Judge Posner’s Proposal: Save a Newspaper, Kill a Blog

June 30th, 2009

Sure, the newspaper industry is in trouble. But not even old-guard media companies have proposed as extreme a remedy as what Judge Richard Posner recommends. In a recent blog post, Posner proposed barring online links to copyrighted materials without the consent of the copyright owners as a way to help revive the failing newspaper business.

Not surprisingly, Posner’s proposal has drawn criticism from bloggers, as well as conventional media outlets. Dan Froomkin, of Discourse.net, asks: If links are banned, why not footnotes? (That should give lawyers pause!) Erick Schonfeld at The Washington Post deemed the scheme “misguided,” asserting that the Web works via free and unregulated linking. Moreover, linking to a newspaper post is not all that different from engaging in conversations, Schoneld points out. He continues:

Much of what Posner wants to outlaw is public discourse. Why is it okay for people to talk about the day’s news in a bar or barber shop, but not online? People should be able to discuss the day’s news on the Web without fear of violating copyright law. The natural way people discuss things on the Web is by quoting and linking to the source. (Except maybe Posner, he doesn’t seem to link to much of anything in his blog posts).

David Donoghue, of Chicago IP Litigation, makes the point that newspapers in fact benefit from added links to their stories. And while Donoghue acknowledges the existence of “free-riding” aggregators that do nothing more than point to links, Donoghue argues that newspapers are free riders in a way, getting the benefit of links in the form of traffic from visitors who otherwise would not view the site.

Donoghue also emphasizes that even without a consent policy in place for linking, copyright holders have significant protection. He points out that direct copying of stories is prohibited. Moreover, Congress could choose to revisit copyright laws if it deems that additional protection is necessary.

I can’t even imagine how I could possibly write Legal Blog Watch if I needed to obtain consent every time I linked to a news article. Even if requiring consent for online links would help newspapers — and I doubt this is true — the tradeoff would the death of blogging.

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International Divorces May Be the Perfect Alternative for Couples Living Abroad

June 30th, 2009

No matter how peaceful the circumstances may be, getting a divorce is often a stressful time for couples. It can be particularly stressful for those that are living abroad. International couples are faced with a whole different list of rules and regulations that must be met, and it’s often difficult for them to do so. Don’t let this stop you from getting a divorce when it’s something that you both want. If you can find satisfaction from filing locally, or don’t want to wait for whatever period of time the courts demand, try filing for an international divorce instead.

One big problem that international couples face, especially when one is an expatriate, is jurisdiction. Different jurisdictions have different residency requirements, and it is often extremely difficult to meet these requirements while living abroad. Sometimes you may not even be able to dissolve your marriage in a court where you reside because you do not meet the residency requirements.  With international divorces, residency requirements are rarely a problem, if ever. The majority of the countries that people go to for an international divorce do not have a residency requirement, so there’s no worrying about whether you will meet the qualifications or not.

A second problem that international couples face is time and money. When you apply for a divorce through a local court or a court in your spouse’s country, chances are you’ll need to appear multiple times before the divorce is granted and everything is finalized. If the court is far away and a long stay is needed this can end up costing a considerable sum, not only because of the money you have to shell out for traveling expenses, but also in the form of time missed from work. Getting the necessary time off can be particularly difficult for those in the military. Then you have the lawyer’s fees and various other court costs and, well, you can see how it could easily become and extremely expensive process. When you apply for an international divorce, only one visit is normally required, and the traveling costs can be kept at a minimum.

With these two benefits alone, is it any wonder that more international couples are turning to international divorces in order to get things taken care of quickly and efficiently? There are many reputable sources online that you can turn to for more information and to find people you can contact if you have any questions.

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Running A Criminal Background Check Made Easy!

June 30th, 2009

Many people think that running a criminal history background check is difficult to do or that you need to hire an investigator to find out background information on someone. However, you can do it all on your own if you have an internet connection!

Individuals will dive into somebody’s history and criminal history for a number of reasons. Maybe they’re hiring somebody, considering checking into a babysitter or maybe they’re wondering about someone they just started seeing. Obviously there’s a handful of reasons why you may be interested in someone’s history, and you’ll be happy to know that it’s very easy to do.

The internet has made finding background details on anyone incredibly simple now when compared to how difficult it was in the past. There’s no need to use an investigator any longer and thankfully it’s no longer costly to discover background information on anybody.

You can now visit specialized background history internet sites that let you run a search through their background records database. The database carries tons of information on people. It’s possible to find anyone’s criminal history, wedding history, address history and plenty more. The amount of information that you can find out about someone always amazes me.

You can expect a fee for conducting a criminal background search, but it really isn’t pricey. The websites that offer background checks have to dish out money to keep them up to date and ensure that the information is accurate, so they have to charge something. Don’t worry though - it’s cheap!

The recommended choice is to use a website that provides you unlimited background checks for one time only charge. It’s a smarter option as it winds up up being a lot cheaper.

There’s a a quick trick you can use to attempt to discover info about someone by using Google. Enter it in between quotations and follow it with the city of the person if you know it (eg. “Tony Doe” Texas). Press search and glance at the results that come up. If there was ever information about the individual published online then you may be able to get worthwhile information about the person.

Give the search in Google a shot and then use a professional background check website if you need to afterward. When you use a professional background check service online you will get instant information about the person displayed right on your computer screen. An online criminal background search is a great way to get information on anybody you want.

