Legal

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation

This introduction to legal citation is focused on the forms of citation used in professional practice rather than those used in journal publication. It aims to identify the more important points on which there is divergence between the rules set out in two common manuals and evolving usage reflected in legal memoranda and briefs prepared by practicing lawyers.

2009 Brings ADA Changes

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) took effect on January 1, 2009. The ADAAA, which was signed by President Bush on September 25, 2008, is intended to restore Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provisions that had been eroded by a series of Supreme Court decisions.

Free Web Tools for the Way You Work

While law firm IT spending frequently flattens out in tough economic times, that doesn't mean you or your colleagues have to restrict yourselves to using the same technology. A host of free Web applications are surprisingly effective in helping law firms from solo practitioners to large firm in-house PR and marketing staff, stay on top of the game. The trick is knowing which tools out there are worth your time. Here are the applications that made our top-24 list.

Preparing and Publishing Legislation using XML

Many governments are moving to using XML for drafting and publishing legislation. SAIC has worked with a number of jurisdictions to facilitate the automation of legislative drafting and publication processes using XML.

The Impact of XML on Contract Law and Contract Litigation

It is unclear how adoption of Web services contracting systems based on XML standards will affect the frequency of litigated contract disputes among businesses. During the more than 20 years that business-to-business EDI contracting systems have been in use, there have been no reported cases of litigated contract disputes involving EDI contracts. By contrast, there have been many litigated disputes involving business-to-consumer contracts formed through the use of clickwrap and browsewrap Internet interfaces that have been in use for only a decade. B2B EDI contracts are usually formed between businesses that are already in a long-term trading partner relationship, and the high initial investment required to use EDI may provide additional incentives to resolve disputes informally. Businesses without long-term relationships should be able to use B2B XML contract technologies, and the absence of a relationship of trust may make it more difficult to resolve disputes informally when they arise. B2B XML contracts should still have a lower rate of litigation than B2C Internet contracts, however, because most businesses prefer arbitration to litigation.

BlockShopper v. Jones Day: The Right of Web Sites to Link

Cases that have addressed links and copyright dealt with the permissibility of "deep linking"—linking to a page other than the home page—which, of course, is indeed permitted. Ticketmaster famously lost a lawsuit against Tickets.com about just this. But that case was about copyright infringement; by making a trademark claim instead, Jones Day opened up another legal avenue.

The RIAA Succeeds Where the Cypherpunks Failed

The RIAA is succeeding where the Cypherpunks failed, convincing users to trade a broad but penetrable privacy for unbreakable anonymity under their personal control. In contrast to the Cypherpunks "eat your peas" approach, touting encryption as a first-order service users should work to embrace, encryption is now becoming a background feature of collaborative workspaces. Because encryption is becoming something that must run in the background, there is now an incentive to make its adoption as easy and transparent to the user as possible. It's too early to say how widely casual encryption use will spread, but it isn't too early to see that the shift is both profound and irreversible.

eDiscovery: A Company's Worst Nightmare

EDiscovery: You don't want it to happen. Borne of the term discovery, used by lawyers to describe collecting evidence, electronic discovery comes about because of a possible violation in regulatory compliance. Whatis.com defines it as "to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case."

Breaking Professional Boundaries: What the MacCrate Report on Lawyering Skills and Values Means for TPC Programs

In 1992, the American Bar Association released the MacCrate Report, which listed the ten skills and four professional values that all attorneys need and critiqued law schools and state bars for not doing enough to teach and encourage the development of these skills and values. In response, law schools have significantly increased the skills-based components in their curricula, and most state bar exams now include a performance test. Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) programs already provide substantial instruction in all of the skills and values described in the MacCrate Report; further, an education in TPC prepares graduates to excel in law school and on the bar exam. This knowledge offers opportunities for growth if educators, administrators, and scholars take steps to encourage students to consider not only writing for but also joining in the legal profession.

