The citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, declared independence from Great Britain a full year before the Declaration of Independence was written.  The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, originally called the resolution of the citizens of Mecklenburg County, was signed and read aloud on the county courthouse steps on May 20, 1775.  This document put Great Britain on notice that we were dissolving “the political bands which have connected us to the Mother country” and declaring ourselves “a free and independent people”.  The speed with which this Declaration was written, adopted and signed was apparently driven by reaction to the battles of Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts, where the British had attacked and killed fellow British citizens a month earlier.  The resolutions took less than 24 hours to transpire.  You can read them here.

Realizing that these resolutions were hastily put together and lacked organization and coherence, a committee was appointed right away to revise them.  What came about by May 31^st that year was a completely different document which was called the Mecklenburg Resolves.  Subsequently, Captain James Jack was sent to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to ask that the proceedings in Mecklenburg County be approved by the Congress.  The North Carolina delegation was supportive of the actions taken, but deemed it premature to talk of a declaration of independence in Congress. 

After 1819, when the Mecklenburg Declaration was first published (the original having been lost in a fire much earlier), the people of North Carolina began to take a new pride in their part of the American Revolution and gaining independence, despite the controversy over the validity of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  The early NC government maintained that North Carolinians were the first Americans to declare independence from Great Britain.  To commemorate that belief, the seal and the flag of North Carolina both bear the date of May 20, 1775.  There are two camps on this point – believers and non-believers – however, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence does not attract very much attention from historians these days. 

The first “Meck Dec” celebration was held in Charlotte on May 20, 1825.  For many years it remained a celebrated state holiday.  It continues to be celebrated on The Square (at the corner of Trade and Tryon Streets uptown) each May.  You can see last year’s celebration here and here, complete with dignitaries, speeches, re-enactors and cannon fire.    You can also read more about the Mecklenburg Declaration at the Mecklenburg Historical Association website.  Other activities are planned in celebration as well:

The Mecklenburg Declaration has also been memorialized at the North Davidson underpass at Matheson Avenue.  Check out artist William Puckett and photos of his murals on concrete here.

~ Julie Morris ~

Wondering if you can use Westlaw this summer?

Password extension for acceptable uses is available at www.lawschool.westlaw.com.

Find the button above on the Westlaw landing page (see bottom right of page) and click GO.  Follow the instructions on the Password Extension page.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mary Susan Lucas, Reference Librarian, at mlucas@charlottelaw.edu.

Happy researching!

Questions about LexisNexis summer access?

Check out our earlier blog here.

~Mary Susan Lucas~

You may laugh, but this science fiction movie plot is coming closer and closer to becoming reality.  Planetary Resources is backed by Google billionaires Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, billionaire Ross Perot, Jr. and director James Cameron, among others.  The mission of Planetary Resources is to “apply commercial, innovative techniques to explore space. We will develop low-cost robotic spacecraft to explore the thousands of resource-rich asteroids within our reach. We will learn everything we can about them, then develop the most efficient capabilities to deliver these resources directly to both space-based and terrestrial customers. Asteroid mining may sound like fiction, but it’s just science.”

In plain English, they are going to mine asteroids for valuable resources.

The latest issue of Popular Mechanics features an article by Space Law expert, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, who reviews the questions surrounding the ownership of asteroids:  What is at stake?  Potentially trillions of dollars per large asteroid.  The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prevents national appropriation of celestial bodies but is silent on private appropriation and it fails to define “celestial bodies.”  Scholars are starting to weigh in on whether or not asteroids are celestial bodies.  Andrew Tingkang argues in Seattle University Law Review that if it can be moved, it isn’t a celestial body.  The full title of his Jedi Master-inspired work is These Aren’t the Asteroids You Are Looking For: Classifying Asteroids in Space as Chattels, Not Land.  If you don’t get it, go watch Star Wars:  A New Hope.

Reynolds agrees with Tingkang’s classification and analogizes to the distinction on Earth between “real” and “personal” property.  Real property stays put.  As he points out, a supertanker the size of a city can be personal property and it can move.

