IN THIS ISSUE
Election 2001 in the UK - US banks facing dotcom class actions - Human rights meet IT - Irish legal web sites - US news in brief: Amazon - Aimster - Lernout & Hauspie TiVo - Domain asset management - Dixons in WIPO win - West & Palm offer hand to law students - Court videoconference links UK with Malaysia

ELECTION 2001 - WIDDY WEB GETS SLAPPY WRIST
With now just one week to go, it was hyped as being the UK's first internet election but to-date the impact of the web on political affairs has been negligible.

According to the Guardian newspaper only 183 candidates have web sites (there are over 3000 candidates standing for election throughout the UK) and only one of them (belonging to Mike Wood, the Labour candidate for Batley) had a visitor counter logging the number of hits the site was receiving. At the end of March this stood at 141, by the end of April it had soared to 252 and by mid-May, the site was out of action and showing an under construction sign.

Despite the fact the last 12 months have seen a whole host of legislation on e-commerce related topic, the internet remains one of the neglected issues in the election. Leaving aside the online child pornography issue, the Guardian reported that out of 2000 national newspaper, television and radio reports on the election, the internet had only been mentioned on two occasions.

Ironically one of those was when the Financial Times pointed out to Tory shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe that her own Widdy Web site was, in the words of one law firm "dangerously close to breaking the law on data protection" by not informing visitors, wanting to volunteer to help the campaign, what would happen to any personal data they submitted. Widdy Web has now been redesigned to include a privacy policy statement.

Two web sites which are however enjoying a boom are www.spinon.co.uk which is running an online Egg Prescott game - you have to hit the deputy prime minister with a virtual egg before he punches you, and www.panlogic.co.uk which is running a Splat the MP game - you have to throw eggs at various politicians who pop up in the House of Commons. You lose points if you hit Britney Spears but you get bonus points for hitting Ann Widdecombe who swings across the Commons chamber Tarzan-style, clad only in a loin cloth.

US BANKS COULD FACE MAJOR CLAIMS OVER DOTCOM FLOTATIONS
An investigation by The Times newspaper has uncovered evidence that at least ten major Wall Street banks could be facing over 100 class action lawsuits from investors alleging that the banks rigged the flotations of internet companies during the recent dotcom boom to maximise the fees and commissions they could earn.

Companies already the subject of litigation include Marketwatch, MP3.com, DoubleClick and Ariba, while the banks mentioned in lawsuits include Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Salomon Smith Barney. A spokesman for CSFB echoed the views of all banks when he said he "believed that the lawsuits are without merit and we intended to defend them vigorously."

Among the allegations being made against the banks are that they used a 'laddering' technique, whereby banks would seek commitments from investors to buy more stock at set prices and set times after the flotation had taken place, so as to ensure shares would increase in value in the short term.

HUMAN RIGHTS MEETS IT
The Scottish Society for Computers & Law is marking Human Rights and Information Technology the topic for its annual lecture next month. The speaker is The Rt Hon Lord Hope of Craighead, a senior Scottish judge who will be drawing on his judicial experience of sitting on a number of recent human rights cases in the House of Lords and the Privy Council.

The date is Friday 15 June. The venue is the Prestonfield Room, John McIntyre Centre, Pollock Halls in Edinburgh and the event starts 6:00 for 6:30pm, followed by an optional supper. Attendance at the lecture is free to both member and non-members of the Scottish SCL. The cost of the supper (including wine) is £26.00 per person. W.Green, the Scottish law publisher, is sponsoring this event and will be demonstrating the recently launched Westlaw UK Scots Law online service from 17:30 onwards. Enquiries about the event (including disabled access) to Brandon Malone, SSCL Director of Programmes & Finance on 0131 226 6703.

IRISH LEGAL WEB SITES
Internet commentator Delia Venables has just published the results of a survey she has conducted of Irish law firm sites. Excluding very large firm sites, she rates these the best of the bunch...

Large firms: Beauchamps, LK Shields, Mason Hayes & Curran and O'Donnell Sweeney, all of Dublin, and Ronan Daly Jermyn, of Cork.

Medium Sized firms: Duncan Grehan & Partners and Kilroys of Dublin, Pierse & Fitzgibbon of Listowel, County Kerry and two firms of patent attorneys (which were included in the survey), Tomkins and FR Kelly & Co.

Small firms: Cafferky, Dermot P Coyne and Tyrrell, of Dublin, John A Sinnott & Co of Enniscorthy, County Wexford and Patrick McMahon, of Newcastle West, County Limerick.