Making Academic Work Advocacy Work: Technologies of Power in the Public Arena

Through interviews and courtroom observations in a case study done in collaboration with a community partner in two judicial districts in Minnesota, the authors extend the scholarly conversation about critical, activist research in business and technical communication and make pedagogical suggestions by studying two groups who contribute to the discourse about victim rights: judges who accept plea negotiations and make sentencing decisions and advocates who help victims contribute, through victim impact statements, their reactions as crime victims and their requests for certain punishments and conditions for the crime perpetrators. The authors identify the technologies of power used by each group to assert their disciplinary authority and trace how these assertions play out in the courtroom. They conclude that by capitalizing on the normative structures of impact statements, advocates may actually give victims more power. Such activist research might benefit research participants and enhance research methods.

Communicators and Lawyers: Winning in Both Courts

Professional communicators and attorneys have long stood side by side as both fought to win in court—one in the court of law, the other in the court of public opinion. These two sometimes wary compatriots, however, are now beginning to partner more frequently to garner the best results for the executive suite.

The Hazards of Translating Legal Documents

The issue of translation is a global one and doesn't just relate to mistranslations by American and British English speakers. Today, poor translation can be particularly dangerous given the speed at which events are reported. How dangerous? According to the Dow Jones Newswire of 12 May 2005, one mistake was worth several billion U.S. dollars.

Legal Issues Involved in Monitoring Employees' Internet and E-Mail Usage

Many employers have determined that there is a need to monitor employees' computer usage. According to a 2003 survey by the American Management Association, more than half of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring. Often, this is in addition to monitoring work-related communications and activities—including reviewing Internet usage, videotaping the work-site or recording employee telephone calls. More and more employers are engaging in some form of monitoring. Unfortunately, without a full understanding of the risks, employers may open themselves up to potential lawsuits. In addition, such techniques may result in low morale among employees who resent being told that they cannot use e-mail for personal messages and feel that their every move is being monitored.

Should You Really Say That in a Corporate Blog?

Has your communication department considered starting a blog about your company, or even getting the CEO to start his or her own blog? There's another department that usually frowns on such endeavors: the legal department.

Harnessing Collective Expertise: Delivering Market and Client Intelligence Research Within a Law Firm

Explains how a leading global law firm manages its market and client research. Outlines the firm's divisions, business activities and client base. Explains in detail how the firm uses business research, covering use of market intelligence on the business issues that an individual client faces, and the gathering of intelligence about the client, to disclose the nature and extent of the firm's ambitions to advise the organization concerned. Discusses the staffing of a law firm's business research capability, pointing out that not only staff expertise but also confidentiality concerns mean that it is not always efficient for lawyers to access internal and external information sources directly. Suggests that defining the minimum business research necessary improves the usefulness of the information delivered and saves the firm time -- and that removing the uncertainty about what is required improves job satisfaction as well.

Why Kairos Matters to Writing: A Reflection on its Intellectual Property Conversation and Developing Law During the Last Ten Years

Highlights the major legal cases and illustrates how each case set up a rhetorical construct that allowed the next case to happen, leaving us where we are now. Highlights the provisions of the DMCA and how that law might impact our composing and publication practices.

Waiver Culture: The Unintended Consequence of Ethics Compliance

The passage of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) spawned a series of compliance and ethics programs--the revised Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations known as the Thompson Memo (Thompson, 2003), the revised Federal Sentencing Guidelines that included the Effective Compliance and Ethics Program and the corporate 'culpability score' (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2004), and another revision of the Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations now known as the McNulty Memo (McNulty, 2006). These programs were meant to shift business toward an 'organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance with the law' (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2007). These developments spurred human resource departments and legal counsel to draft new workplace policies to embrace, implement, and monitor compliance programs. Consequently, there was a dramatic increase in the number of businesses with some kind of ethics training: from 44% in pre-guideline 1987 up to 92% in post-guideline 2005 (Berenbeim, 2006). Because compliance with the McNulty Memo and Federal Sentencing Guidelines can substantially reduce an organization's sentence of improper conduct or cause the government not to prosecute (Berenbeim, 2006), an organization under investigation could turn to its newly minted compliance programs and its cooperation as a shield. But these federal guidelines lacked a clear definition of an organization's 'cooperation' and whether a lack of cooperation could be viewed as obstruction of justice and thereby increase punishment of that organization.

Product Liability: How it affects the Writing and Design of Instruction Manuals for the United States and the Europeam Community

PL is Product Liability -- the manufacturer's legal responsibility to provide a reasonably safe product, and to alert the customer to potentially dangerous uses of the product. PL covers three main areas -- personal injury, property damage, and economic loss.