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A Guide to Washington State Speeding Laws

June 29th, 2009

The maximum speeding limit is set by the State governments and Washington State Speeding Laws have been made to assure the application of that limit. Hence the speeding limit varies according to the Washington State Speeding Laws. There is a default speed limit called “statutory speed limit”.

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Helping the Disabled Attain their Claims Posted By : Ivonne Jade Agustin

June 29th, 2009

Some disabled people in Los Angeles faced many difficulties brought about by their conditions. Most of them are being discriminated in the workplace or were sometimes denied use of many amenities that the region offers.

In addition to this, disabled persons find it hard to get a job and spend for medication they needed to recover from their illness.

These disabled people are entitled to file for claims which can financially help them in their everyday problems. But, not all applicants get what they deserve as their claims are rejected.

According to the Social Security Administration, they reject more than half of their annual applicants for benefits. This is because many applicants’ conditions or impairment do not qualify as a disability and therefore, not eligible to receive disability benefits. However, some of them who are rejected only because of some technicalities such as errors in data or information or missing the deadline for submission.

Lawyers who specialize in Los Angeles Disability Claim can help these applicants. They can represent applicants in an appeal and gather evidence which would prove that their clients deserve to receive a benefit.

Choosing a Lawyer

Picking a lawyer to represent you in these cases is crucial. They would be the one informing you of what needs to be done to attain your claim. Here are some of the things that an expert lawyer must possess:

• Vast training in handling disability claims. The lawyer must have handled cases similar to this prior your case so that you can be assured that he has has the skills and the experience to handle such issue.

• Has high success rate. An expert lawyer must have won other cases so you can be sure that he knows what he is doing. Also, this would prove that the lawyer has knowledge of the nature of your claims.

• Must be easy to reach. Your lawyer must be easy to reach so you can be updated of the progress of your case. He should also be able to inform you of what the case needs and documents you must produce.

• Will be able to explain everything clearly. Lawyers must be able to make their clients understand the importance of each procedure and help them in understanding issues they have problems with.

California’s Disability Program

There are different policies regarding one’s disability in each state. In California, the state has a disability insurance fund taken from the payroll taxes of employees. This would benefit all those who have acquired in times that they would not be able to work due to a disability.

Beneficiaries of these programs would receive 55% of their salary every other week so that they can somehow gain their lost income from disability. In this provision, there is also a paid family leave that allows a relative to leave work to care for the patient or to the newly born.

Social Security Administration

The SSA is the main government’s agency which handles disability and other social security benefits that would be able to help claimants in their financial needs. It manages the two main categories of disability claims handed out to those who deserve it.

These two programs can accommodate people from different social status. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) caters to those who have paid social security income taxes and have earned points in doing so.

On the other hand, there is Supplemental Security Income (SSI) which gives the unemployed and the disabled benefits that they can use to help in their finances and daily needs.

Disabled people must make sure that they have the qualifications needed for these benefits so that they would not waste time in processing claims that would be rejected later on.

People who are eligible to receive Los Angeles Disability Claim should go to agencies where they can be accommodated in order to receive their claims. And, for those who have been rejected, they must keep in mind that there are lawyers who can help them receive benefits they deserve.

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Houston crime lab facing scrutiny from death case

June 29th, 2009

Work by the troubled Houston crime lab is under scrutiny again, this time in the case of a death row inmate seeking a new trial after DNA tests contradicted a lab analyst’s testimony.

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China Suspends 1,000 Lawyers

June 28th, 2009

When I posted about the disbarment threats to lawyers in Beijing, only 20 faced a risk of losing their livelihoods. Turns out that the situation is far worse, with the Beijing Administration of Judicial Lawyers suspending the licenses of over 1,000 lawyers and 90 law firms for failing to pass a newly concocted registration exam, reports New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television.


According to the article, Shanghai human rights lawyer Ma Tianlin believes the suspension of
licenses is retaliation by the Beijing Justice Bureau over the fact
that many Beijing lawyers have demanded direct election of members to
the Beijing Bar Association. Some of the lawyers have appealed to the bureau and the bar association, and have tried to negotiate with officials about the cancellation and suspension of lawyers’ licenses.

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Federal warranty laws and state car lemon law

June 28th, 2009

The purpose of both Federal warranty laws and state car lemon law is to protect vehicle owners from the problems associated with habitually defective vehicles. It’s one thing to take a car into the shop for a repair that is covered under warranty, but it is something else again to do it ten times. Since the first lemon law was passed in 1982, all 50 states have passed legislation to protect consumers from problem vehicles.

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Free Internet People Investigation Tools

June 28th, 2009

Online investigations have, probably, become one of the hottest topics eagerly discussed nowadays at every level, by professional online forensics specialist and a teenager who has just made his very first steps trying to build his ancestry tree using online sources alike. Everybody wishes to learn more about new ways and tools of search for everything starting from the obscure background information about that particular guy living a couple of blocks away from you along the street and ending with online tools incorporating rather sophisticated software to perform online searches for missing relatives or tracing runaway dads, or better debtors sitting now somewhere in the remote corner of the world believing no one will ever find him there living under another person’s name and exploiting someone’s stolen identity.

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Humanitarian Law

June 27th, 2009

this is a set of rules that seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the impact of armed conflict. It protects persons who are not or are not participating in hostilities, and limits the means and methods of warfare. This is also known as the law of war or the law of armed conflict.

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