Documents Is Documents

I blogged a little last year about the probable ease of admitting Web pages as evidence (Electronic Discovery And Weblogs), and a colleague of mine later had some fun during the FareChase litigation introducing a contradictory Web page he located in court during the direct exam of an adverse witness (Cross Exam Heaven). Now CIS reports that "a magistrate judge in the Northern District of Illinois held that 'snapshots' taken by the Internet Archive that depict web pages as they appeared in the past are admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence. The court rejected the arguments...that the archived pages constituted hearsay and that the Internet Archive was an 'unreliable source.'" [Via BoingBoing]

Good for the magistrate judge. You might be surprised at what documents routinely are admitted in evidence. There's no reason to deem Web pages any more unreliable than any other form of scribbling, particularly those in the Internet Archive, the whole purpose of which is to provide an enduring record.

Give A Hoot, Prosecute

Your IP, that is. Xeni Jardin: "Couldn't we just settle this with a round of topless onion dip wrestling and some free draft pitchers?" More from J. Craig.

A Different Kind Of Crack Baby

"Childproofing" only goes so far.

Watching The Blawgs Go By

Lisa Stone, who ably wrote the Convention Blog Watch for the L.A. Times during the DNC, is now watching (and blogging) the new Law.com network of law blogs. It's nice to see blawgers getting paid while retaining full editorial control over their sites. That Law.com ad-spot, though — oy.

Absorbing

Says here SpongeBob SquarePants is the "most watched kids' show in television history," with an estimated 60 million viewers.

Says here Chris Locke has added the title Chief Blogging Officer to his list. (Still, it's tough to beat "Loose Cannon.") In the blogging-for-dollars discussion, this works for me on both levels, i.e.,Chris flacking for hire, and bloggers getting to use and point readers to what would otherwise be unavailable material. I hope the project will encourage HighBeam's considerable list of publishers to follow the lead of The New York Times as far as giving bloggers access to closed archives and enduring article links.