UHLC Nota Bene

Recently, as many other blogs have reported, two attorneys have filed suit in the Southern District of New York against West and LexisNexis arguing that their [Wexis's] distribution of briefs filed in court [and acquired by Wexis with the courts' complicity] constitutes copyright infringement. I believe the stronger argument against a finding of infringement is that, once filed, such documents do not just become "publicly available", as Eugene Volokh argues , but they become a part of the public record, and, as such, lose any copyright that may have attached when the document was first created. However, I am not a copyright expert , so let's examine the argument that seems to be getting the majority of play: that (somehow) such use of the otherwise-copyrighted briefs constitutes "fair use". Fair Use "Fair use" is an affirmative defense against the charge of copyright infringement, and is covered by 17 U.S.C. § 107 (2006) . As the text of that ...

On this day in legal history four states were admitted to the Union: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington. That’s a lot of states at one time, and it wasn’t easy. Article IV, sec. 3 of the US Constitution establishes Congress’ power to create new states. The procedure for new states usually involves the potential state starting out as a territory, although some states became states without ever being territories, like California and Texas, and some states remained territories for years before becoming states, 60 years in the case of New Mexico. The usual procedure was for Congress to pass a resolution calling on the territory to draft a constitution. Congress would then approve the proposed state’s constitution and pass an enabling act to admit the state, or delegate the admission to the President by use of a resolution. In some cases, like the admission of these four states, the process, got, a little more politicized. During the 1880’s the western territories beg...

Big lawyers have big personalities, and few had as big a personality as Roy Cohn who was born on this day in New York City in 1927. Cohn’s career was spent in the Washington DC—New York axis, famous in the press for his legal and social exploits, his list of famous and infamous clients, and as the poster-boy for every stereotype of the dishonest grasping lawyer. The legal career of Roy Cohn is an object lesson on the use, and abuse, of the lawyer’s power. Roy Cohn was born on February 20, 1927 in New York City. His father was a justice in the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court and was well connected politically. These connections, along with a precocious intelligence which allowed him to graduate from Columbia law school at age 20, paved the way for a bright legal career. Cohn’s first job (after waiting until he turned 21 to be admitted to the bar) was as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York. He first came to prominence in his role as a prosecutor in the Rosenberg espi...

The United Nations recently launched a free app that allows you to access international news stories from the UN News Centre on your mobile device. Currently the app is available for iOS devices and can be downloaded through iTunes . You can browse the most recent UN news stories and view articles on particular subjects or from various regions of the world. The app also allows you to save your favorite articles as well as read the materials offline. However, this is not the only app available from the UN. The organization has also created apps for the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as others. For more information about these apps and more, see the UN Mobile Applications website.

It seems that Super PACs are everywhere these days. In recent weeks, they have been the focus of numerous news reports and blogs as well as fodder for late-night comedians . Super PACs, which emerged after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United , have created controversy because they may accept unlimited contributions and make unlimited expenditures (under certain conditions) in order to advocate for or against particular political candidates. If you want to learn more about Super PACs beyond what you have been seeing in the news, the Congressional Research Service recently issued a helpful report explaining what they are, how they are regulated, the types of information they must disclose, and Super PAC activity in the 2010 election. California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting have also put together a searchable database with information about who is donating to Super PACs. Finally, OpenSecrets.org has provided a table listing how Super PAC money ...

The American Bar Association Section of Taxation has recently published Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS, 5th ed. , a two volume set with practical information designed for attorneys who represent their clients before the IRS . Each of the chapters, written by different authors who specialize in the field, contains analysis of the law and examples along with sample correspondence and forms. This set begins with a discussion of the structure of the IRS, the rights of taxpayers, and the Taxpayer Advocate Service and expands on issues pertaining to the internal procedural matters within the IRS such as filing claims, assessments, the auditing process, adverse determinations, collections, and tax liens and levies. Litigation matters are also explored such as bringing suit within the U.S. Tax Court , civil penalties, criminal cases, and including tax debts in bankruptcy. Identity theft, recovering fees, and recovering refunds for overpayments are among other topics cove...

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that newly proposed rules by The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that would require those who drill on federal public lands to disclose hydraulic fracturing chemicals that they use is drawing heavy criticism by the oil and gas industry. Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" is a method of extracting natural gas or oil from deep shale formations by the injection of a liquid substance (which usually includes chemicals) at high pressure. The new rules would allow a trade-secret exemption if companies can demonstrate that information is protected by state or federal regulations.

One of the things I still don't understand about the search syntax on Lexis Advance is: Why include the ONEAR/n Connector? Wait . . . You don't know about the ONEAR Connector?! Well, I'm not surprised, because no else seems to know about it either (including most employees of LexisNexis)! First, of all, every person I've mentioned this Connector to has reacted the same way: "ONEAR? What's that mean? That's a dumb name!" Second, it's actually a redundant Connector. According to the list on the Connectors tab of the Search Tips form page in Lexis Advance, the ONEAR connector (which is the last Connector listed) should be used when you want to "Include words where the first word precedes the second by not more than 'n' words". Hmm . . . Why does that sound familiar? . . . Oh, yeah. Because the fifth Connector listed is the PRE/n Connector, and its stated function is to "Include words where the first word precedes the second...