The Florida State College of Law Research Center Blog

iPad Productivity Apps for Law Students

The Research Center's iPad Productivity Apps for Law Students is available here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Mindmapping on the iPad

There's a new Mindmapping app for the iPad.  Read a review here. Download the app from the Apple App Store here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Google Currents

Flipboard is a great social media reader for the iPad and iPhone but until recently there hasn't been a comparable app for Android users.  Now there is Google Currents.  You can subscribe to all your favorite social media, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news feeds, and read them in one place in a very easy to read format.  

Read more here.  Download for Android devices from the Android Market.  

Posted by Jon Lutz

Flipboard Now Available for iPhone

Flipboard is a highly rated iPad app, which is now available for iPhone. Flipboard is a personalized digital magazine.  You can subscribe to blogs, news sources and even you Facebook and Twitter feed and have it all in one easy to read location.  

See more here.  

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Exams Video

Check out the Research Center's Exams Video. This short video provides a fun introduction to the resources we have available at the Florida State Law Research Center for students!

Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/user/FSULawLib

 

Posted by Jon Lutz

60 Top-Value Law Schools

The ABAJournal refers to the National Jurist report on the top 60 best values in law schools.   Florida State Law School ranks 3rd.  

See the article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Heinonline app for iPhone and iPad

Now you can have access to the world’s largest image-based legal research database, HeinOnline, on your iPhone/iPad. View the image-based PDF’s, access content by citation, browse by volume, navigate a volume with the electronic table of contents, and use full advanced searching techniques. HeinOnline account/authentication is required.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

10 Ways for Lawyers to Find Their ‘Inner Steve Jobs’

Based on Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, Paul Lippe askes, what can lawyers draw from his life?   Here's an excerpt:

It is certainly a great book about a fascinating life, and for a boomer like me, a bit of a jarring experience to encounter a full-on biography of a near contemporary. Much has already been written about Jobs and the book, but since he is perhaps the exemplar of the New Normal, I thought it might be useful to summarize some thoughts on what we as lawyers might want to draw from his life. For those who don’t want to work through the whole book, there’s an excellent article in Time that covers the major points.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

iPhone 4S Siri Security Flaw

If you have a new iPhone 4S a security flaw has been found in Siri.  Siri is the voice control function.  By default the feature is on and can be used even when the phone is locked.  This means that anyone can pick up someone else's phone, activate Siri and send messages and email.  This can be fixed by changing the default setting to "Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode to Off"

Read more here.

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Samsung seeks to ban iPhone 4S amid patent row

According to ZDNet, Samsung has file suit in France and Italy to ban the iPhone 4s due to infringment on its wireless patents. Here's an excerpt: 

“Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property and free-ride on our technology”, Samsung said in a statement, adding: “We will steadfastly protect our intellectual property”.

Preliminary requests for a ban on the iPhone 4S will be filed today, revolving around two particular patents relating to its wireless WCDMA technology. It adds to Samsung’s filings earlier this year in the United States in April, claiming that the wireless patents were infringed upon.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

 

Florida Judge Finds Prison Privatization Plan Unconstitutional

A Florida Judge finds prison privatization plan unconstitutional.  Read about it in the ABAJournal Law News Now. Here's an excerpt:

Tallahassee Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford held that the legislature erred by including the privatization plan in the state budget. Fulford said if lawmakers wanted to privatize the prisons they should have done so in a separate law.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Report: Facebook Changes Could Mean More Security Risks

Facebook changes could mean more security risks according to a recent PC Magazine article.  Here's an excerpt: 

The major changes Facebook introduced at last week's f8 developer conference have met with mixed reactionsfrom Facebook users—and could open the site to more security risks, according to Bitdefender.

The Internet security software developer said Monday that Facebook's changes may expose users to targeted attacks from cybercriminals, spambot infestations like the ones that plague Twitter, interactive scams, and other unwelcome threats.

Read more here.

