BerkeleyLaw Library News

Fair Use Prevails for Hathi Trust, Libraries

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 PDT

A federal judge in New York ruled October 12, 2012, in favor of the HathiTrust mass digitiation project [MDP] and against Author's Guild claims that libraries participating in the Trust had infringed authors' copyrights. Judge Harold Baer, Jr., of the SDNY wrote:

I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by Defendants' MDP and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals espoused by the ADA .

Supreme Court Justices on Legal Writing

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Bryan Garner of LegalProse.Org has posted the videos of extensive and revealing interviews he conducted with 8 of the 9 U.S. Supreme Court Justices in 2006-2007. The interviews focus on what the Justices consider to be good and bad legal writing. The Justices also discuss the literary influences on their own legal prose. Read the NPR story here. The interviews have been published in the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing.

How do I access the New York Times?

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

The New York Times now limits free access to information on their website. If you cannot get what you need on the website and you don't have a subscription, try the following sources:

Westlaw (enter "NYT" in the "Search for a database" field on the left side of the screen; then select "retrieve most recent").
Westlaw Next (enter "NYT" in the search box and click on "New York Times" in the drop down menu).
Lexis (click on the "News & Business" tab and go to "Individual Publications" and select "New York Times").
Factiva (select UC Berkeley and then search for "New York Times" in the "Source" field).
Bloomberg (click on the "News" tab, then click on the "Search" tab. Enter "New York Times" in the "Sources" box.)

We understand that the New York Times is working on providing access to colleges and universities -- we will keep you posted. If you have questions, ask one of the reference librarians for assistance.