HUMAN LAW MEDIATION

The Empire Strikes Back - But Too Hard

Copyright infringement is increasingly a topical issue particularly as the technology exists to eat away at big corporate firms' profits.

Sony in attempting to deal with piracy and illegal copying have turned to a controversial spyware copy-protection software. Placing the CDs, from 50 artists including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Celine Dion leads to users having to download hidden files into the computer which acts as spyware.

As the Telegraph wrote earlier this week "Sony touted the CDs as the latest war to prevent piracy and illegal copying, but the situation has turned into a consumer relations disaster."

The company has now been forced to recall nearly 5m compact discs, a class action lawsuit has been filed against in Sony in California and the State of Texas has joined the fray as well filing a lawsuit as well. Texas is seeking penalties of around $100,000 per violation.   

Peter Drucker - An appreciation

The recent passing away of Peter Drucker means that the world has lost one of the greatest management thinkers ever. An appreciation to his life appears in this BBC article.

What I found most amazing about his work was that even into his 90s, he was making profound insights into how the digital economy was impacting society. I really enjoyed his book "Managing in the Next Society."

A fantastic contributer to the world. By all accounts, a man of great humility as well. 

Blogging- Is it worthwhile?

One of the latest trends amongst web users is to put weblogs(or blogs) online. While the legal profession has seen a few new blogs appear within the past 6 months, frankly there are still only a small number which may be partly due to the fact there is mystic about what blogs are and what purpose they serve.

This post seeks to provide further guidance on this issue:

What is a weblog?

A useful definition is given by the weblog hosting firm TypePad who describe weblogs as "a way of publishing to the web one idea at a time. By simplifying the process of publishing, letting authors create posts easily, and making it simple to link to related ideas on the web, blogs make it easy to update a website while still making sure your words retain a clear, personal voice."

How do weblogs differ from websites?

With weblogs it is much easier to put material online and the nature of the medium anything between a few words or a long essay online. When new material is added online, you do not have to rearrange the rest of the content - It happens automatically. This contrasts to a conventional website. In addition, you can invite comments from webusers so that they can engage with what you have written online.

What are the potential benefits to lawyers?

It is very much in the case of the eye of the beholder. For example, there is a weblog written anonymously by a lawyer at feedmelegal which has the purpose of adding "another voice to those lauding the potential benefits of such technology, but purely in the context of the practice of law and the sharing of legal knowledge with clients, potential clients and, to some extent, the public generally."

Alternatively, weblogs can take a more open approach whereby they can enable lawyers to let their views known on legal issues. The law firm, Mills & Reeve have a blog called Naked Law written by their technology team, which I read often. According to their lawyer, Peter Wainman, blogging has had the benefits of enabling him and other lawyers to engage with the community and to raise the team's profile.      

The main reason why I blog is that I have a strong interest in current affairs and technology. Blogging enables me to express my interest. I have only been blogging actively for about 5 weeks but my own experience has been that my firm's website has gone up significantly in the search rankings and I have obtained two new clients.

Alternatively, you do not have to blog on anything to do with law. I am aware of one lawyer who has a weblog on Harley Davidsons.   

Which hosting package should I use?

In my experience there are 2 key packages which you can use namely, Blogger.com and TypePad

Blogger.com is now owned by Google and its main advantage is that is free and in a relatively short space of time you can set up a weblog. I think the main weakness of blogger.com is that the quality of templates is only average and if you want to adjust these you have to possess knowledge of HTML code.    

TypePad is a superior product to blogger.com due to the ease with which you can set up a templates and can organise categories. In addition, you can easily analyse how many people have visited your site. What I like about TypePad is that the quality of templates is so high and that you need no knowledge of HTML code to adjust the templates. Whilst there is a cost, you receive a free 30 day trial.

TypePad is not without its weaknesses which their clients know about and these mainly focused on some well documented performance issues.

