Author: Nick Holmes

Nick Holmes is Editor of this Newsletter. He is a publishing consultant specialising in the legal sector and is Managing Director of legal web services company infolaw Limited. Email nickholmes@infolaw.co.uk. Twitter @nickholmes.

Keeping up with IP law

There is no shortage of blogs and updates on intellectual property law as IP is a particular preoccupation as the internet and the knowledge economy develop. Here’s a selection, with links to these and more in the infolaw Lawfinder Blogs catalogue. The IPKat and family One of the longest-established bloggers on IP law is Prof […]

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Who owns copyright in judgments?

With Delia Venables In one of our CPD courses last year, in a chapter on access to law, we stated that “There is some argument whether judges are public servants or not and hence whether their judgments are public sector information or not. In addition, regarding older judgments, the low level of originality required for […]

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Keeping up with information law

Another legal topic that has developed hand in hand with the internet is information law – a small but perfectly formed area of law where there is a great deal of online update, comment and other activity, not just from qualified lawyers, but from journalists and rights activists. Here is a selection of key blogs […]

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Introducing ICLR Online

In October 2011 the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting launched the new ICLR Online service, for the first time publishing their own reports digitally: previously they had been available on CD and online only through third party publishers: Justis, LexisNexis and Westlaw. ICLR Online includes all the reports published by ICLR for England and Wales […]

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Keeping up with technology and media law

One of the most active law topics on the internet is, of course, technology law. Techies invented and developed the internet and have always been at the forefront of web publishing via forums, blogs, wikis and other social media; and tech lawyers have not been far behind as internet developments have thrown up many new […]

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Is free law good enough?

It is ironic that BAILII, which came into being to free the law, has been called out recently for restricting access to the law. A Guardian editorial in September criticised the status quo in relation to the publication of court judgments and called for more open access. In so doing BAILII came across as the […]

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The end of print? – a law librarian’s view

In the In the May/June issue, Nick Holmes suggested that particular types of print are under threat and he questioned whether ebooks were the future. In the last issue we published replies from three key law publishers. This time we provide a law librarian’s view. Ruth Bird, Bodleian Law Librarian Chris Hendry (Sweet & Maxwell, […]

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The end of print? – the law publishers reply

In the May/June issue, Nick Holmes suggested that particular types of print are under threat for a number of reasons and he questioned whether ebooks were the future. We asked key law publishers to respond. Sweet & Maxwell, Thomson Reuters – Chris Hendry, Head of Advanced Media Print is undoubtedly on a downward spiral, accelerated […]

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Rough and ready Justice

On 1 April 2011 the Justice site (www.justice.gov.uk) was born. This is not the Ministry of Justice site by another name but the beginnings of a “super-site” that will act as a portal to all services within the justice system for the professional user. The previous administration’s “Transformational Government Strategy” (published by the Cabinet Office […]

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Law publishing – the end of print?

There’s too much in favour of print to bury it prematurely, but we know that particular types of print are under severe threat from the disruptive influences of the internet. The continuing decline of newsprint in the face of free news online has been well documented. Trade magazines also are falling like ninepins as their […]

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Social networking – do you get it?

2010 was definitely the year of the social network. Big user numbers. Huge valuations. Excessive media coverage. The majority of us now know what social networking means: it means Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Let’s see who’s using them and why. Facebook is where Generation Y hangs out big time. In that age bracket you really […]

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Blogging – been there, done that?

All the talk these days is about social networking. Have you got a Facebook page? Do you Tweet? Are you LinkedIn? But we should not forget that the granddaddy of the so-called social media is blogging and that’s been around for a long time; so long, in fact, that blogging is now unremarkable; blogging is […]

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