Customer Profile: Ernest Svenson, PDF for Lawyers

A well-known advocate for the effective use of new technologies in the legal profession, New Orleans-based attorney Ernest Svenson finds Adobe Acrobat and PDF to be highly valued tools in a document-intensive field.

Errors and Omissions Insurance: Assuming the Risk of Professional Liability

Like most other business owners, technical communicators may, from time to time, have legal exposure for their actions and mistakes. Errors and omissions insurance is one way to manage the risks the associated with operating a business and while it may not be the best solution for everyone, it's worth considering whether the benefits of this of insurance coverage outweighs the costs.

A Hegemonic Model of Crisis Communication: Truthfulness and Repercussions for Free Speech in Kasky v. Nike

This study utilizes the hegemonic model of crisis communication to critically analyze the ideological implications of Nike's sweatshop labor crisis that culminated in the Kasky v. Nike court case. This groundbreaking case merits further examination and, informed by Gramsci's notion of hegemony, reveals the underlying ideological struggle present in the Nike crisis: a struggle for voice, power, and free corporate speech. Activist voices opposing sweatshops, Nike's defenses, and eventually, the legal decisions of the U.S. court system constituted competing voices in these ideological struggles over what is acceptable or right corporate behavior. This hegemonic struggle influenced standards for international labor, public relations efforts that misrepresent facts, and consideration of corporate public relations as free or commercial speech. This hegemonic model of crisis communication, unlike previous theories, recognizes the dynamic struggle between voices with various levels of power and the important ideological implications resulting from competing voices in crisis communication.

Reviewing Your Website for Legal Landmines

Establishing an e-commerce website without having had that site reviewed for legal landmines is a potentially devastating lawsuit waiting to happen. Every e-commerce website simply must be reviewed for such vital issues as copyright ownership, trademark and domain name issues, legal notices, disclaimers and terms of use, and privacy policies.probable, that your site and your company are infringing on someone's copyright of that content. Copyright infringement is serious business, carrying penalties that range from $750 to $150,000 per violation. Know the source of your website content and whether

The Rhetoric of Misdirection in Corporate Privacy-Policy Statements

U.S. businesses wish to continue to profit by collecting personal information from their website visitors, yet they fear that the practice both alienates visitors and exposes them both to legal problems from U.S. authorities and business sanctions from data-privacy authorities in Europe and Canada. This dilemma is reflected in the typical corporate privacy-policy statement, which is full of misleading and deceptive rhetoric intended to cover up the gap between the company's privacy policy and the image it wishes to project.

The Effects of Print and Other Text Media Developments Upon the Law in America

The law has long been shaped by the technical aspects of compiling, writing, storing, and accessing textual verbiage. Text media technology affects all areas of the law, from its intellectual basis to its promulgation, dissemination and enforcement. From America's Colonial period, the operative state of the art of printing has accordingly shaped the development of the law in America, and has caused it to grow in a different direction from the law of England. Since the Colonial period, the state of the art of text media technology has made quantum evolutionary leaps forward, impacting American law in the process. Artifacts of these text media technologies are to be found in the statutes, legislative histories, judicial decisions, and other legal materials. Modern technology has accelerated the pace of text media technology development, and has impacted the law accordingly. Current developments continue to impact the law on an ongoing basis, and future developments in text media technology can be expected to leave their impact upon the law.

Law and Internet Cultures

Kathy Bowrey's Law and Internet Cultures critically deconstructs the law in the context of legal culture, and especially looks at how U.S. law, practice, and culture has influenced technology law. Bowrey, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, writes as an "Australian author" but her analysis clearly contains a global perspective as she looks to global structures and laws in other countries such as the United States. The book's analysis draws upon an incredibly broad range of literature including but not limited to traditional "literature" (e.g., Orwell's 1984), economic analysis, communications theory, and cultural studies. She stretches her analysis, connecting the heretofore disconnected (like Foucault, Coombe, Mandeville's travels, Napster, Grokster, etc.) and makes these horizontal connections in the context of discussions of verticality--like globalization, international standards, international patent norms, and global governance. The reading will be difficult for folks without a solid background in information technologies and law (and is just plain difficult for reasons mentioned below), but Bowrey does provide at least brief definitions and description of acronyms where need be. She tends to begin chapters with details and then brings things together at chapter's end--but this strategy seems to work for the complex subject matter. This is a great book for reading out of order or skipping to particularly relevant sections. Each section of each chapter can hold together on its own. Numerous diagrams and illustrations add to the flavor of this unique and much-needed book.