A more detailed comparison between the two packages has been written by an American marketing professional Emily Robbins.

If you decide blogging with TypePad is for you, the annual price varies from £49.95 to £149.95 per year depending on the type of package for you. Payment can be made monthly.

What is RSS?

One of the issues relating to weblogs is the fact that you can have RSS is a Web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication.

The technology of RSS enables Internet users to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds and these are typically sites that change or add content regularly.

The RSS formats provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other meta-data. This information is delivered as an XML file called an RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. In addition to facilitating syndication, RSS allows a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using an aggregator.

Some weblogs (but not all) provide this - Recently I read that less than 10% of weblogs provide a RSS stream.   

What are the dangers of weblogging?

Having been blogging for a relatively short space of time, I think a danger is that you can write something that you come to regret. Lawyers should be tuned to the defamation issues of blogging and sometimes you need to pause prior to publication of a post. With the nature of blogging, which encourages other users to make comments, you should always check (and edit) prior to publication. 

What is podcasting?

Podcasting is often used to refer to independent audio shows that can be downloaded from the Internet. According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia: "Podcasting is a blanket term used to describe a collection of technologies for automatically distributing audio and video programs over the internet via a publish and subscribe model. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated 'radio shows,' and gives broadcast radio or television programs a new distribution method."

What are the main benefits of podcasting?

The main significance for me is that it enables me to communicate with the online world using a different medium namely, my voice. It is a different way of communicating with the online world. Unlike streamed radio, you can listen to the podcast whenever you want.

A brief guide to defamation law

In an earlier post that I did, I referred to the growing importance of defamation law due to the ease with which people can put their words online.

During my online travels, I found quite an interesting section on the Weblaw defamation page.(Weblaw is the Internet/E-Commerce division of the London law firm, Sprecher Grier Halberstam.)

Here they provide a succinct but useful analysis of the legal position on defamation law.

They observe that key legislation derives from the Defamation Act 1996 and the Information Society Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC).

Important recent cases include Godfrey v Demon Internet, Dow Jones v Gutnick, Dow Jones v Jameel and Don King v Judd Burstein (Lennox Lewis's New York lawyer) have helped to clarify the law in this area.

According to Weblaw in the context of online defamation:-

i. It is mainly irrelevant where the website is hosted and that what is important is whether the website is accessed in a jurisdiction where the claimant has a reputation capable of being damaged;

ii. English defamation law can be applied to Internet publications irrespective of where the parties are based so long as any such publication cannot be considered negligible and that any action would represent a proportionate and meaningful use of the court’s time and resources;

iii. ISPs who fail quickly to remove allegedly defamatory content can themselves become a party to the defamation. They may, in any event, be compelled to disclose details of publishers whose identities are not apparent from the face of any hosted site.

What impresses me about this summary is the fact that it is concise but gives some useful pointers for us all.

Last chance to book for Employment Seminar

I am informing you that this is your last chance to book for our forthcoming seminar at the Lansdowne Club, 9 Fitzmaurice Place, Green Park, London W1J 5JD which will take place on Tuesday 29^th November from 2 to 5 p.m.

The workshop will be on Employment Law – Contracts and Disciplinary Processes. The speakers will be myself and an experienced Employment law barrister, William Josling of Fenners Chambers, Cambridge.

An accompanying CD Rom will be given to the guests containing the PowerPoint slides, detailed notes, a sample Employment Contract & Disciplinary Procedure together with some useful clauses which can be easily inserted within the precedents.

To view some of the Powerpoint slides please click Download employment_update_2005.ppt 

To view a sample of the notes, please click Download restrictive_covenants.pdf .

You can download a booking form here - Download event_booking_form.pdf

Please note that terms and conditions do apply and the advice given at the seminar and within the slides and notes is of a general nature and should not be used as specific legal advice.

The fee for this event will be £149.95 plus Vat.

The fusion of TV, computers & newspapers continues

The Telegraph on Tuesday is my recommended read.

