News Items
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Facebook Kills Off Name Search
05/27/2016 - 16:34After many years of hiding the search page where you could search Facebook for a user by name without being logged into an account, Facebook has finally killed the feature off. For many years, searchers could use the search form at https://www.facebook.com/srch.php to perform a name search through the Facebook user database – even if the searcher wasn’t logged into their own...
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Oracle v. Google: The Social Media Research Ban
05/26/2016 - 16:47In a verdict handed down Thursday, May 26, 2016, jurors found that Google’s use of basic elements of the Java programming language to build its Android mobile operating system was a fair use under federal copyright law. While this is an important case in the fair use/copyright milieu, an earlier order by Judge Alsup is nearly as important to those following juror social media research...
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Legal Ethics Considerations for Lawyers' Use of Cloud Computing Services
04/14/2016 - 09:49We often get questions about the security of "cloud computing" services like Google Apps and whether that security is tight enough for lawyers to use them. Google Apps, for example, meets the security standards put in place for the online storage of government agencies' information set out in the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2000 (FISMA 44 U.S.C. § 3541, et...
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Google Kills Blogsearch (Again) - But This Time They REALLY Mean It
03/28/2016 - 14:01We have previously written about Google's move to integrate its BlogSearch results into its already existing NewsSearch results. At that time, we identified a work-around that would allow you to retrieve Blog-only results from the BlogSearch database's previous incarnation. Google recently discontinued access to that work-around - killing BlogSearch once and for all. Results from blogs...
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Bench Reporter Archives California Tentative Rulings Into a Searchable Database
03/09/2016 - 11:45California lawyers will be interested to learn about a new site, Bench Reporter, which archives thousands of Superior Court Tentative Rulings (primarily from Los Angeles County). Tentative Rulings were introduced in the 1960s in Los Angeles. They later expanded to other counties. Judges are not required to use Tentative Rulings. (See California Rule of Court 3.1308 to learn what procedure your...
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Google Expands Translate Service to 103 Languages
03/08/2016 - 21:41Google has added 13 additional languages to its Google Translate service. This brings the total number of languages Google Translate can translate into or out of to 103. Google claims that with this addition will, "help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world." Google also claims that with these...
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Update to “New Relationship Report in TLOxp”
03/03/2016 - 17:31In an earlier post, we reported that TLOxp announced a forthcoming “Relationship Report,” which allows subscribers to simultaneously run one report comparing the assets (typically this refers only to real property and vehicles—not bank accounts or stocks) and showing other connections between two subjects. Pricing had not been announced at that time. Now that we have tried out...
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The Unofficial User Guide to New Casemaker Features
02/17/2016 - 11:54The preview we posted last month of our "The Unofficial User Guide to New Casemaker Features" has proven to be very popular with readers. As we explained in the preview, while the folks at Casemaker have been extremely busy adding new features and content to their database, and extending date coverage further back in time, their online User Guide has not kept pace, and is no longer up...
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How to Conduct a Quick Google Scholar Search with the Click of a Button
02/17/2016 - 11:50For those who like to conduct a quick Google Scholar search for case law or articles, you can add a Scholar Button to the Firefox and/or Chrome browsers’ bar. This allows you to launch the Google Scholar search box right from your browser bar without typing the URL. After the Google Scholar button is installed, click the button that is now located on your browser bar (see next image)....
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Los Angeles Superior Court Civil Cases: Finally, Free Party Name Searching Option
02/14/2016 - 08:46What We Used to Do to Search by Party Name Although you can search civil (http://linkon.in/lasupernumber) and criminal (http://linkon.in/lasupercrimdefname) case summaries (dockets) free by case number using the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s official website, searching by party name requires a fee, as shown in the fee schedule below (civil:http://linkon.in/lasupparty and...