Occupational Health and Safety Laws Today

The state and the government, as we understand, are responsible for the safety security of the citizens. The state and its organs understand this as a mandate and this also means realising the lofty goal of safety and health for all in every walk of life.

Small Claims Court: How to Avoid Big Headaches

As professionals, we know to make every effort to obtain payment from clients before resorting to legal action. Doing things such as calling the person with whom you've worked on the project, calling the company's financial officer, calling the company's general manager and/or owner, following up with letters, and following up with more letters sent by certified mail are all good ways to let your client know that you won't be ignored. But sometimes our best efforts fail and the only recourse is legal help.

Normative ed Iniziative

La norma di riferimento è la legge 1 marzo 2006, n. 67 pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 54 del 6 marzo 2006. Tale norma è di iniziativa governativa (Ministro senza portafoglio per le Pari opportunità Stefania Prestigiacomo, Ministro del lavoro e politiche sociali Roberto Maroni di concerto con il Ministro della giustizia Roberto Castelli) e risale al 2 luglio 2003 - vale a dire sette giorni prima dell'emanazione del dlgs 216/2003.

Usability Professionals’ Association Urges Consideration of Plain Language

The Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) wishes to express its support for plain language.

Usable Regulations: Legislation Pending in U.S. Congress

On March 1, 2006, witnesses testified before the House Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs. Their testimony supported what plain language and usability experts have long known: Clear, concise, easy to understand regulations will save the government (and taxpayers) time and money.

A Technical Communicator's Pro Bono Guide to Attorneys

While our job requirements and responsibilities are ever-changing, our allies remain the same. They include one crucial team member who will help you far more than you realize ∆ your attorney. If you don’t already have one, you may think that this is an additional expense that you cannot afford; after all, how often do you plan on being sued? However, good attorneys do more than represent you in court. Let’s take a look at what they can do for you.

State Department Bans Courier New 12, Except for Treaties

Just when it seemed typography had no discernable impact on government policy the US State Department outlawed its standard typeface.

Disability Discrimination Act: An Update for 2005

Many organisations are confused and concerned about the latest requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which came into effect on 1st October 2004. Failure to make reasonable adjustments may mean that organisations are discriminating against disabled people. Yet what does 'reasonable adjustments' mean and what exactly do organisations need to put in place?

How to Build a Nonprofit for Your Community

This article details how mozdev.org built a nonprofit organization and shows you how to do the same for your community. I'll cover fundraising, obtaining legal advice, staffing, and more.

Harvard Journal of Law and Technology

The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT) is published by Harvard Law School students. While the Journal is an official publication of the Harvard Law School, it receives no funding from the Law School and relies exclusively on subscriptions and sponsor contributions. The views expressed in the Journal do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or sponsors of the Journal, Harvard Law School, or Harvard University.

Stanford Technology Law Review

The Stanford Technology Law Review (STLR) sets a new standard in multidisciplinary legal scholarship as an innovative forum for intellectual discourse on critical issues at the intersection of law, science, technology, and public policy. STLR uniquely combines technological expertise with scholarly outlook to provide timely, insightful, and important contributions to scholarly discussion in a broad array of topical areas.

Internet Advertising and the Law

The Internet is a new marketing frontier where the rules and regulations are rapidly evolving. Governments throughout the world aim to redress this imbalance by providing protection to their citizens through laws and regulations which control the use of advertising.

Gender-Free Legal Writing: Managing the Personal Pronouns

Where a statement of any complexity is made about a person, the maker of the statement may face decisions about how further references should be framed.

Good Legal Writing: of Orwell and Window Panes

George Orwell once wrote that `[g]ood prose is like a window pane.' What I take Orwell to have meant by that remark is that when people read good prose, it makes them feel as if they've `seen' something more clearly.

Protect Your Web Site from Legal Land Mines

This article explains how regular legal audits can keep your company Web site on the right side of the law.