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Workers' Facebook posts causing headaches for employers

According to an article in the MercuryNews, employers are struggling to manage employee Facebook posts about the company.   Here's an excerpt: 

Confusion about what workers can or can't post has led to a surge of more than 100 complaints at the National Labor Relations Board -- most within the past year -- and created uncertainty for businesses about how far their social media policies can go.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Research Center's Smartboard

For students to use, the Research Center has a Smart Board.  

Read about it here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students

How to Read a Legal Opinion:  A Guide for New Law Students.

This essay is designed to help new law students prepare for the first few weeks of class. It explains what judicial opinions are, how they are structured, and what law students should look for when reading them.

Available here.  

Posted by Jon Lutz

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"

TED talks, about this talk: 

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.

Video can be viewed here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Your Google+ Guide: 15 Tips For Newbies

A Google+ Guide:  15 Tips for Newbies:

It's here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Cops to Get Facial Recognition Devices; Will They Need Warrants to Use Them?

According to the ABAJournal Law News Now several police departments are getting devices that can scan irises, recongnize faces and collect fingerprints.  This raises questions about privacy and civil liberties. Here's an excerpt: 

Currently the technology, called “Moris” for Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, is used by the military to identify insurgents. But B12 has contracts to sell about 1,000 of the Moris devices to 40 police agencies, the story says.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr about the legal implications. Generally, police can take pictures of anyone in a public space. But after an officer stops or detains someone, police need “reasonable suspicion” to take fingerprints.

Whether a warrant will be needed to use facial recognition or an iris scan is “a gray area of the law,” Kerr said. "A warrant might be required to force someone to open their eyes."

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Essential iPad Apps

GoodReader for iPad supports PDF files, even very large files, txt, doc, ppt, xls, HTML, images, audio and video.   

Learn more about GoodReader here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Apple iPhone Patent a Huge Blow to Rival Smartphone Makers

From PCMag, Apple has been awarded a patent on the capacitive multitouch interface used with the iPhone.  This may create problems for other companies producing smartphones.  Here's an excerpt: 

Apple's patent essentially gives it ownership of the capacitive multitouch interface the company pioneered with its iPhone, said one source who has been involved in intellectual property litigation on similar matters. That's likely to produce a new round of lawsuits over the now-ubiquitous multitouch interfaces used in smartphones made by the likes of HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Research in Motion, Nokia, and others that run operating systems similar in nature to Apple's iOS, like Google's Android, said the source, who asked not to be named.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

5 Clever Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media

From Mashable, 5 clever ways to get a job using social media.  Here's an excerpt: 

More and more companies are recruiting using social media, and 40% of young professionals are using social media to get jobs, reports Elance. You can have a successful job search by following these five new ways to get a job using social media.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Connecticut Concerned About Facebook Face Recognition

The Connecticut Attorney General has expressed concern about Facebook's photo tagging feature, reports PCWorld.  Here's an excerpt:

In Facebook's desire to promote photo sharing and tagging among its users, it appears to have overlooked a critical component of consumer privacy protection, which is an opt-in requiring users to affirmatively consent before Facebook can use those images, Jepsen wrote in a letter this week to Facebook's director of public policy and its product and regulatory counsel.

Jepsen joins European Union (EU) regulators and consumer advocacy groups that are questioning the feature on Facebook.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and three other advocacy groups filed a complaint asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to require Facebook to get an affirmative opt-in consent from users before collecting and using their biometric data.

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

FSU College of Law ranks in top 50 in US

FSU College of Law ranks in the top 50 in the US.  

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

How iCloud And Its Competitors Could Lead To Copyright-Trolling Lawsuits

Apple's new iCloud service could bring legal complexities.  From paidContent here's an excerpt: 

But let’s imagine how a more direct legal battle could erupt over cloud-music. We might not see a big record label go after a tough target, like Google  or Amazon itself (although the labels certainly do seem to be keeping their options open in that regard.) Instead, consider this possibility, outlined to me by New York Law School’s Prof. James Grimmelmann: a much smaller copyright owner—like the ones now engaging in mass-copyright litigation—decide to file a broad lawsuit over music sharing, and try to use courts to get large amounts of metadata that would demonstrate which files were pirated.

