Who Owns the Law? Why We Must Restore Public Ownership of Legal Publishing

Each state has its own method for officially publishing the law. This article looks at the history of legal publishing for the fifty states before looking at how legal publishing even in moving to electronic publishing may not ensure public access to the law. The article addresses barriers to free access to the law in electronic publishing including copyright, contract law, and potentially, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The article concludes with prescriptions for how different actors, including state governments, publishers, libraries, and others can ensure robust public access to the law moving forward

Selected Michigan Probate Law Research Resources

Over the past decade, attorneys have increasingly sought free electronic resources on the web to meet their research needs in order to control research costs. The need for free or low-cost access to legal materials is especially critical for solo practitioners and attorneys with smaller practices who live in areas without access to a law library or who may find the cost of commercial print and electronic resources prohibitive

U.S. Law and Legal Research

This presentation on the basics of U.S. law offers a general outline of the fundamental sources of U.S. law. With a foundation in the three branches of government and the laws, court decisions, and regulations that flow from them, the speaker demonstrated free and fee-based electronic resources frequently used for legal research. The focus is on Westlaw, LexisNexis, PACER the Public Access to Court Electronic Records), GPOAccess, and the official U.S. Supreme Court web site. While the web has made it possible for universities, governments, courts, and others to put user-friendly law on the web for free, the most extensive databases and the most sophisticated searching are still from companies that charge for their services

U.S. Law and Legal Research

This presentation on the basics of U.S. law offers a general outline of the fundamental sources of U.S. law. With a foundation in the three branches of government and the laws, court decisions, and regulations that flow from them, the speaker demonstrated free and fee-based electronic resources frequently used for legal research. The focus is on Westlaw, LexisNexis, PACER the Public Access to Court Electronic Records), GPOAccess, and the official U.S. Supreme Court web site. While the web has made it possible for universities, governments, courts, and others to put user-friendly law on the web for free, the most extensive databases and the most sophisticated searching are still from companies that charge for their services

ILLEGAL ACCESS THROUGH "WIRELESS FIDELITY" IN CRIMINAL LAW

The internet is a sophisticated tool for exchanging information, various fields from law to medical sciences (medicine) have also used the internet on a large scale. The use of wireless fidelity is also quite attractive for those who need free internet access. But it is undeniable that in addition to some people hoping to use the free internet, it will also cause the desire of people who want to use it as a means of other crimes. The purpose of this study is to examine cases of internet data theft through wireless fidelity within the scope of criminal law. Our criminal law as  the backbone, namely the Criminal Code, was used to study this problem (historical interpretation) and today there is a Telecommunications Law and an Electronic Information and Transaction Law. While using internet access without someone else's permission, is a violation of the law. Before entering into the study of how much loss quota (intangible objects) were stolen, the perpetrators had actually been able to be suspected by illegal access

Using a provision's legislative history as an instrument for interpretation - several observations based on judgments of Polish administrative courts

The era of advanced information technologies, allowing free access to the electronic versions of legislative materials, has opened up new opportunities for searching for traces of legislative intent, thus starting a new chapter of reflecting on the admissible or preferable tools for interpretation in various disciplines of law. This kind of discussion appears particularly significant for such areas of the law as fiscal law and administrative law, both of which interfere with the rights and freedoms of citizens, who may be acutely affected should they base their decisions on an incorrect interpretation of a regulation, and subsequently decide on a solution that will later be rejected by public administration authorities..

La "Ley 11/2007, de Acceso Electrónico de los Ciudadanos a los Servicios Públicos" y el uso del software libre en la Administración Pública

The present work analyzes the free software in relation with the Law 11/2007, of Electronic Access of the Citizens to the Public Services. For it, it splits of a study of the Spanish in force legislation and of the European boards and his relation with the application of the free software in the Public Spanish Administration.El presente trabajo analiza el software libre en relación con la Ley 11/2007, de Acceso Electrónico de los Ciudadanos a los Servicios Públicos. Para ello se parte de un estudio de la legislación española vigente y de las directivas europeas y su relación con la aplicación del software libre en la Administración Pública española

Towards a Theory of CyberPlace: A Proposal for a New Legal Framework

This article discusses whether the existing legal framework for property and places should apply to the electronic medium, or whether the uniqueness of the Internet requires a different characterization. The source of the right of the owner of an Internet site to legally control access to and use of the site and its content is the tort law of trespass and the law of contract. The sources of the right of users to freely access and use Internet content are the policies of free speech and public accommodation. Part I of this paper reviews the common law trespass theories that courts have employed to regulate online activities. Part II considers the de nition of “place” and whether particular uses of the Internet are “places of public accommodation.” Part III proposes a new legal framework that could serve as a basis for legislative action to promote both of these policies in cyberspace. This framework recognizes the unique qualities of the Internet, incorporating both the public policy favoring freedom of expression and the private property interest in controlling unauthorized use of Internet resources

THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT: ABORTING THE FIRST AMENDMENT?

On February 8, 1996, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law and explained that the legislation would stimulate investment, promote competition, [and] provide open access for all citizens to the Information Superhighway. However, contrary to the goal of opening wide the door to the Information Age, provisions of the Act violate the Constitution\u27s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech by imposing far-reaching new federal criminal liabilities on Americans who exercise their free speech rights on the Internet. In particular, a little-noticed provision of the Act, which expands an 1873 law banning abortion-related speech by criminalizing Internet discussion and information about abortion, continues to be a source of concern among pro-choice activists, First Amendment scholars, and electronic providers and users

Introduction to the India Legal Information Institute

Ordinary citizens, litigants, students of law and lawyers in a civil society have a right to know about the prevailing law of that country. The traditional way of disseminating legal information – on paper – has given way to the electronic format in most of the developed countries. Gradually, this change is also beginning in the developing countries. In India, no one has a copyright to the text of judgments delivered by the courts; however, in the headnotes of judgments, copyright issues are involved. The bigger Internet players have started fee-based legal websites where one can become a member and/or registered user by paying periodical subscriptions. These can run into thousand of rupees every year. Only after paying the access fees can the visitor gain access to the complete headnote or the plain text of the judgment. Under these circumstances, a need was identified in India for an institute with the sole motive of providing “Free Legal Information to All.” Deliberations took place among the prominent jurists of the country, including retired Chief Justices of India, prominent lawyers, serving members of the judiciary, academicians and technical experts. They sought to provide a platform where concrete efforts would be made to fulfill the objective of providing Free Legal Information to All, and hence, the India Legal Information Institute was born on November 25, 2006