Text and Action: The Operator's Manual in Context and in Court

The rhetorical process by which the immense body of expert knowledge is transformed into subsequent human action is a question of importance.

Texts in Oral Context: The "Transmission" of Jury Instructions in an Indiana Trial

Modern rhetorical scholars exhibit a curious reluctance to examine legal texts.

Working as an Independent Contractor

Working for yourself can be a blessing and a curse. Independent contractors ('ICs') enjoy more freedom and control over their work than employees do -- and they can earn more money, too. But they also have to contend with deadbeat clients, self-employment taxes and the higher cost of doing business on their own.

Editing All the Legalese the Law Allows

Strictly speaking, legalese isn't intended for use outside a judicial context, but quasi-legalistic writing, with its officious tone, wordiness, and complex terms, percolates into business, government, and public interest documents. It's a parroting of the real thing -- which is already hard to swallow -- and there's a lot of it around. That kind of legalese demands to be edited, because people will do almost anything to avoid reading it.

Answering the Critics of Plain Language

Plain language has to do with clear and effective communication -- nothing more or less. It does, though, signify a new attitude and a fundamental change from past practices.

From Tech Writer to Paralegal

Writing spots were becoming fewer and farther between, and it was clear that I'd have to make a career change. I used to pick up temporary secretarial spots during lulls, but with the downswing in the economy and the proliferation of PCs, the demand for word processing gurus had dwindled considerably. Most of the writing jobs that did come my way over the last three years were dreadful. Job satisfaction had reached an all-time low.

Mapping the Information Environment: Legal Aspects of Modularization and Digitization

The article highlights the language of the digital and the principle of modularization as the basic concepts which the further development of the information environment will have to pivot around, regardless of how conflicts between freedom and control are temporarily solved. Perceiving both the computer and the Internet as complex systems, the authors look at how modular design of these systems freed the functionality of applications from the physicality of infrastructures, describe the evolutionary gains adhering to modularity, and how to preserve them -- elaborating on the issues of access to the cable platform for broadband Internet and to virtual networks for computer technology. Their second focus shows how digitalization of information makes possible the merger of content and its protection. Especially through the use of DRM systems, private actors can create right enforcement mechanisms independent of the State. The legal system therefore faces new and more complex relations between private will and public sovereignty. In such a merged system it is harder to maintain freedom -- much like in the fusion of function and infrastructure.

Technical Documentation Goes Electronic: New Media Create New Problems for Technical Writers

It is not very helpful if we reject any responsibility, even if it would be covered by some laws dealing with product safety and product liability.

Technical and Scientific Communication: Research on the Internet-Expanding Wealth or Chaos?

Since writers/communicators now carry legal responsibility for what they write, on paper or online, it would be useful to students in Technical and Scientific Communication Programs to have instruction in communication law and explore its many applications online.

Standard Freelance Editorial Agreement

The agreement spells out editorial responsibilities; specifies the agreed fees, reimbursements, and deadlines; and states what terms shall apply if either party terminates the contract before completion. Schedule A clearly defines various editorial activities so that the editor and the client can agree unambiguously on the work to be done. The completed form is a binding legal document.

Contracts: An Introduction to the Skills of Legal Writing and Analysis

Contracts is a computer program designed for first year undergraduates studying Obligations in Glasgow University's School of Law, written by Paul Maharg and Professor Joe Thomson. It aims to improve students' written work.

What is the Purpose of a CMS Tender?

There are a number of processes used to select and purchase a content management system (CMS). Many of these involve the creation of a tender document. Beyond this core goal, it is worth reviewing what the purpose of a CMS tender is.

Freelance Writer Agreement

This is an example of a typical agreement used for freelance writing assignments. Not that there is specific limitation of rights granted to the “buyer.” In no case do you want to sell blanket rights to your writing. It may be necessary to do it, but make every effort to negotiate a first national rights condition. If the clients wants more, get them to pay more.

Legal Communication in Technical Communication Programs: Worth Thinking About?

What, if anything, should technical communication programs teach their students about the nature of law and the production of legal discourse? When is technical writing also legal writing, and vice versa; when is legal writing (really) technical? Are there distinctions worth maintaining and dissolving here? Do lawyers' relationships to, and problems with, legal writing contexts and processes parallel in important ways technical writers' relationships to, and problems with, technical writing contexts and processes? If they do, is a conversation between the disciplines worth institutionalizing, at least experimentally, in each other's programs?