The winners in each category were the ones with good information about the firm and its partners, a pleasing design (often quite simple), a fast loading site and "something extra" to make the site especially interesting. The something extra could include the provision of useful free legal information on the site, the provision of documents on the site for users to download, sections in foreign languages to attract oversees viewers or the provision of property details for the sale of houses. The sites can be accessed via www.venables.co.uk/ireland.htm

Incidentally - and too late to be included in the survey - Dublin solicitors practice Malcolmson Law has gone live with its new web site at www.mlaw.ie

US NEWS IN BRIEF
Amazon - The US Federal Trade Commission said it has decided not to follow up complaints made by two US internet privacy organisations (Junkbusters and EPIC) about Amazon.com. The FTC said it had found no evidence of wrongdoing on Amazon's part when lasy year it changed its privacy policy on the disclosure of personal customer data to third parties.

Aimster - A group of major record companies, belonging to the Recording Industry Association of America, have filed suits in the federal court in New York against Aimster, which runs a music sharing peer-to-peer web site with similarities to Napster, and Launch Media, which operates radio style webcasts. Launch says it hopes it can resolve the dispute without further litigation whilst lawyers for Aimster say the service does not violate any copyrights.

Lernout & Hauspie - US marshalls in Boston have arrested former Lernout & Hauspie CEO Gaston Bastiaens while he was sunbathing in the garden of his Massachusetts suburb at the weekend. The arrest was on the strength of a Belgium warrant accusing him of fraud insider dealing and stock market manipulation at Lernout & Hauspie, the troubled speech recognition company. Belgian authorities are expected to seek Bastiaens extradition to Belgium.

TiVo - TiVo says it has received a US patent that covers many of the key inventions associated with its personal video recording software and hardware. The patent includes TiVo's ability to time-shift programs; its method for processing and synchronizing various multimedia streams in a TV signal; and its storage format for supporting capabilities such as pausing live TV broadcasts, instant replays and slow motion.

DOMAINAUDIT IN DOMAIN ASSET MANAGEMENT DEAL
DomainAudit, the UK based internet domain name asset management service, has announced a deal with Computer Patent Annuities that will provide CPA's 30,000 clients worldwide - this includes over 300 law firms - with access to its services. DomainAudit offers a number of services to management domain names and similar internet rights in the same way as other intellectual property assets. www.domainaudit.com

WIPO BACKS DIXONS AGAINST SUCKS SITES
The WIPO arbitration service has ruled in favour of the UK consumer electronic retailer Dixons in a dispute over the use of the Dixons-online.com and Dixons-online.co.uk web domains. The two domains, owned by an individual based in Saudi Arabia, were set up over a year ago to provide a forum for consumers to post their complaints about Dixons.

Although the sites contained extensive disclaimers disassociating themselves from the official Dixons web site, Dixons said the sites could have confused the public. As a spokesman for Dixons put it: "We are all for freedom of expression but there is a difference between freedom of expression and exploiting a domain name that has very deep links to our company."

From the legal point of view, the significance of the WIPO ruling would seem to be that web site operators cannot hide behind disclaimers in an attempt to fend off legal action from the owners of trademarked domain names. Presumably all those "whateveversucks.com" sites are now also at risk of being closed down by WIPO rulings.

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HANDHELD
US legal publisher West Group and Palm Inc, the developers of the Palm handheld computer, have begun a six month initiative with law students at Stanford University Law School to introduce them to the concept of using technology to gain access to information at anytime.

Students will receive - for a nominal $100 cost - a Palm VIIx with keyboard and wireless access, plus wireless access to West's Westlaw service and six ebook titles and a bundle of relevant software from third party suppliers. The best known of these is probably the Timesolv time and billing application from Elite.com. Elite say that along with preparing students to manage their time on a billable hours basis in their private lives, it will also enable them to track the time they spend working as volunteers in law firms during the course of the academic year. Students get to keep the Palms at the end of the initiative but they will have to pay for any ongoing wireless access.

EAST MEETS WEST IN VIDEOCONFERENCE TRIAL
Coventry law firm Mander Hadley has used a videoconference link with Kuala Lumpur to resolve a dispute over the damages payable in a personal injury action involving a Malaysian resident, who sustained brain damage following a road accident in the UK. Gordon Catford, one of the counsel for the claimants (he was led by Simon Brown QC) recommended the use of the video link as the most cost effective, as well as least traumatic, way of hearing evidence from the claimant's witnesses - including her family and doctors, who were all based in Malaysia.

Mander Hadley used videoconference organisers EyeNetwork to handle the logistics of the event, which ran over seven hours and two days, with an office in Birmingham serving as the virtual courtroom for Judge MacDuff QC, sitting as a high court judge. Although a third day of video testimony had been scheduled, the defendants made an offer of £1 million in damages at the end of day two and this was accepted by the court.

The hearings took place between 8:15am and 1:00pm (London time) to accommodate the seven hour time difference with Malaysia. Although court dress in Malaysia is the same as in the UK (except for wigs) neither robes nor bands were worn to put witnesses at their ease. The protocols for using videoconferencing equipment in civil proceedings were based on those used by the Federal Court of Australia. www.eyenetwork.co.uk

From the publishers of Legal Technology Insider. Click here for the latest legal IT jobs, events diary and additional law reports. Next issue - 07.06.2001