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Is “free” a potentially workable business model for legal services?
Lawyers are safer than musicians in that distribution of legal knowledge is harder - but nonetheless technology will revolutionize legal services, and law firms that adapt to the ideas behind “free” as a business model will survive and prosper - those that fail to adapt will not.
June 2009 / 5 min.
The current television business model will fail
The television industry is where newspapers were 10 years ago - in denial that they need to change their business model. They have tried, on occasion, to argue that skipping commercials is “stealing” and similar types of arguments. They are, as Henry points out, still making money - so they can afford to ignore the changes. I predict that, as inevitable as the death of their current business is, their attempt to legislate content protections is as inevitable.
June 2009 / 2 min.
Texas effectively denies open access to state law
A recent change to the Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure gives “memorandum” opinions full precedential value - but those opinions are currently only accessible through the very expensive Westlaw or LexisNexis.
June 2009 / 2 min.
A manifesto for the new Web from building43
Building43 is the latest Robert Scoble/Rackspace venture, a kind of online community space to develop the future of the Web. (Or something like that.) I am typically suspicious of grand ventures by luminaries - so often they fail to live up to expectations. Still, I’m willing to give it a chance - and, hopefully, to translate some of its message to the legal world.
June 2009 / 1 min.
Business method patents rejected in Canada
Michael Geist explains the current status of business method patents in Canada where, so far, they have been firmly rejected - unlike in the United States.
June 2009 / 2 min.
Professionalism and pharmacist protection laws
Three questions related to pharmacist protection laws: (1) “Why should we be concerned only about religious objections to dispensing pharmaceuticals related to reproduction?” ; (2) “why should only professionals benefit from this protection?”; and (3) “why should we be concerned only with religious objections, as opposed to other conscience-based ones?”
June 2009 / 3 min.
Promises, promises: the MBA oath
An interesting new drive for greater ethical behaviour in the business environment.
June 2009 / 2 min.
Is the crisis in attorney hiring due to the failure of legal education?
Image by ZaNiaC via Flickr Jordan Furlong at Slaw.ca suggests that the current trend of big firms paying associates not to work for them is indicative of a larger crisis, created by an educational system that doesn’t provide new lawyers with the skills they need: [T]he profession is going to go through a crisis, one […]
June 2009 / 2 min.
Evolution vs. Revolution: Overcoming Resistance to Change
Image via CrunchBase Speaking in the context of technology, Michael Crandell at GigaOM writes: Take yourself back for a moment to 1990, to the era of dueling operating systems: OS/2 and Windows. At the time, many people still used MS-DOS, and Windows was new (and klunky). Microsoft had cooperated with IBM to create OS/2 to […]
June 2009 / 3 min.
Thomson Reuters Lawsuit Against Zotero Dismissed
Image via Wikipedia Sean, a Zotero co-director, announced yesterday that the lawsuit filed by Thomson Reuters (makers of EndNote) was dismissed yesterday: I’m delighted to announce that this morning the Fairfax Circuit Court dismissed the lawsuit filed against Zotero by Thomson Reuters. The lawsuit had claimed that the Center for History and New Media “reverse-engineered” […]
June 2009 / 1 min.