Daily News Briefs: April  7, 2000
Date: Friday, 07 Apr 2000 10:44:07 -0700

Table of Contents

Subject: NEWS
Date: Friday, 07 Apr 2000 10:44:07 -0700

Top News
Lesbian wins visits with former lover's son
A New Hampshire Divorce Brings Low Its High Court
Jury Finds Magazine Erred in Isuzu Critique
Jury grants $1 million to boy struck by ball

Cyberlaw News
Intellectual property laws in flux
Legality of 'Deep Linking' Remains Deeply Complicated
Internet transactions get push to be legally binding

Criminal Law -
Lawyer Plans Insanity Defense Based on Viagra Use

Unusual  Legal News
N.J. kindergartners suspended for threats during playground 'cops and
robbers'

Top News

Lesbian wins visits with former lover's son
Court TV

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a lesbian who helped
raise her then-lover's twins has rights akin to a parent's and can have
visitation now that they have split up. The case involved a woman who
became pregnant by artificial insemination and gave birth to twins in
1994 that she and her lesbian partner, identified only as V.C., raised
together for two years.

http://www.courttv.com/national/2000/0406/lesbians_ap.html 

A New Hampshire Divorce Brings Low Its High Court
New York Times

Add to the casualty list of collateral destruction by horrible divorces
the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The court is in extraordinary crisis.
It is temporarily hearing no cases; its internal practices have been
investigated, exposed and criticized by the state attorney general; its
very integrity is under such fire that the chief justice held a news
conference this week to defend it, and its fate may be at the mercy of
the Legislature, which is expected to vote next week on whether to
investigate possible grounds for impeaching one or more justices. What
precipitated all this was Justice W. Stephen Thayer III's divorce from
his wife, Judith, a former chairwoman of the State Board of Education, a
split so bitterly fought that Ms. Thayer appealed it to her husband's
territory, the State Supreme Court.

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/nh-court.html     

Jury Finds Magazine Erred in Isuzu Critique
Los Angeles Times

A federal jury found Thursday that Consumer Reports, America's widely
respected product guide, falsely reported that the 1995-96 Isuzu Trooper
sport utility vehicle displayed a unique and extremely dangerous
propensity to roll over during emergency turns. But jurors in the
$244-million product disparagement and defamation suit declined to
impose any monetary penalties against the magazine's publisher,
nonprofit Consumers Union.

http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000407/t000032593.html-

Jury grants $1 million to boy struck by ball
Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

A jury awarded more than $1 million on Wednesday to a Fort Lauderdale
boy who was hit in the head with a baseball at Pro Player Stadium before
a Marlins game in 1997. Andrew Klein, who was 8 at the time of the
incident, was taking part in the "Bullpen Buddies" program at the
stadium when he was struck by a ball hit into the stands during batting
practice, said his lawyer, Greg Schlesinger.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,30000000000110947,00.html

Cyberlaw News

Tech-Deals - Internet Contracts - The Details
http://techdeals.findlaw.com
Meg Whitman & eBay, Dr. Koop's deal with drkoop.com & more
Amazon, AOL, eBay, Excite, iVillage, Netscape, TheStreet.com, Yahoo!

Intellectual property laws in flux
ZDNet

Big corporations are working diligently and successfully to expand
intellectual property laws in the digital age -- a trend that's chipping
away at individual rights. That's the message a panel of law professors
had at the Computer Freedom and Privacy Conference here, as they
dissected a series of lawsuits and legislation aimed at making sure
people don't copy material.

http://www.zdnet.com/special/stories/defense/0,10459,2522918,00.html

Legality of 'Deep Linking' Remains Deeply Complicated
New York Times

When a federal judge issued a decision last week in a case involving
"deep linking," many reports suggested that the controversial Internet
practice was now unambiguously legal. But the story is more complex than
that. In fact, deep linking -- the practice of linking to a page deep
inside another Web site, bypassing its home page -- still appears to be
in legal limbo.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/cyberlaw/07law.html

Internet transactions get push to be legally binding
San Jose Mercury News

Businesses want Congress to enact a law making Internet transactions
legally binding. Consumer groups fear that could make customers
vulnerable to deception. And state officials say they could lose their
authority to regulate commerce within their borders if such a law is
enacted.

http://www.mercurycenter.com/business/top/081998.htm

Criminal Law - Arresting Developments

Lawyer Plans Insanity Defense Based on Viagra Use
Fox News

An attorney for a man charged with rape says he will base an insanity
defense on his client's use of Viagra, the popular anti-impotence
medicine. Will Wright, 42, is charged with raping and sodomizing the
19-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Wright's lawyer, Charles
Salvagio, said he intends to prove Wright is innocent due to a mental
defect brought on by Viagra.

http://www.foxnews.com/national/040600/viagra.sml
-
Unusual  Legal News

N.J. kindergartners suspended for threats during playground 'cops and
robbers'
Court TV

School district officials in New Jersey plan to review a "zero-
tolerance" policy after four kindergartners playing 'cops and robbers'
were suspended for making threats. The Wilson School students received
the three-day suspensions after the March 15 incident, in which the
children pretended their fingers were guns and said they wanted to
shoot each other.

http://www.courttv.com/national/2000/0406/cops_robbers_ap.html

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