The Goodson Blogson

Last month, Google announced plans to consolidate more than 60 of its 70+ separate privacy policies into a single, unified document. The streamlined privacy policy , which Google described as “beautifully simple […] a lot shorter and easier to read,” will take effect on Thursday, March 1 . Almost immediately, careful readers raised concerns about sharing formerly-private Google search data across multiple applications. Gadget blog Gizmodo declared the move a reversal of Google’s official corporate motto (“Don’t be evil”), warning that “things you could do in relative anonymity today, will be explicitly associated with your name, your face, your phone number come March 1st.” Members of Congress also expressed concern about the changes, which Google addressed in an open letter . The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sued to compel the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a prior consent order which required Google to protect user data. (The case was dismissed several weeks...

For one week only, the Duke community can test out online access to the International Encyclopaedia of Laws via Kluwer Online . Scroll down to the list of available topics in order to access the full text. The trial will be active until Friday, March 2; up to 10 users may be logged in at one time. As described in the library’s research guide to Foreign & Comparative Law , this large set of looseleaf volumes is divided into particular topics. Each topical set is edited by practitioners in the field, and provides a general overview as well as country-specific monographs which describe individual nations’ legislation and case law on the subject. The library currently receives 20 of the 25 available topics in print (see the list in the online catalog ), including Intellectual Property, Commercial and Economic Law, and Constitutional Law. The online trial provides access to all 25 titles in the set (details about each title’s contents can be found without logging in to the trial at ht...

Today marks two months ‘til tax time! Just like last year , the traditional April 15 federal income tax deadline falls on a weekend, and April 16 is an official holiday in the District of Columbia (Emancipation Day). So chronic procrastinators have an extra-long weekend to prepare and file their federal taxes before Tuesday, April 17 – and many states, including North Carolina , are also following the federal government’s lead in order to avoid deadline confusion. But even with the extra few days, you can certainly get started on your tax preparation now. Although the Goodson Law Library staff cannot answer substantive tax-related questions (such as “what forms do I need to file?” or help with interpreting the form instructions), the Goodson Blogson can recommend some starting places for finding assistance . Before you pay for a professional tax preparation service, consider whether you qualify for the IRS FreeFile program . This service links qualifying taxpayers to free electronic f...

Tonight, HBO premieres The Loving Story , a 2011 documentary about the fight against miscegenation laws in the 1950s and 1960s. Arrested and convicted in Virginia after returning home from their wedding in Washington, D.C., the interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving faced either a year in jail or self-imposed exile in exchange for a suspended sentence. With the help of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lovings’ motion to vacate their 1958 conviction made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in the spring of 1967. The oral argument, which can be heard at the OYEZ Project or read in volume 64 of Landmark Briefs and Arguments , included Richard Loving’s simple request to his attorney, Bernard Cohen: “Tell the Court I love my wife, and it’s just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.” The unanimous opinion, published at 388 U.S. 1 , agreed that “[t]here can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classi...