Good Lawyers, Bad Products

Lawyers may know their way around a courtroom, but they have no business designing products. Too often, in their zealous pursuit of zero liability, they end up damaging products, alienating customers, destroying companies, and killing people. It's up to you to stop them.

Legal Research and Citation Style in the USA

The format for citations to legal materials is different from the format for scholarly citations to books and periodicals in general. This handout is a terse guide to legal citation in the USA. The generally accepted style manual for legal citations in the USA is the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, which is published by the editors of four prestigious law reviews at Columbia University, Harvard, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and Yale Law Schools. A copy of theBluebook can be purchased in any law school bookstore. A comprehensive set of rules from the Bluebook is available on the Internet from Peter W. Martin at Cornell Law School. In contrast, this handout here contains a terse set of rules that agree with the Bluebook, but does not contain all of the fine points and options in the Bluebook. Opinions of some courts use a different format from the Bluebook, but these alternative citation formats contains the same information. Be aware that citations in opinions of state or federal courts may not be the correct bibliographic style according to the Bluebook.Furthermore, the proper format according to the Bluebook changes with time, so old sources (both cases and law review articles) do not use the modern format for citation.

Sarbanes-Oxley and New Opportunities

Harkness explains how technical communicators living in the United States can benefit from the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires companies to strictly adhere to accepted accounting practices.

Yale Journal of Law and Technology

The Yale Journal of Law and Technology (YJoLT) is the first law review in the world to offer its readership a cutting-edge dynamic environment in which to acquire and produce knowledge about the interface between law and technology. Formerly the Yale Symposium on Law & Technology, the Journal not only publishes lectures and written pieces by the diverse and distinguished guests of Yale Law School as well as other scholars, practitioners, and students, it also provides a forum for a robust community discussion of the issues raised in its published pieces.

Norme e Proposte Normative

Le linee guida del W3C in materia di accessibilità dei siti web hanno avuto un forte impatto soprattutto nei paesi anglosassoni dove, per primi, i governi hanno recepito tali linee guida rendendole di fatto obbligatorie per la realizzazione dei siti internet delle amministrazioni pubbliche. In Europa esistono delle comunicazioni della Commissione Europea che sono state recepite dai vari paesi. In quest'area del nostro sito andremo ad esporre i documenti normativi delle varie nazionalità approfondendo l'analisi della normativa europea e italiana.

Iolis Authoring in a Web Environment

Recently, there has been increasing focus on the acquisition of research skills by law undergraduates. One reason for this interest is a belief that many such students do not acquire an adequate level of research skills by the time that they graduate. Reflecting this concern, the Law Society/Bar Council's Joint Statement on Qualifying Law Degrees and the Quality Assurance Agency's Benchmark Standards for Law both place great emphasis on the need to improve research skills training at University level. In the light of these developments, Durham University's Centre for Law and Computing was asked to develop a self-paced learning package providing more advanced training on the skills necessary to do legal research projects. It was envisaged that the learning package in question would take the form of an Iolis style workbook. Rather than use traditional law courseware authoring tools, however, the Centre chose to experiment by attempting from the outset to develop the workbook as a website comprising interlaced text and interactions. If successful, such an approach would have the benefits of producing a prototype that was: (i) readily accessible across the Internet, or a campus intranet; (ii) customisable to the needs of individual law schools; (iii) flexible enough to reflect more of an author's own personal approach; and (iv) massively interconnectable with campus intranets and with the Internet at large.

Legal Issues in Cyberspace

What are these issues and how do they affect you? Whether writing source code, developing e-commerce Web sites, or using the Web for business or as a consumer, you can be affected by Internet law in ways you might not imagine. Our rights of free speech and privacy take on new dimensions in cyberspace. Our copyright and trademark laws are being applied to cyberspace with caution and controversy. New avenues of criminal activity in cyberspace can wreak havoc in our business, professional, and personal worlds. This paper focuses on Internet law involving copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, free speech, and privacy.