“Somebody from a smaller label will be approached by a lawyer, who says, ‘I want to try this fishing expedition lawsuit,’” explains Grimmelmann. “I will try to force Apple to tell me which users have unauthorized versions of this, and then I’ll just file a shotgun lawsuit against all of them.”

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Apple sued over iCloud name

Apple is being sued over its iCloud name for it new 'cloud' service.   

Read more here.

Facebook Faces Probe Over Photo Tagging

Facebook is being probed by the European Union data-protection regulators over their use of face-recognition software according to Bloomberg.  Here's an excerpt: 

A group of privacy watchdogs drawn from the EU’s 27 nations will study the measure for possible rule violations, said Gerard Lommel, a Luxembourg member of the so-called Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. Authorities in the U.K. and Ireland said they are also looking into the photo-tagging function on the world’s most popular social-networking service.

“Tags of people on pictures should only happen based on people’s prior consent and it can’t be activated by default,” said Lommel. Such automatic tagging suggestions “can bear a lot of risks for users” and the European data-protection officials will “clarify to Facebook that this can’t happen like this.”

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

 

Landing a Dream Job in a Down Market

Checkout the ABAJournal Law News Now podcast on Landing a Dream Job in a Down Market. 

Listen here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Mike Tyson’s Tattoo Artist Sues Warner Bros.

Mike Tyson's tattoo artist has sued Warner Brothers over the use of a copyrighted tattoo.  The ABA Journal Law News Now reports:

The artist who created an unusual tattoo on the left side of prizefighter Mike Tyson's face has sued Warner Bros., contending that the studio pirated its work by putting the same tattoo on the face of an actor in its new movie The Hangover 2.

S. Victor Whitmill says in his federal lawsuit that Tyson signed a release giving him ownership of the 2003 design and that he registered it, according to Courthouse News Service. Meanwhile, the studio allegedly never sought his permission to use the exact same design on actor Ed Helms' face.

Read more here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Smartphone Patent Battles Escalate as Apple Sues Samsung

From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog a discussion of Apple's Lawsuit against Samsung.  Here's an excerpt:

Apple’s lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Northern California,alleges that Samsung copied the look, product design, packaging and user interface of its products, violating its patents and trademarks.

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” Apple said in its 38-page suit. (The complaint is not available.)

A Samsung spokesman said the company will “actively” respond to the lawsuit. “Samsung’s development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success,” the spokesman said.

Read the whole post here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Public Defenders Stretched Thin by State Cuts

According to the Wall Street Journal Law public defenders have been stretched thin by state cuts. Here's an excerpt:

The austerity moves stemming from funding constraints these days include laying off public defenders, holding the line on salaries, and reducing spending on the defense's case investigators and staff training.

"The system is not allowing us to provide competent representation," said Edward Monahan, the head of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, which lost about $500,000, or 1.5%, of its funding this year, and faces an additional 2.5% budget cut in the coming fiscal year.

"We are running caseloads in excess of 450 per lawyer....With additional budget cuts to be imposed in [2012] and case assignments continuing to rise, average caseloads will likely exceed 500 new cases per year."

Read the article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Blekko

Google and Bing aren't the only search engines.  Blekko is worth a try. 

Try blekko.com.

Read the Help file for how to use slash tags.

Posted by Jon Lutz

In Bow to Authors, Baidu Scrubs Document Sharing Site

Chinese search giant Baidu, according to the Wall Street Journal, has removed 2.8 million files from its document sharing site.   Here's an excerpt:

Company spokesman Kaiser Kuo said that Baidu removed most of the files suspected of being unlicensed — largely found in its “literary works” category — as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, and is in the process of arranging a new discussion with representatives from the publishing industry. He said he couldn’t guarantee that 100% of the pirated content on Baidu Library is gone, but “I very much hope that they [the authors] see this was a good faith effort on our part and that it will form the foundation for future talks.”

