Courtroom View Network is providing live coverage of eBay v. Craigslist

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The Delaware Court of Chancery, in Georgetown, Delaware, is playing host to a wild one.  Courtroom View Network is now providing live coverage of eBay v. Craigslist, otherwise known as eBay Domestic Holdings, Inc. v. Craig Newmark.  California online mainstays eBay and Craiglist are involved in a bi-coastal battle over director voting rights and the alleged theft of confidential information.  In a nutshell, eBay claims that Craiglist's directors unfairly diluted eBay's 28.4 percent minority shareholder stake in Craigslist and eliminated eBay's right to appoint a director.  In another lawsuit filed in San Francisco, Craigslist claimed that eBay used its shareholder position to obtain confidential competitive information to gain an unfair commercial advantage in developing eBay's own competing online classified ad business, kijiji.com.

Courtroom View Network is providing free access to a sample clip of cross-examination of Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay.  Other media outlets have more coverage of the opening day of trial.  See, e.g., Shannon P. Duffy, Craigslist, eBay Face Off in Closely Watched Trial (December 8, 2009) www.law.com.

True, it's not a class action, but this is complex litigation at its best.  Two cyber-goliaths trying to strangle each other on opposite sides of the country is too good to pass up.  I just don't know who to root for.

Google gets in on the legal research game

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To Westlaw and Lexis:

You have a big head start, but the world's largest search monster just left the land of nightmares and placed itself squarely in your rearview mirrors.  Google has surfaced search functionality that will return full-text opinions from state and federal courts.  Google Scholar, still in "beta," allows searches by case name, topic, or key words.  Advanced filters allow for creative search construction.  The November 17, 2009 announcement on Google's blog is here.

I did some test searches, and the results are good, but not quite as current as Westlaw or Lexis would provide.  Each case, when viewed, includes a "how cited" tab that, rather than explaining the correct citation syntax, provides a list of other cases citing to that case and an interesting list of case quotes showing how the case is cited in context.  Testing with Tobacco II, I was able to find that Cohen v. DirecTV cites Tobacco II, but Cohen isn't yet returned as a result when searching for it by name.  Either Google is waiting for finality before providing access to opinions, or its data source is slow to update.  As another plus, the cases include pagination information.

Setting all else aside, it's free and it's simple.  At this point, Westlaw and Lexis should stock up on clean underwear.

Apologies to Kindle subscribers...

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if my updates to the Kindle information page broke your subscriptions.  The beta control panel forces a re-publish to Kindle if anything is updated, and this may break your subscription settings.  It's Amazon's fault, but I'll take the blame.

Visit Legally UnBound to see the sordid underbelly of Las Vegas as part of Blawg Review #231

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As a child of Las Vegas, I have a soft spot for all things "Sin City."  For that reason, among others, I was touched by the sensitivity with which the anonymous blogger that is Legally UnBound used words to sculpt a snapshot (dare I say, tableau) of Las Vegas and its unique culture.  Blawg Review #231 is good reading, but it's not necessarily for the faint of heart (you'll know what I mean when you get to the section entitled "The Stripper & The Geisha").  Sweet, sweet childhood memories...

in brief: Top writing blogs for 2009

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Complex litigation is primarily written advocacy.  Since you are reading a blog about complex litigation topics, you might be interested in the top blogs for writers for 2009.  You might find something that speaks to you if you poke around a bit.  Keep in mind that these are not legal writing blogs, but legal writing could stand for a regular dose of non-legal writing advice every so often.

Good things sometimes come to those who wait (or wait and work at it)

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Next week is the beginning of a new chapter in my legal career.  I will begin work at Spiro Moss LLP, a boutique class action firm in West Los Angeles.  I have known about Spiro Moss for many years.  Their reputation as skilled and ethical attorneys is unquestioned.  Both sides of the bar speak highly of them.  They've made their presence known at the appellate level for many years as well, with decisions such as Ramirez v. Yosemite Water Co., Inc., 20 Cal. 4th 785 (1999) and, more recently, a collection of cases pending before the California Supreme Court.

I thank them for their vote of confidence, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to continue my prefessional development at a firm where all of the attorneys are highly experienced litigators (and some are regular readers of this blog - I suppose this means that they'll want breaking news first).

Entirely OFF TOPIC: (some of) your suspicions about Paris Hilton are confirmed

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Law is too often about what went wrong, who was injured or how to distribute loss.  It usually isn't funny.  But sometimes a little gem turns up that brightens your day.  And I share because I care.

Just based on various laws of probability and related principles, you've either opined, or been in the vacinity of one opining, that it's impossible to figure out what it is that Paris Hilton has accomplished to merit fame.  Thanks to the Ninth Circuit, you now have published precedent at your disposal to answer that question.  According to the Ninth Circuit, in Hilton v. Hallmark Cards (August 31, 2009), Paris Hilton is a "flamboyant heiress" that "is 'famous for being famous.'"  Slip op., at 12115.  And that's from the first page of the actual opinion.  Henceforth, it's not just your opinion that she's done nothing to justify her fame; it's the law.

The balance of the opinion concerns other pressing issues, like the application of California's anti-SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16.

Slightly off-topic tech tip for iPhone users updating firmware

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I have an iPhone.  The more I use it, the more I depend on it as my backup internet access tool.  Based on what I read, I am not alone in the legal profession.  The iPhone has even made some inroads with larger firms, once exchange connectivity was available.  That observation is why I suspect that some attorneys might be interested in this technology tip.

News of a severe vulnerability in SMS messaging was revealed a few weeks ago.  The vulnerability would allow an attacker to take over an iPhone (or, possibly, other types of phones) by sending a specially formed SMS text message to the recipient.  There was no method for preventing this, absent cancelling all SMS services for the phone account until about a day ago, when Apple released firmware version 3.0.1 for the iPhone.

I attempted to download and install the firmware last night.  The 300MB download failed at the completion of the download several times in a row.  After a good number of hours of this, and quite a bit of searching online, I discovered some anectodal information that NOD 32 antivirus was interfering with iPhone updates.  I use another product by the makers of NOD 32, ESET Smart Security (which, on balance, has been my favorite security suite, aside from its not-so-easy-to-use configuration tools).  I turned ESET Smart Security off for the download.  I selected the download only option in iTunes.  I successfully downloaded the firmware without an error at the end.  I then updated my iPhone and everything went smoothly.  Your mileage may vary, but ESET Smart Security, on Windows 7, RC1, was definitely impacting the upgrade in some way.  It might have been possible to give iTunes some sort of fully trusted status in ESET, but I didn't have the patience to look.  If my hours of woe and subsequent research help anybody else, it will have almost been worth it.

Blawg Review #222 is now available at IP Think Tank

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If Blawg Review #221 on The Complex Litigator was your first introduction to the migrating law blog carnival known as Blawg Review, and if you enjoyed the potpourri of sites about law, then head on over to Blawg Review #222 for more of the same, just upside down.  Be patient - web pages load in the opposite direction in Australia.