Recent Articles

Podcast: Legendary Lawyer Gerry Spence

August 14, 2008 20:15

Legendary trial lawyer Gerry Spence is our special guest this week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Spence came to national prominence for handling the Karen Silkwood case and was most recently in the news for winning an acquittal for Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. He has never lost a...

Boston Approves New Newsrack Ordinance

August 06, 2008 19:40

The Boston City Council today voted to approve a significant overhaul of the city's ordinance governing the placement of newsracks. The most significant change is in the fees newspapers must pay. Under the prior ordinance, newspapers paid a one-time registration fee of $150. Now, they will be...

Podcast: Zittrain on the Future of the Internet

August 06, 2008 13:19

Unless something is done to change its course, the future of the Internet, as Jonathan Zittrain sees it, is one of far less innovation and far more -- and far more ominous -- control. Zittrain, who just became a tenured professor at Harvard Law School, discusses his book, The Future of the Internet...

Mass. Shield Bill Fizzles in Legislature

August 05, 2008 20:07

Yesterday, The Patriot Ledger carried a story on the apparent death of a reporters' shield bill in Massachusetts."The effort to pass a shield law in Massachusetts offering protections to journalists and their anonymous sources was declared dead by its supporters on Monday."The bill would have put...

My Column Wins National Press Award

July 28, 2008 02:46

Indulge me as I blow my own horn. The American Society of Business Publication Editors this week awarded me its national silver award for best contributed column in a publication with a circulation under 80,000. I received the award for the "Web Watch" column I write for the magazine Law Technology...

Podcast: Viacom v. YouTube v. Privacy

July 25, 2008 20:30

A $1 billion lawsuit by Viacom accuses Google's video-sharing Web site, YouTube, of violating its copyrights. Last week, Google and Viacom reached an agreement to allow Google to mask user information from records before handing them over to Viacom. On this week's legal-affairs podcast...

Judge Backs Schools in Open Meeting Case

July 25, 2008 02:53

The MetroWest Daily News reports that a Massachusetts Superior Court judge has ruled for the Wayland School Committee in an open meeting law case challenging the discussion in executive session of the school superintendent:"A Middlesex Superior Court judge has ruled the Wayland School Committee did...

Revised Guide to Mass. Court Records

July 25, 2008 02:47

The District Court Department of the Massachusetts courts has issued a revised version of its Guide to Public Access, Sealing & Expungement of District Court Records. The blog Massachusetts Law Updates says of it: "This is a publication we have long loved in the law libraries for its clarity in...

Boston Proposes Hike in Newsrack Fees

July 11, 2008 01:14

I testified Monday at a Boston City Council hearing on an proposed overhaul to Boston's newsrack ordinance. Jessica Heslam at the Boston Herald covered the hearing and has this report: Menino pushes plan to hike fees for city’s news boxes. It was also picked up by Editor & Publisher.

Podcast: Judge Gertner on Blogging, Speech

July 10, 2008 22:12

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who attracted the attention of bloggers and the news media earlier this year when she joined the roster of contributors to the new Slate legal blog, Convictions, shares her thoughts on judicial blogging and judicial speech in this week's episode of our...