, in credit card, or even one to surgically insert, with a warning not to do it!), and a reader. Comes from www.thinkgeek.com (RFID Experiment Kit. Check out their home page, too! They also have RFID blocking billfolds (in case you want to protect that info from others), and a USB port that also includes a mock doomsday button in case you get too frustrated with your computer. Lots of fun stuff. (Link to Globe video here)

Phidgets
The RFID reader in the kit above is made by Phidget.com. You might also want to look at their home page for a broader list of USB port accessible phidgets. A related website is http://www.phidgetsusa.com/, which also makes USB port accessible phidgets. Both companies offer RFID stuff of their own, as well as phidgets. These are programmable gadgets that link to USB ports. So, lots of interesting potential. At least we should be aware of these things, because I predict we'll be using them one way or another in libraries.

Social Networking Tools: Hands on Learning

Fellow law librarian, blogger, and social networking diva Connie Crosby will be teaching a day-long web course on Social Networking Tools on Thursday, August 9, 2007. According to the description:

Web 2.0, Facebook, Second Life - have taken the world and the library by storm! Explore these social media networking tools in this hands-on computer lab class. Set up a blog and wiki, view RSS feeds in an aggregator, try a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us, and create a profile on professional networking site LinkedIn. Look at Flickr, LibraryThing, Ning, Facebook, MySpace and Second Life. Test out the latest apps such as Twitter and Jaiku. We will try some of these and have a "tour" of others, as well as discuss the implications for libraries.

Specific learning outcomes for students

At the end of the course, participants will:

• be able to set up a blog using Blogger or Wordpress
• be able to set up a wiki using PB Wiki
• set up some RSS feeds in a web-based aggregator such as Google Reader or Bloglines
• set up a profile on business networking site LinkedIn
• try using a web-based social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us or equivalent
• become familiar with Ning, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, LibraryThing , MySpace, Facebook and Second Life either through hands-on use or a live "tour" given to the class, depending upon time
• become familiar with how these are being used by libraries and library staff

Key topics covered

• who in society is using these applications?
• how are they being used by libraries and library staff?
• what are both the positive and negative aspects to these technologies?
• using social networking applications inside the firewall
• issues surrounding communication in public spaces
• what is Library 2.0 compared to Web 2.0
• how to learn more
• how to stay current in this area

Registration is only $240 Canadian, which is something like $40 US, eh? It looks like a great opportunity to ramp up your skills on the latest computer-mediated communications technologies.

Memorial Day, 2007: Honor Bright

Honor Bright

They believe
In honor, duty.
They, they honor bright.

They duty
Bound for glory.
They, they honor bright.

Government lies,
But they duty;
They, they honor bright.

Into battle
Sans armor, exit plan:
They, they honor bright.

Now we argue
Send more to die.
They, they honor bright.

Let they blood
Redeem our lies:
They, they honor bright.

Memorial Day, 2007, by Betsy McKenzie

Emerging Global Networks for Free Access to Law: World LII's

New from SSRN.com:

"Emerging Global Networks for Free Access to Law: World LII's
Strategies"
University of New South Wales Law Research Paper No. 2007-16


Contact: GRAHAM GREENLEAF
University of New South Wales - Faculty of Law
Email: g.greenleaf@unsw.edu.au
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=57970

Co-Author: PHILIP CHUNG
University of Technology, Sydney - Faculty of Law
Email: philip@austlii.edu.au
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=368188

Co-Author: ANDREW MOWBRAY
University of Technology, Sydney - Faculty of Law
Email: andrew@austlii.edu.au
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=368189

Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=975614

ABSTRACT: Those who value free access to law need to respond to the increasingly global nature of legal research, and the fact that most countries still do not have effective facilities for free access to law. The free access to law movement, centred around University-based Legal Information Institutes (LIIs), is assisting and encouraging the development of free access law facilities in many countries in the developing world. While doing so, it is also creating a global network of interconnected free-access legal research facilities on the Internet. This
network is becoming comparable to the global legal research facilities provided by the multinational legal publishers.

The free access to law movement is explained: its history, methods of cooperation, and Declaration on Free Access to Law. Public policies to maximise free access to law are advanced to explain why it is not good enough for governments to provide
access to law through their own websites. Instead, a 'competitive model' is advanced, stressing the right of others to republish legal information.

The task of developing global legal research is explained through categorisation of the elements of the visible and 'hidden' webs of legal information, and the implications this has for tools that LIIs must develop. This helps explain the modestly decentralised global free access to law network which is emerging, based on independent national and regional LIIs, with a smaller number of 'hubs'.

The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII), one of the hubs of this network, is explained in detail, particularly as a locus of five strategies to advance global free access to law. It is a Legal Information Institute in its own right with a focus on
international content such as the decisions of International Courts and Tribunals. It is an 'incubator' of LIIs, hosting collections of national databases which may and have matured into separate LIIs.

Third, WorldLII is an integrator of LIIs, providing not only a combined search of 439 legal databases from 55 countries (and growing by 25% per year), but also far more targeted searches such as those limited to one type of document (eg legislation) drawn from all its collaborating LIIs. More sophisticated forms of integrations are becoming possible as LIIs cooperate more closely, such as cross-LII hyperlinks, and global 'Noteups' of legislation and cases.

WorldLII is primarily an English language interface to all LII content, but aims to go beyond that in a number of ways. Interfaces in other languages to the shared data set will better emerge elsewhere, but WorldLII may have an interim role.