There are more questions than answers now and it will take many years for the situation to evolve and resolve but won’t it be fun to watch?  Do we have a new Wild West with the 21^st century version of Forty-Niners?

For more information, check out the ABA newly published guidebook on Space Law or the ABA Space Law Committee.

For a humorous take on asteroid mining, take a look at this Jon Stewart segment from the Daily Show.

~Mary Susan Lucas~

Did you know that in November of 2008, directors of some of the major law library players, such as the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard, Stanford and Yale met in Durham at the Duke Law School to discuss open access in the legal environment?

As a result of this meeting, the “Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship” was created, calling for law schools to no longer publish in print format, instead focusing only on electronic publication in stable, open digital formats.

Since then, libraries and academic institutions have begun a movement towards the use of “institutional repositories”, which provide open access to institutional research through archiving, promote the institution as well as the scholars through the visibility of these words, collect content within a single platform and location and store and preserve additional digital assets.

While institutional repositories are developed as databases, there is almost no capacity for the reader to browse.  Repositories don’t necessarily allow connections between their own materials, much less those created and housed at other institutions.

In response to this, the leading hosted institutional repository (IR) software platform, bepress, has created the Digital Commons Law Network, which draws together open access content from nearly 300 repositories that use the Digital Commons IR platform.  Anyone with an Internet connection can access this resource, with no pay-walls, embargoes or subscriptions.  This Network currently contains almost 650,000 works from 275 institutions, with over 113,000 of these works specifically devoted to the topic of law.

The Digital Commons Network brings together scholarship from hundreds of universities and colleges, providing open access to peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work. This constantly growing body of publications is curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, and represents thousands of disciplines and subject areas—from Architecture to Zoology.

The intuitive interface invites you to explore discipline-specific Commons, where you can view and follow popular authors, institutions, and publications in your field. And you’ll never run into pay walls or empty records, because only full-text, open-access research and scholarship are included in the network.

Check out this resource for yourself at http://network.bepress.com/, and explore all of the amazing resources that are available free to you, complete with search functionality and browse capacity.  

Be sure to check out our Open Access LibGuide for more information on the Open Access movement.

~Ashley Moye~

This post is a follow up to an earlier posting on domestic drones and the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012: Big Brother is Watching

Our state assembly is considering a bipartisan bill that would limit drone use in North Carolina. On March 6^th of this year, our NC state chapter of the ACLU joined 22 other state chapters of the ACLU and filed a documents request asking for public records from local law enforcement agencies asking for information about their existing drone programs and future drone programs if they have existing plans for any.

Sixty-four of the largest law enforcement agencies in North Carolina have been asked about their use of drones and other military-style weapons, what funding do they have and what training, if any, and what training, if any, is provided for their use.

Proposed NC House Bill 312, if it became law would introduce sensible safeguards on the use of drones. HB312 would be known as the “Preserving Privacy Act of 2013,” it would prohibit individuals and government agencies, including law enforcement, from using a drone to gather evidence or other data on individuals without first obtaining a warrant that shows probable cause of criminal activity.

HB 312 includes an exception that allows law enforcement to use a drone to conduct searches if the agency possesses “reasonable suspicion” that immediate action is necessary to prevent certain types of imminent harm.

~Jane Fraytet~

May 1^st is Law Day, a national day to celebrate the rule of law and its contributions to the freedoms that Americans enjoy. The day also provides an opportunity to recognize the role of courts and in our democracy and the importance of jury service.  In 1957, Charles S. Rhyne, President of the American Bar Association lobbied for a day to celebrate our legal system.  President Dwight Eisenhower established by proclamation the first Law Day in 1958 to mark the nation’s commitment to the rule of law. In 1961, Congress issued a joint resolution designating May 1 as the official date for celebrating Law Day, which is subsequently codified (U.S. Code, Title 36, Section 113). Every president since then has issued a Law Day proclamation on May 1 to celebrate the nation’s commitment to the rule of law.

