Law of the Web

Thanks
to a CELOP colleague who last week attended the 97th
annual conference of the American Association of Law Libraries here
in Boston, we have come into possession of an extremely useful tome entitled
Law
of the Web – A Guide to Internet Publishing, by a Washington lawyer
named Jonathan Hart.

The book attempts to be a comprehensive guide to the current
lay of the land in all fields of Internet publishing, although in an
area of law where the
digital
sand is shifting under our feet as we blog. Section headings include:
Freedom of Speech, Trademark Issues (including domain name registration
and cybersquatting), Copyright issues (a favorite of the Dowbrigade,
especially the ‘Fair Use’ haven), Defamation, Data Collection, Privacy,
Electronic Contracts and Spam.  Each area of law is discussed via
cases either recently decided or currently working their way through
the courts. In the area of fair use, for example, Hart analyzes Kelly
v. Arriba Software Corp (77 F. Supp. 2d 1116), CNN v. GoSMS.com, Inc.
(2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16156), Los Angeles Times v. Free Republic (2000
U.S. Dist LEXIS 5669) and Video Pipeline, Inc. v. Buena Vista Home Entertainment,
Inc. (192 F. Supp. 2d 231).

Although most of the lawyers currently under our tuteldge
are corporate types, at least a couple have expressed an interest in
electronic copyright and intellectual property, so we may be able to
use some of this stuff in class.  We hope we get time to read the
rest of the book and look up some of these
cases
before
the
Convention
madness
sweeps
us away
for
Lord knows how long.

check
it out at Amazon.com