Finally, WorldLII is a platform for more systematic global legal research beyond the content held by its collaborating LIIs. Its tools are the WorldLII Catalog and WorldLII Websearch providing access to over 17,000 law websites worldwide, and 'Law on Google' (translating WordLII's searches into Google's search language and
limiting their scope to law).

Uncouth boors acting out badly

The Boston Globe article linked in the title above, surveys the decline in public civility. Recently, a Boston Pops performance at Symphony Hall was disrupted by actual fisticuffs May 10. The fight apparently started when one man asked another to stop chatting on his cell phone while the music was being performed. The more recent article linked in the title discusses more incidents of boorish behavior at arts venues:

* Another patron complaining to the Symphony Hall management of cell-phone abuse at another concert;

* New Reperatory Theater director bemoaning the use of Blackberries during performances, distracting both nearby audience members and the cast on stage;

* A NY play disrupted by a fistfight over the noise one audience member made with a bag of potato chips.

Avid Boston theatergoer and WGBH trustee Peggy Charren agrees that this sense of entitlement is having a negative effect on how audience members conduct themselves. Charren, who attends scores of plays every year, says it's not that more people are talking during shows these days. It's that those who do talk get more belligerent when asked to be quiet.

"They have this idea that if they want to make noise sitting in the fourth row, they can," she says. "When someone taps them on the shoulder, they seem genuinely shocked. That's why I wasn't surprised by what happened at the Pops."

Entitlement cuts both ways, both [New Rep Theater artistic director Rick] Lombardo and Charren point out. People paying top dollar to see a play don't want any distractions, either. "There's a divide on both sides," Lombardo concedes.

I'll bet these statements ring a bell with my fellow librarians. We have increasing numbers of students who feel that they have the right to a loud cell phone conversation wherever and whenever they please. I have heard rumors of students answering cell phones during law classes, and continuing the conversation in the classroom.

Several years ago, I posted a blog entry Cell Phone Blues about the ubiquity of cell phone abuse in libraries. I later added Cell Phone Wah Wah, after my daughter mentioned that her volunteer work a the children's Discovery Center at the Boston Museum of Science involves chiding cell-phone abusers. It was the first time I was aware that cell phone abuse wasn't just for libraries. I am more than ever convinced:

the reason patrons are so hostile when we ask them to stop using their cell phones in the library – we are pulling the binkies right out of their mouths! This is my new theory. Not all cell phone users are like this, but a lot are – the ones we see using cell phones when they are sitting together in the restaurant. The terrific Zits cartoon about the movie theater full of teens who cannot enjoy the movie without IM-ing their friends incessantly. They are cocooning themselves in an electronic blanket where they do not have to deal with reality face-on. The cell phone, the IM, the I-Pod, the PDA and the Blackberry all form a matrix that is their interface with reality. The hostility we encounter when asking them to lose the cell phone is a symptom of a sub-rational nature of need we accidentally tripped over. We pulled the binky out of the mouth. Of course they cried bloody murder.

Gossip at work

Another Globe article today (link in title) is about the controversial firing of 4 long-time employees in Hookset, NH, for gossiping. I read this article with a lot of empathy all the way around. The town administrator created a new position, with a generous salary and hired a woman (it isn't clear, but it appears she was already an employee, so she got an internal promotion). Then the rumors began about an affair between the married, male town administrator and the newly promoted woman, who is also married.

I have seen for myself the terrible impact that gossip can have on a workplace. What feels like "support" and "empathy" among the disaffected turns slowly into a consensus against one or more of their fellows. The Hookset article includes a quote from a psychologist on the "best way to handle gossip" in the workplace:

The best response to a rumor is a truthful rebuttal, said Nicholas DiFonzo , a psychology professor who studies rumors at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He said rumors can be deeply damaging, but he also supported [lawyer for the fired employees, B.J.] Branch's view of gossip as a normal way to work through uncertainty.

"People are going to try to figure out the facts of the matter, and they view that as their basic right," DiFonzo said.

While I would like to believe that the best rebuttal to rumors is a truthful statement, I don't believe it always works like that. A, the butt of the gossip can truthfully state that he chose B to be the best choice for this slot, and has no interest in B as an object of personal attention. But, people who have already concluded that A secretly lusts for B will believe that A is fooling himself and just hasn't realized that he's in love.

There is NOTHING more destructive of a harmonious work environment than gossip. People with the best intention in the world huddle together to provide support or try to figure out what is happening. But the result will tear their workplace apart. DON'T GOSSIP should be the mantra when we do orientation for new hires.

The article mentions several other situations in which gossips have either been fired or rules have been laid down allowing firing for gossip. I really feel uncomfortable about infringing on employees' rights to speech. But I can tell you how it destroys the fabric of a workplace. It's probably better to have rules disallowing gossip. What a terrible thing.

What do you get when you cross a scientist with a law degree?

The Boston Globe today has an AP article on the growth if IP law careers as an option for scientists. Those of us with IP classes in our law school have seen the boom develop. They talk in the article about the pleasures of using writing and communications skills in this combined career, two skill sets that aren't used the same way or extent in labs. They talk about the disappointments of an academic career with a pretty low salary. One thing they don't mention is the way women scientists find a more friendly workplace in law compared to the labs or academic situations where they find themselves under subtle fire.