Moritz Legal Information Blog

We have loads of information in the law library about hunting for jobs, interviewing, and what it's like when you actually get the job. Our newest item: Career Resources , an online legal research guide. In addition to the classic job-search resources, the guide features tips on researching employers and alternative legal careers. Check out my favorite alternative legal career here .

Everyone has a favorite government website, right? Of course! My favorite comes from the U.S. Copyright Office: www.copyright.gov . Even the URL warms my heart (not that I don't love the alphabet soup sites the government churns out, like www.faa.gov , www.epa.gov , www.fta.dot.gov (a twofer!)). What makes the U.S. Copyright site so special? It provides the answer to this only-on-the-Internet conundrum: if a monkey takes a selfie, who owns the copyright? * Per Section 20(a)1 of the U.S. Copyright Act , "Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work." Whether or not a non-human animal can own a copyright is addressed at Slate.com. Need another reason to visit www.copyright.gov ? It's fun facts . Today's fun fact from the U.S. Copyright Office: The Statue of Liberty is one of the most famous sculptures ever registered for copyright, and may be the largest. In 1876 French sculptor Frederic August

This Wednesday, August 6, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in same sex marriage cases from four states.   As the Columbus Dispatch reports:   " It will be the single-largest legal event in the same-sex marriage debate since June 26, 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional."   If you plan to attend in Cincinnati, consult the Sixth Circuit's Notice to the Public .   According to this notice, audio recordings of the arguments will be available on the court's website "as soon as practical."   Prepare by reading the case briefs.   The Moritz Law community can find these documents on Bloomberg Law , which gets them from pacer.gov.   Select the "Litigation and Dockets" tab, choose the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and enter a party name.   Many of the briefs are posted online (sometimes by partisan organizations) – free search engines should also lead y

How much do you know about Internet security? When you send emails, do you know if your email service is secure? As an attorney (or a clinic student working with clients), are you confident you are not violating the Rules of Professional Conduct when sending emails? How about when you use search engines with specific facts from a case---are those searches confidential? To learn more about what you might be missing in this area, check out 7 Tips for Sharing Legal Files Securely and How to Secure Your Wi-Fi Network Against Intrusion

The death of a loved one can be difficult, especially when their online life continues to exist. A British funeral service called R Hyde Chambers has created an infographic to help the bereaved know what's what on social media sites if you're trying to wrap things up for someone or if you're planning for yourself. More on the infographic can be found here . Also, apparently services in some countries offer more for those who wish to close out their online lives. Japan's Yahoo! is now offering Yahoo Ending. Once the search engine receives an official notice of death for a user, it will delete all his or her Yahoo Japan data, cancel any charges to Yahoo’s digital wallet, expunge files from Yahoo Box online storage and send farewell messages to loved ones." The search terms "estate planning" and "social media" used together don't bring up much in the library catalog---consider whether this is because no book exists on the subject or no la

Now through August 27, 2014, you can help the law library test-drive a new database! We're always looking for more content for our patrons, and the latest is ProQuest Legislative Insight . Access is good through August 27, 2014, so please give it a try and let us know what you think. What is ProQuest Legislative Insight? In a nutshell, it's extraordinarily comprehensive federal legislative history in PDF form (i.e., a form acceptable for most law journal acc checks). From ProQuest , The following document types may be included in a legislative history: bills, reports, documents, hearings CRS reports, committee prints, Congressional Record sections), Presidential Signing Statements, and Statutes."

We wrote about Casetext in April; now there's new news: Casetext is transitioning to a new site, currently available at http://beta.casetext.com . As part of the transition process Casetext has temporarily frozen the old database of cases. In other words, they are not being updated, which is why you can't find the US Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision on the old site. This information serves as a helpful reminder to always know the coverage of the database you are searching. You might think you've found all there is to know on a subject, but your research is only as comprehensive as the source you are searching.