p2pnet - rss feed: Looking for legal help — online
p2pnet news | P2P:- If you’re having palpitations, or you want the money from your house sale to go into your pocket rather than an estate agent’s, no worries: there are tons of sites which’ll help you out.
But if you’re looking for reliable legal data, it’s another story.
Say, for example, you need to know what to do about the extortion letter you’ve just received from the RIAA.
About the only free resource available to you is Ray Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People with its huge archive of legal documents relating to RIAA sue ‘em all cases, and lawyers with experience of defending RIAA victims.
Now, however, “services are appearing that may make it easier for consumers to do their own preliminary homework on legal issues in advance of seeking help from a professional,” says the New York Times, going on to cite JDSupra.com as one such.
It’s stocking a free, virtual law library, “by persuading lawyers to do something highly unusual: to post examples of their legal work online for use by one and all, no strings attached,” it says.
Not only but also, many of the documents, articles and newsletters, “can be understood by ordinary mortals who want more background on a legal issue, or who would like to find lawyers with expertise in a particular area,” it promises.
And given that the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is one of the organisations involved, it might be one can approach it with some confidence.
“It works like this,” says the NYT:
“Lawyers who contribute to JD Supra dip into their hard drives for articles, court papers, legal briefs and other tidbits of their craft. They upload the documents, as well as a profile of themselves that is linked to each document. Site visitors who have a legal problem and are thinking about finding a lawyer can use an easily searchable database to look up, say, ‘trademark infringement,’ find related documents and, if they like the author’s experience and approach, perhaps click on his or her profile.
“Contributing lawyers get publicity and credit for the socially useful act of adding to a public database, and visitors get free information, said Aviva Cuyler, a former litigator in Marshall, Calif., who founded the business. ‘People will still need attorneys,’ Ms. Cuyler said,and (Heaven forbid) ‘We are not encouraging people to do it themselves, but to find the right people to help them’.”
The site says JD Supra offers, “free access to a constantly expanding database of legal documents (filings, decisions, forms, articles) from the people whose work gives meaning to the law.”
What can it do for you? That depends on who you are, it says, listing in the legal community, a journalist and looking for legal help as the three search categories.
We entered ‘Recording Industry Association of America’ into the legal area and under ‘research,’ it produced 76 possibilities, first pointing out we could refine our search by jurisdiction, court/circuit/region, type of filing and/or subject matter.
It coughed out:
MGM v Grokster First Amended Complaint for Damages & Injunctive Relief for Copyright Infringement Post Date: 12/06/2007 | Filing Date: 06/13/2002 … 13 Records America, Inc., Walt Disney Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc., WEA 14 International Inc., WEA Latina Inc., and Zomba Recording Corporation will be … more… Contributor: Electronic Frontier Foundation [Full Profile | Docs Posted]
MGM v Grokster Brief of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers et al as Amici Curiae in support of petitioners Post Date: 12/22/2007 | Filing Date: 01/26/2005 … Even the recording industry’s much-publicized lawsuits … Association, Nashville Songwriters Association International, and The Songwriters Guild of America … more… Contributor: Electronic Frontier Foundation [Full Profile | Docs Posted]
In re Aimster Copyright Litigation (Zomba v Deep) Complaint For Contributory & Vicarious Copyright Infringement & Unfair Competition Post Date: 12/03/2007 | Filing Date: 05/24/2001 … STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ZOMBA RECORDING CORPORATION, … to the tiling of thj., suit, the Rccotding Ind\IItry Association of 4 … America.
Searching as a journalist produced, you guessed it —- MGM v Grokster First Amended Complaint for Damages & Injunctive Relief, etc
And under, “You’re involved in a case or situation that requires a lawyer, but you don’t know how to choose one. You’d like to learn more about the legal issues at hand, but you also want to be represented by someone who has worked on cases like yours (has faced the issues you are facing) and has a proven record of success. What to do? Where to turn?”, you guess it again.
But when we went looking for lawyers specifically versed in matters RIAA, nada, even though the EFF is listed.
Meanwhile, “The site opened at the end of February and has attracted about 200 contributors, including small, midsize and large firms, as well as academics and groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Cato Institute,” says the NYT, going on:
“The basic service of posting documents and linked profiles is free to these contributors; the site charges $240 a year if contributors want to add links in their profiles to their e-mail addresses, Web sites and blogs. The site will also carry advertisements.”
It adds:
“Carl Malamud, an Internet radio pioneer in Sebastopol, Calif., and a proponent of free legal information on the Web, said that dozens of Web sites publishing court and other legal information for public use are either in the works or rapidly expanding their offerings. ‘It’s about time legal information is free and open online to the public,” he said.
“‘ Law is the last bastion’.”
(Thanks, DeeDee)
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New York Times - Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource, May 8, 2008
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May 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for visiting, and writing about, JD Supra. Regarding your observation that “when we went looking for lawyers specifically versed in matters RIAA, nada, even though the EFF is listed.” Were you searching document or profiles?
One great thing about the document search utility is that you can use it to find a lawyer who has litigated, or written about, a particular subject, even when that subject’s key words would not ordinarily be included in a profile - like “RIAA.” By searching the documents for RIAA, you can see who has written about it (and how) - and then link directly to their profile from the document search results. We are going to be adding some guides to the site shortly, to help people better understand the different uses of the document and profile search sections.
Feel free to drop me an email if there is anything you want to discuss or that I can help clarify.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Perhaps you could place small ads on some of the popular sites also, such as youtube, Google, Flickr, darkroastedblend, facebook; as well as News sites and music related.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am
“Say, for example, you need to know what to do about the extortion letter you’ve just received from the RIAA.”
I know what to do, I fetch my guns.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I usually just take a crap on the extortion letters and then mail them back.