Freedom of Information Act Fundamentals

FOIA has become an indispensable tool for probing actions of government and the companies and people that come into contact with government. Your catch is only limited by your imagination.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act was given Royal Assent on 11 May, and will begin to come into effect from 1 September 2002. The Act removes the previous exemption of education from the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), ensuring that discrimination against disabled students will be unlawful. Institutions will incur additional responsibilities in 2003, with the final sections of legislation coming into effect in 2005. The legislation will apply to the UK, with the exception, at the moment, of Northern Ireland. As the Act is an amendment to the existing Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), it only protects people defined as disabled according to that legislation. This definition is based on an individual's ability to carry out 'normal day-to-day' activities, and so may exclude some students who are usually considered disabled by the support systems within their institutions. Under the new law all publicly-funded further and higher education institutions, schools with post-16 provision, and local authorities when they provide further, adult or continuing education or training will have responsibilities.

Protect Yourself: Write a Contract

For independent consultants, contractors, and business owners, operating with contracts is paramount to your success. Contracts permit you to define the project, how it will be completed, and how you will be paid. They offer methods of restitution should things not proceed as planned or anticipated. Contracts also demonstrate how serious you are about yourself and your client, and make a profound statement about your professionalism. Contracts are not to be taken lightly. Never go it alone; always have a competent lawyer review and provide legal advice when writing a contract or before agreeing to any terms dictated by your client. This paper presents a number of terms and conditions for your consideration.

Sample Indexing Agreement

The ASI Recommended Indexing Agreement is intended to be informative and is offered as an example of some of the issues that may be related to the relationship between an indexer and a client. ASI does not warrant, guarantee, or in any other way imply that this Agreement will protect your rights. Laws vary from state to state, and a general Agreement such as this may not be applicable in your state or for your particular situation. We strongly suggest that you consult professional legal counsel to obtain competent advice about any contract you may sign or offer to a client.

Has anyone told you something that sounded like 'I folded my S-Corp into a C-Corp, then transferred the shares to an LLC that was the GP of an LLP'? It used to be easy. You were either a corporation, partnership, or if only one owner, sole proprietorship. Nowadays, the proliferation of choice of entities for even small, single-owner businesses can be daunting. While it can all be very confusing, all of this alphabet jargon boils down to two basic issues: taxation and liability. In the old days, you could only have limited liability if you were taxed as a corporation and could only be taxed as a partnership if you had full liability. Now the two issues have been separated, giving modern business owners the full range of possibilities. Let's take a look at how these two issues have been dealt with and what concessions business owners have wrestled out of the IRS in the last 20 years with the introduction of the Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Untangling the Law: Verbal Design in Legal Argument

“The law is a seamless web,” law professors are fond of reminding their students. The lightest touch on any strand will send vibrations through the entire intricate structure. Every legal issue, rule, and theory is integrally connected; thus attention to any part affects the whole. Ironically, the metaphor’s appropriateness extends beyond this initial image since the slightest vibrations running through even the most beautiful web will alert the waiting spider—the beauty disguises a deadly trap.

Legal Code: When Intra Becomes Extra

And somehow, on March 8, months of chat logs--what a CEO and his management team talked about in their almost daily online chats were the ordinary, boring aspects of running a company. But a few posts involved company strategies. The posts revealed negotiating tactics the team planned to use with business partners, and some of those tactics revealed a fundamental lack of good faith. If the public message logs didn't increase the company's liability exposure, they certainly poisoned its hard-earned business relationships.

The Legal Position of E-mail Disclaimers

Legal 'disclaimers' in e-mail messages, like those in faxes, are now commonplace. These disclaimers attempt to limit the sender's liability for the message's content. This article discusses the effectiveness of these disclaimers under English law.

Getting Professional Help: Why Contractors and Independent Consultants Need Lawyers

This article begins with the premise that there is no such thing as a standard contract and goes on to explore some of the ways that the attorney/client relationship can have unexpected benefits for technical communication consultants and contractors. The conclusion is that these communicators should seek legal counsel to protect themselves and their businesses.

Contracts for Every Occasion

This is a reference library of forms to help protect your work and your visitors. It contains sample forms, contracts, and charts to ease the legal technicalities of running a Web site, such as privacy policies, link agreements, copyright agreements, sweepstakes rules, and cease and desist letters.