shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

      If you’re looking for some quick shlepper pointers, we’ve got a few today.

Which party was acting like a jackass?     

If the House Republican Study Committee spent a few minutes studying shlep  (e.g., see “copy permission and copyfraud” and “fair use and copyright“), it wouldn’t have falsely accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “pirating” 16 clips of House floor debate that had appeared on C-Span, when she included them on her weblog The Gavel.   See today’s New York Times, “Which Videos Are Protected? Lawmakers Get a Lesson,” Feb. 26, 2007.  Although NYT says that members of Congress are “learning the complexities of copyright law, much the way the casual YouTube user has learned,” the relevant point here is really not all that complex: “works” made by the federal government (such as shots taken by House cameras on the floor) are in the public domain.  On the other hand, C-Span asserts its copyright over materials shot by its own cameras at other congressional functions.  If the Study Committee needs a bit of fast cribbing, it might try either the podcast or transcript of Nolo.com’s piece “Blogs, Websites and Podcasts: When Do You Need Permission?”  

   Generational Generalities:  If Bruce MacEwen at AdamSmithEsq is correct in his posting on the law library of the future, the congressional staffers discussed above are likely to use very different research tools, depending on their ages.  Bruce says that “librarians need to understand that they are dealing with four generations of lawyers in terms of attitudes towards media, technology, and research.”  He then “roughly” characterizes each generation.  Give it a read and tell us how accurate you think he is.  (via Bob Coffield, at his Health Care Law Blog, in Blawg Review 97; many thanks to Bob for pointing to our recent piece on Leaving Children Home Alone)  

  Before Using a Public Record Retriever. . .  PRB’s Public Records Blog offers a useful Essential Checklist When Using Public Record Retrievers.  The list will help you clarify just what you’re looking for and help make sure your expectations and those of the hired retriever are in sync before the research begins. TVCAlert points out “Of course, the one big question not on this list that you will want to ask the retriever is ‘what is the cost?’  This answer cannot be determined until the ten items [on the list] are clear to both parties.” (see our prior post researching public records)  

   One that Oscar Forgot:  Last night’s Academy Awards ceremony apparently overlooked a real contender in the Short-form documentary category.  Russel Mokhibor wrote a glowing review of Fair Fight in the Marketplace in the Feb. 21, 2007 edition of Corporate Crime Reporter.  Mokhibor is impressed (and surprised) that a 30-minute primer on antitrust could be so interesting and informative. The review notes that “The movie, narrated by National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson, traces the history of the antitrust laws – and keeps it interesting for young people with cartoon depictions of price fixing and television clips of kids competing.”  The English-language film will have Spanish and Mandarin subtitles (the review has an interesting explanation for the Mandarin). There’s even a special edition with commentary for high schoolers. The reviewer also gushes that:

“[T]he film actually becomes gripping educational television – am I losing my bearings here? – when it profiles the Mylan Labs, ADM and Microsoft cases.” 

Perhaps the film, which is the brainchild of Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, will be eligible for an Oscar next year, as it will have its broadcast premiere on PBS in April.   You can see it online at any time here.