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

A ‘Small Bounce’ in Job Stats Chronicles a Better Year for Law Students

From the ABAJournal Law News Now: 

Things are looking up—ever so slightly—for law students looking for law firm jobs.

A new NALP research report (PDF) reveals a “small bounce” in job recruiting numbers in the summer and fall of 2010, at least when compared to the previous year.

The percentage of summer associates offered full-time jobs rebounded to 87.4 percent in 2010 after plunging to 69.3 percent in 2009, according to NALP, formerly the National Association for Law Placement. As a result, law students became a little choosier, and the acceptance rate fell to 82.7 percent from 84.5 percent the year before.

Students also fared better when interviewing for 2011 summer associate jobs, at least compared to the previous year. Last year, 40.6 percent of students got summer associate offers after callback interviews, compared to 36.4 percent in 2009, 46.6 percent in 2008, and around 60 percent the three prior years.

The statistics also suggest the market improved for 3Ls, but only slightly. Fifteen percent of the law firms responding to NALP’s survey reported interviewing third-year students, compared with only 3 percent in 2009. The numbers still fall short of prior years, however. The percentage of firms interviewing 3Ls was 25 percent in 2008, 42 percent in 2007, and 53 percent in 2006.

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

From ABAJournal Law News Now a class action suit against Groupon's expiration dates.  Here's an excerpt: 

The latest suit was filed yesterday in federal court in Washington, D.C., according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. It contends Groupon’s daily deals are gift certificates that can’t expire for at least five years under federal law.

Read the whole article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Supreme Court Rules First Amendment Protects Westboro’s Funeral Protesters from Tort Suits

From the ABA Journal Law News Now, the Supreme Court has ruled on the Westboro Funeral Protesters Suit:  Here's an Excerpt:

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 that the First Amendment protects anti-gay picketers at military funerals from tort liability.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion(PDF) in Snyder v. Phelps, and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.

Read the article here.  

Read the opinion here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

President's Budget of the United States Goverment

President's Budget of the United States Goverment for Fiscal Year 2012 has been posted in electronic format on the GPO website here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

ABA Launches New Website

The ABA has launched a new website, found now at americanbar.org.

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Watch Your Social Media Posts Because Lawyer Regulators, FTC May Be

From the ABAJOURNAL Law News Now a caution to attorneys to not inflate the numbers of followers on Twitter or other social media.  Here's an excerpt: 

Lawyers engaging in hyperbole on blogs, artificially inflating the number of followers they have on Twitter or otherwise using social media deceptively may soon be getting a call from their disciplinary authority or even the Federal Trade Commission.

“You have to be aware of the risks, and you have to make sure you have policies and procedures in place,” said panel member Michael Lackey Jr., a Washington, D.C.-based partner at Mayer Brown.

The problem, Lackey indicated on Monday, is that sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are still so new that many attorneys do not see social media as subject to the same rules that govern promotion in more traditional media.

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

The Watchdog

A new blog called The Watchdog has been launched.  It will discuss regulatory agencies.  Here's an excerpt from their introduction: 

Today marks the launch of a new blog, "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage.

See the blog here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

2010 Sees a Huge Dropoff in BigLaw Layoffs

From the ABAJournal Law News Now:

A blog that tracks layoffs at major law firms chronicled only 745 job losses in 2010, a huge drop compared to 2009 when 12,259 were laid off.

According to the tally by Law Shucks, 234 lawyers and 511 staffers were laid off. “With all due respect to the 745 individuals affected, 2010 was a modest year for layoffs in our little slice of heaven,” the blog says.

Read the whole post here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

The Legal History and Rare Books Section (LH&RB) of the American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with Cengage Learning, announces the third annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.

 The competition is named in honor of Morris L. Cohen, late Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. Professor Cohen was a leading scholar in the fields of legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography.

 The purpose of the competition is to encourage scholarship in the areas of legal history, rare law books, and legal archives, and to acquaint students with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and law librarianship.

