New Google Digital Book Settlement

For Google-watchers and those interested in copyright, antitrust law, and the legal controversy over the use of millions of books that Google has scanned and digitized from library collections, the latest news is that the parties met yesterday's federal court deadline to file an amended settlement. The revised settlement is an attempt to address the concerns that authors, publishers, European governments, the U.S. Copyright Office, the Department of Justice, and other groups had with the original settlement filed earlier this year. The Author's Guild summarized the "big changes" here . The official documents are available at googlebooksettlement.com.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

It's Friday the 13th

And if you are very fortunate, this Friday the 13th you will cross paths with a black cat.

But why is it some of you humans think that Friday the 13th is unlucky - a condition known at "paraskevidekatriaphobics"? (I'll have to save the derivation of that for another posting). Does it date back to Norse mythology and the banishment of the goddess Frigga (after whom Friday is named) and Frigga's revenge for that banishment? Or maybe Loki, not invited to Valhalla had his revenge?

Maybe there is a legal angle. Hammurabi’s Code, the first set of state initiated laws, omits the number 13.

I'm the one who should be worried. At one time a small town in Indiana forced all black cats to wear bells on Friday the 13th.

So what's a cat (or human) to do? Well, you should know my answer. Find a purring black cat and then take a long nap.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) offers rapid, integrated searches of EPA and state data for more than 800,000 regulated facilities.

ECHO integrates inspection, violation, and enforcement information for the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and hazardous waste laws. The site also contains reports and other resources, and it offers the capability to search for particular facilities.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Jotwell

Jotwell is The Journal of Things We Like (Lots). It's mission is to create a space for academics to critique and discuss recent legal scholarship. With the huge amount of law reviews and journals being published, it hopes to help identify recent developments in in several scholarly fields. So far, there have been reviews and discussions about recent scholarly works in the fields of cyberlaw, criminal law, corporate law, tax law and legal profession.

Hat tip to The Faculty Lounge.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New biography of Justice Scalia

Whatever else one may think of Justice Scalia, he is memorable, but until now he has not been the subject of a biography. Released by bookstores today is "American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia" by Joan Biskupic. The author granted an interview of the book to Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog and the podcast may be found here.

Yes, the law library is sure to purchase a copy. Put your name on the request list as this is sure to be a book many will want to read.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Research Resources: The Economists' Voice

If you are looking for serious economics analysis about public policy and current issues, try The Economists' Voice. Edited by Aaron Edlin and Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, together with Jonathan Carmel, J. Bradford DeLong and Jeffrey Zwiebel, The Economists' Voice offers access to full text (PDF) articles on a broad range of policy issues.

To access The Economists' Voice:

• Go to the Library's home page, click "Online Resources"
• Click the "Commercial and Corporate Law" link
• Scroll down to "Economists' Voice"
  

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New York Anniversary

Last Tuesday was an election day for New Yorkers, but yesterday was the anniversary of a momentous day in New York election history--November 6, 1917, when New York state passed a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote.

Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party had been picketing the White House since January of that year, followed by arrests and continuing protests. Although the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting suffrage to all American women, was not ratified until August 1920, New York's amendment and a march of 25,000 women in late 1915 in New York City were major events in the last successful push for the vote. The Library of Congress American Memory collection features a fascinating photo and timeline glimpse into the all-important year of 1917 in the history of legal rights for women.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Supreme Stats

For those interested in analyzing the decisions and justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, there are two great web sites for you. SCOTUS BLOG has a companion site, SCOTUS WIKI which provides Supreme Court statistics, such as Justice agreement, opinion tally and a circuit scorecard by term going back to 1995.

Another site, the Supreme Court database, provides downloadable data sets for you to manipulate and analyze in your favorite statistics software. Currently the data on this site goes back to 1953. According to the National Law Journal, they have just received funding to expand their data back to the first Supreme Court recorded decision in 1792.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Judge Allows Constitutional Challenge to Human Gene Patents

Those who track the unusual intersections of Constitutional law and intellectual property law may find the following news story of interest. As Law.com reports, opponents of patenting human gene sequences received a rare court victory recently, when a federal judge refused to dismiss a suit that challenges patents for two genes linked to cancers in women.

The case involves seven patents relating to human genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, mutations of which are implicated in breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The University of Utah owns the patents, which it licenses to the Salt Lake City-based company Myriad Genetics.

In his opinion, Manhattan federal district court Judge Robert Sweet wrote that "the challenges to the patents-in-suit raise questions of difficult legal dimensions concerning constitutional protections over the information that serves as our genetic identities and the need to adopt policies that promote scientific innovation and biomedical research”.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Newspapers

Many students come to the desk looking for information about newspapers--especially where to find copies of those newspapers. One good place to start looking is the Library of Congress's newspaper directory. Using the newspaper directory, you can find newspapers by geographic region, year, and type of newspaper. Once you find the newspaper that you are looking for, you can click on the link that says "Libraries that have it" to find out where you can get a copy of the paper.

I found the Cleveland Plain Dealer, clicked on "Libraries that have it" and was given a long list of libraries that own it, plus a description of the holdings. In addition to several Ohio and Pennsylvania libraries, I found that the New York Public Library has microfiche copies of the newspaper back to 1965.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat