Institutional Repositories: Who is Using What?

• New law journal launches that focuses on open source

  There's a new law journal in town: "The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and statutory changes."

  
  
• Will legal software replace lawyers?

  Software won't replace lawyers, but it will reduce the demand for certain routine legal services and raise the complexity of litigation. Those without the software will be at a disadvantage. It will also cut into the work of paralegals. But not lawyers.

  
  
• WordPress and the GPL

  Any WordPress theme is so entwined with the main WordPress code as to make it a "derivative work," and thus subject to WordPress' copyright and licensing (which is the GPL).

  
  
• Measuring the impact of technology on the law

  It's difficult to come up with more quantitative measurements to look at how technology has impacted law. One could look at the development of new technologies (via patent applications, perhaps?) and then look to see how soon afterwards the invention began to show up in legal cases. Another interesting idea would be to see if changes in technology--the development of new citation systems, more rapid dissemination of decisions and publications, and later the creation of electronic repositories such as Lexis and Westlaw--had any impact on the way lawyers and judges developed law.

  
  
• Narratives and evidence in the litigation of high-tech patents

  Colleen Chien has a paper in SSRN, dated April of 2009, that explores the narrative of patents, from the epithet of "troll" applied to patent owners who seek only to leverage their patent through licensing, and not application, and including our rather romantic perception of an inventor.

  
  

Post title: Institutional Repositories: Who is Using What?

Authored by: krisnelson

Date posted: Apr 25, 2007

Categorized as: education • library • technology

Tagged with: software

Alternate URL: /2007/04/institutional-repositores-who-is-using.html