It contains the excellent Roy Greenslade media column which often goes some way to making sense of how the digital revolution is impacting the newspaper profession.

This week, Greenslade points out that the latest newspaper sales for October show that the 10 national titles sold an average of 11.3 million copies a day, the lowest in the past 50 years.

Furthermore, he refers to the deposed editor of the Financial Times, Andrew Gowers saying that the print's days are numbered. 

Elsewhere in the newspaper, you can read that the Telegraph is now offering free podcasting of its newspaper where spoken word content is distributed over the internet.

Finally, there is a section on how the internet portal, AOL is to launch its own television network on the web.

These are just another series of example of how television, film, radio and publishing industries are converging.      

The revolution speeds on

One of the technology books which is attracting some interest is written by Ray Kurzweil who is a scientist and inventor.

In his book "The Singularity is Near" he predicts that mankind will see as much progress between the years 2000 and 2014 as there was in the whole of the 20th Century.

Too extreme? I do not think so.

Consider these unlikely statements by respected people:

The late Peter Drucker wrote "The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and financially yes, but not structurally and economically."

Tom Peters, author of Re-Imagine predicts "At least 80 percent of white-collar jobs, as we know them today, will either disappear entirely or be reconfigured beyond recognition."   

Stephen Hawkins said in an interview with the German magazine, Focus  "Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer generated robots will take over the world." 

Conflict of Interest- It does not just happen to lawyers

One of the stories dominating the London newspapers is that of the former Washington ambassador's memoirs, Sir Christopher Meyer.

His memoirs are apparently sensational and have been serialised in the The Guardian and the Daily Mail.

Myer has been heavily criticised as he has supposedly breached confidences and has put himself in a potential conflict of interest situation as he is part time chairman for the Press Complaints Commission. 

As Jack Straw said last week "What are people supposed to do? He in the newspapers saying controversial things. If people want to complain to the newspaper about what he has said, who do they complain to?" 

An integral aspect of lawyers work is that they should not put themselves in a position where there could be an actual or potential conflict of interest.

This is enshrined within the professional conduct rules and in my experience, most solicitors that I know or have worked with, comply with these rules.

Of course, we do come across instances where the rules can be bent or broken.

I know of one occasion when a lawyer advised advised a client on a litigation matter.

A few weeks later he found out that his then boss was acting for the opponent on the same matter and it was clear that the boss was aware of the nature of the advice.

In light of the fact that it was going to be a huge case for the partner with the prospect of enhancing his fees by at least £30k, the lawyer was not entirely surprised that there was no consultation with him on whether the firm should be acting or not.

Ed Miracle instructs UK law firm, Human Law

Further to my recent posts on this matter, I can inform you that the American artist, Ed Miracle has instructed the UK law firm, Human Law to represent him within the UK & the Commonwealth.(excluding Canada)

This follows the copyright infringement of his painting(on the left) "I Told You So."

Human Law have appointed the barrister, Charles Apthorp of 5 Essex Court Chambers, London to advise and represent the client's interests.

 

The bid to patent cereal.

There was an interesting article in the Sunday Telegraph(6th November 2005) under the title "Bran hits the fan in US cereal cafe wars."

A potential legal battle awaits as lawyers for the Chicago based, Cereality chain have now submitted a 40 point claim to the United States Patent Office, covering how the company makes and markets a bowl of cereal.

An opponent of the patent application, Gavin Baker comments that the issue is "whether people should be able to claim an exclusive right on mundane ideas any eight-year-old could think of. When someone is trying to take out a patent on mixing cereals and adding milk, that is wrong."      

The application itself is quite broad and includes the firms' uniforms, the kitchen cabinet display area and the way that the cereals are mixed.   

Copies of the application have been sent to rival businesses with the warning that infringement could lead to triple damages.

In turn, opponents of the application have said that these legal moves are an attempt to bully the others out of business.