 Eligibility

 Students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in library science, law, history, or related fields are eligible to enter the competition. Both full- and part-time students are eligible. Membership in AALL is not required.

 Requirements

 Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The entry form and instructions are available at the LH&RB website: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/

Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., March 15, 2011. The winner will be announced by April 15.

 Awards

 The winner will receive a $500.00 prize from Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attendance at the AALL Annual Meeting.

 The runner-up will have the opportunity to publish the second-place essay in LH&RB’s online scholarly journal Unbound: An Annual Review of Legal History and Rare Books.

 Please direct questions to Robert Mead at libram@nmcourts.gov or Sarah Yates at yates006@tc.umn.edu. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

2011 Princeton Review Top 50 Law Schools

Posted in TaxProf Blog, Princeton Review's survey of 18,000 students at 172 law schools plus school statistics provided by administrators ranked Florida State Law School at #30.  

Read the post here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

FCC Acts to Preserve Internet Freedom and Openness

The FCC has approved net neutrality rules.  The Jurist Legal News and Research has a comment here.  Read the FCC's news release here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Healthcare Law

A federal judge has declared a key part of President Obama's healthcare law unconstitutional. 

Read the opinion here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

FSU law professor honored for work on behalf of children

Here's an excerpt: 

The Youth Law Center (YLC), a national leader in helping children in the foster care and justice systems, has named Florida State University College of Law Clinical Professor Paolo Annino a Loren Warboys Unsung Hero for 2010.

The award is given to individuals who have made extraordinary efforts on behalf of children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The center honored Annino at a reception in San Francisco on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Tech's Biggest Winners and Losers: 2010

Excerpt: The year's winding down, which means it's time to take stock of the companies, technologies and product categories that had big years, and those that did not. 

Read the article here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Why the job market is changing

Published in the November issue of the National Jurist this article analyzes how the job market is changing for law school graduates.  Here's an excerpt: 

The law firm world that we have all known is changing. Fueled by new economic realities. Law firms are beginning to adapt to a new reality. And that makes it hard for law students to understand the part they care about the most — the entry-level hiring market.

As someone who spends a large amount of time studying the history and structure of the legal services industry, I might have some useful insight on the vagaries of the current job market, including how things might change in the future. 

Read the article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz 

The Evolution of the Legal Profession

A Conversation with the Legal Community's Thought Leaders on the Front Lines of an Industry in Transition:

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 50 years the legal industryhas experienced an unprecedented shift from atightly knit profession into a global enterprisedriven by the traditional business motivations ofgrowth and profit. The current economic downturnhas caused the industry to reexamine the waylawyers practice, law schools educate and clientsrelate to their counsel.

This report is the first in a series that combinesinsights from a cross-section of the legalcommunity, ranging from the deans of law schoolsand prominent practitioners, to in-house counsel,law professors and other industry experts, toexamine whether the profession is experiencing ashort term blip or if it is in the middle of a paradigmshift that will materially change the way lawis practiced.

Read the Report here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

Microsoft adding Acer, Asustek to Android Lawsuit

IDG News Service - Microsoft may be looking to add to its existing patent infringement case related to the use of Google's Android mobile phone software by targeting phone makers in Taiwan, according to a Chinese-language news report.

Taiwan's Commercial Times newspaper reported that the U.S. software giant is taking aim at  Asustek Computer and Acer over their use of Android in smartphones. The newspaper says Microsoft representatives are in Taiwan seeking royalties for use of its patents.

Read more from Computerworld here. 

Read the complaint here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz 

‘Many Small Steps’ Lead to Happy 20th Birthday for ABA Rule of Law Initiative

Two decades ago, volunteer lawyers staffed an American Bar Association project to help rebuild legal institutions in central Europe, following the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

Today, that project has morphed into the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, which administers programs in more than 40 countries throughout the globe with the help of a $32 million annual budget, reports the Blog of Legal Times.

Read the whole article from the ABAJournal Law News Now here.

Posted by Jon Lutz