Law Day programs are designed to help people understand how the law keeps us free and how our legal system strives to achieve justice. These programs are conducted by various groups including local bar associations, courts, law libraries and schools. For example, the Library of Congress will be holding a panel discussion on the movement for civil and human rights in America. Carrie Johnson, Justice Correspondent for National Public Radio will be moderating the discussion.

This year’s theme “Realizing the Dream: Equality for All” provides an opportunity to explore the movement for civil and human rights in America and the impact it has had in promoting the ideal of equality under the law.  This year marks the 150^th anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, handwritten by Abraham Lincoln to end slavery in the United States and promote the idea of freedom and equality for all men. This year also marks the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  The Civil Rights Movement brought progress in eliminating discrimination based on race, religion, gender, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and sexual orientation. This year’s Law Day provides an opportunity to focus on the work that still needs to be done to ensure equality for all.

References

• American Bar Association. (2013). Law Day 2013. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/law_day_2013.html
• Cali, J. (2013, April 1). Law Day Program Features U.S. Civil and Human Rights. Retrieved from http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/04/law-day-program-features-u-s-civil-and-human-rights/

~Betty Thomas~

 Music: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tim McGraw, Chris Botti, Carolina Rebellion, Imagine Dragons, Band of Horses, Paramore, Smashing Pumpkins, RiverJam at the US National Whitewater Center, Food Lion Speed Street with Sister Hazel and SWV, Sara Bareilles, Lyle Lovett

Food: Chow Down Uptown with area food trucks, Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival , Charlotte Italian Festival, 2nd Annual VegFest

Performing Arts: War Horse, Traces, Avenue Q

Festivals: The Patriot Festival ,  Charlotte Asian Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, Buskapoolza Street Performance Festival, Spring Pottery Festival , Charlotte Shakespeare Festival , Fanta Festival , NC Brewers & Music Festival, BikeFest in Plaza Midwood

Walks/Runs: Memorial Day Trail Race, Krispy Freme Doughnut Dash, Zombie Run, Ramblin’ Rose, The Great Glow Run, AIDS Walk

Other events: Meck Dec Day, New South for the new Southerner series at the Levine Museum of the New South, Coca-Cola 600, Metrolina Expo Marketplace, Charlie Murphy, Kevin James, Drew Carey

For the kids: Bye Bye Birdie, Family Day at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Free Comic Book Day, Movies in the Park

For the “furry” kids: Charlotte Pet Expo, Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua Races

Don’t forget that Mother’s Day is Sunday May 12th! National Mom’s Nite Out at South Park mall, Mother’s Day at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, Purses with a Purpose

Outside of Charlotte: South Carolina Strawberry Festival

~Jamie Sunnycalb~

Did you know that it’s illegal for dance halls to be within a quarter mile of a church or cemetery in South Carolina?

Check out this video from Mental Floss for more weird laws involving states.

Hungry for more?

We susbcribe to Mental Floss!

~Jamie Sunnycalb~

E-Books, the beginning of the end?

E-readers have been on the market for only five years; however, they are becoming ubiquitous with the Amazon Kindle perhaps being the most recognized format. The advent of e-readers and their impact on the dissemination of information is clearly profound, and of course, libraries in the pursuit of their core missions have readily adopted the format for their patrons. There is however, a potential serpent in this Garden of Eden of revolutionary information access.

On February 24, 2011, Overdrive Inc., the major provider of digital content for e-Books, as well as other media, sent out an update letter to their library customers on the status of the industry. Concealed within the usual glad-handing that is part and parcel of such documents was a hidden bomb that sent librarians into a frothing frenzy of indignation.

“OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher’s requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached.  This eBook lending condition will be required of all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher’s titles for library lending (not just OverDrive).”[1]

It was soon learned that the publisher was HarperCollins and the demand limit was 26 checkouts. Here was a publisher in essence attempting to make an end run around the First Sale Doctrine and dictating draconian measures that it could have never considered with traditional print. As we have seen with the case law that has been presented above, the First Sale Doctrine turns on the concept of who owns what. Copyright law has attempted to keep up with the rapid changes in technology but is sadly lagging in addressing these very complex issues. Publishers of digital media, of course, want to maximize their revenue stream. Sadly, the perception seems to be that the only way to do this is by destroying what has been the understood model for decades. Unfortunately, we probably have already reached the tipping point.

If digital publishers have their way, e-Books will be licensed property and, therefore, the rights that were enjoyed under traditional print will evaporate and the First Sale Doctrine will essentially become irrelevant. This has disconcerting ramifications not just for libraries, but for a wide host of legal understanding that has been the underpinning of Copyright Law.

One has to consider the irony that if a library purchased a physical copy of a title the publisher would not have the right to impose a 26 check out limit, as in the case of HarperCollins. What makes an e-Book any different from a printed book?  In the eyes of libraries and librarians there is not a difference, other than one type of content is physical and the other digital. HarperCollins is trying to cast e-Books as the same thing as computer programs. You never own an e-Book if it is considered a service instead of a product.

Many owners of e-readers would probably be surprised that they did not own the content of their devices. However, every day as we log in to the internet we regularly give away our ownership whenever we click an “I agree” button. In 2009 there was a scandal over Amazon’s Kindle when Amazon remotely erased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from owners of the e-reader who had purchased the digital book. As it turned out, the digital publisher, MobileReference,  who had provided the e-Books to Amazon had incorrectly believed that Orwell’s novels were in the public domain.[2]

Regardless of the error on the part of MobileReference, Amazon’s solution was a chilling example of what may be in store if there is not a new balance struck legislatively with copyright law. Amazon did publicly apologize for the deletions and provided credit to the holders of Kindles that had the books removed. Of course the irony of having Orwell’s seminal works deleted was not lost on many a blogger and news journalist.

Given the conditions being set by digital publishers such as HarperCollins, the challenges to the First Sale Doctrine in the courts, and the controversy over the Amazon deletions with the Kindle, libraries face a daunting set of circumstances. Yet digital content is the future of information. Most scientific, legal, educational, and research journals, due to cost, but also because of the ease of access, have switched completely over to digital publishing. Libraries are already investing considerable resources to meet the demands of the digital age.

However, if libraries are forced to agree to restrictive licenses from digital publishers and no longer own the content of their collections, what will this do to the institution? The Copyright Act grants copyright owners the exclusive right to make and distribute copies of their works.[3] Ann Bartow, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina and expert on intellectual property and copyright law, stated that “In the digital world, … even routine access to information requires “making a copy” as the courts have decided that unfixed, ephemeral RAM use of digital work is copying.”  (Bartow)[4]  Bartow was referring to the 9^th Circuit case MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computers Inc., where the Court stated, “The law also supports the conclusion that Peak’s loading of copyrighted software into RAM creates a ‘copy’ of that software in violation of the Copyright Act.”[5]

If the trend continues as presented, there is a genuine concern that digital publishers will in effect severely limit the scope of libraries to lend material and perhaps even force librarians into an unreasonable position to be watchdogs of digital copyrighted media.  This would create privacy concerns, which libraries in the past have staunchly protected.  It could also limit or end the ability of libraries to create digital archives and thus endanger another traditional role of the library to preserve and maintain knowledge.

To be continued in Part III

~Kim Allman~

Kansas City Public Library.

The Philological Library in Berlin.

If you haven’t guessed, the building is shaped like a human brain.  Check out our earlier posting on this building for more information!

Geisel Library.

Want a really tall building but don’t want to fool with all those lower floors?  Just put the building on stilts!  It’s supposed to look like lantern…

Peckham Library is a see-through colored glass exterior on a extreme “L” shaped building

Oh, and this wooden monstrosity that looks like it is about to crush 6 people?  That’s a meeting room.

I hope you enjoyed this tour through the strange.

~Aaron Greene~