Legal Technology

GPS evidence might drive your case home

EDD special master Craig Ball investigates data from GPS navigation systems as a potential source of electronic evidence. As geopositioning grows more ubiquitous, from dashboard to cell phone, he suggests you ask, "How might I use locator data to make my case or clear my client?"

Open source is far from free

Many executives fail to understand that any violation of an open-source license is a violation of copyright law, which gives rise to significant damages. Epstein Becker's William H. Venema surveys the legal and technical dangers of open source and advises how to manage the risks.

Can Clio help serve your practice?

Many solos and small firms do without practice management software due to high costs and administrative overhead. Now, software as a service, such as Clio and Rocket Matter, gives small offices other options. I took Clio for a free 30-day evaluation and found it worth a visit if you are looking for a new PM or an alternative to what you are using now.

When the watcher is watched

I read a very interesting article in the Washington Lawyer, "Legal Journalism at a Crossroads," by Sarah Kellogg (September 2008, p. 21-28). The subtitle provides the teaser: "Who will tell the public the story of the American legal system?"

Mainstream media is cutting back, even eliminating, their coverage of the law and courts. In its place, the legal profession is taking up the banner. Kellogg portrays the new legal journalism emanating from the courts, law firms, specialized legal news publishers, lawyers, and law professors using Web sites, blogs, wikis, and other new media sites. But as insiders, and stakeholders, how well can lawyers report on their own profession in an unbiased view that is receptive to the general public? Time will tell. For now, unbiased, outside perspectives on the law and courts is an endangered genre.

As a lawyer and an employee of one of a specialized legal news outlet, Law.com (incisivemedia), it is easy to get wrapped up in our own reporting. It will be interesting to see how receptive the rest of the world is to our view when our outlets hit "main street." For example, the Blog of the Legal Times is now headed to Facebook. I'm sure Twitter and Twine are not far off.

Halloween and scary e-mail

In the Halloween tradition, Proofpoint, a provider of unified email security, archiving and data loss prevention solutions, has published some of the scariest e-mail issues of 2008 that includes phishing, "preying on Palin's e-mail," and "Obama's unsightly spam."

Predictive e-discovery pricing

One rarely sees the words "predictive e-discovery pricing" in such close proximity. But see Orange Legal Technologies' Predictive Pricing Estimator. It is currently in beta form, but I doubt that would scare too many readers of this column.

The Predictive Pricing Estimator provides a volume and cost comparison of e-discovery approaches that use the traditional "filter, process, and review" and the Orange LT OneO Discovery Platform. The estimator can also be used to provide volume and cost relationship estimates between the OneO Discovery Platform and non-integrated e-discovery solutions providing analytics, processing, and/or review.

A watchtower for trademark infringement

When you have ongoing business with a client, it is nice to look out for their interest, especially when it is a trademark or copyright registration that needs constant attention. One thing you don't want to hear is that your client is on the telephone to tell you that someone is infringing on a mark that you registered. That's probably not as bad as missing your anniversary date, but it can have some implications for a long-lasting and fruitful attorney-client relationship.

In the trademark world, 60 percent of the work is accomplished when the mark is filed. The other 60 percent is the vigilance needed to ensure that the mark is not infringed. MarkTrend appears to have a nifty tool that builds a watchtower for you and your client that uses search engines, the common law, domain names, and the USPTO to look for infringement and deliver results to your e-mail box. The site also has a docket and calendar feature to help ensure a mark is timely renewed or that any other action taken on the mark is not time barred.

Are you a gadget hunter-gatherer?

I am not a gadget hunter-gather. But I am looking for my next computer that fits in the palm of my hand.

As I get older, I want computing to be affordable, convenient, easy-to-use, ubiquitous, and mobile. Yes, that means keeping the UltraSPARC workstation and the overclocked 32-bit Intel at home.

To find my future computer, I have added Engadget to my RSS feed. Engadget is a blog devoted to consumer electronics and general technology news. The site aggregates numerous blogs that would appeal to the gadget hunter-gatherer and anyone looking for their next handheld computer. Godspeed.

Those annoying Flash upgrades

Have you counted how many times you have had to upgrade your Flash Player lately. Well, there's usually a reason for it. Any technology that approaches ubiquity on the Web is more likely than not to attract a virus. I guess we can consider that a Web "Golden Globe" award that every programmer aspires to.

The U.S. Computer Readiness Response Team (CERT) has put Adobe Flash Player 8.0.39.0 and earlier, and 9.x up to 9.0.115.0, on their Cyber Security Bulletin this week with a high vulnerability status that "allows remote attackers to bypass the allowScriptAccess parameter setting via a crafted SWF file with unspecified 'filter evasion' manipulations."

What does that mean? In a nutshell, the vulnerability can allow an attacker to take control of your system. For that to happen, an attacker must inject a malicious SWF (aka Shockwave Flash) onto a Web site and into your Flash Player. The odds that might happen to you are greater than you winning the lottery, but less than the San Andreas fault moving some time in the future.

Time to upgrade your Flash Player.

InfoWorld debunks 10 power-saving myths

InfoWorld looks at 10 power-saving myths that often pose themselves as theories from consolidating resources into one big server to  LCD monitors use a trivial amount of power to solid state drives, or SSDs, limit power consumption on laptops. Logan G. Harbaugh lines up the myths and takes them out, one at a time. For the cliff note version, see here.