Ethics

First, the new opinion is a must read.  (it will apparently be posted some time Wednesday morning at the ABA's Center for Professional Responsibility.)  I've only skimmed it and although it doesn't break new ground, it does helpfully discuss issues of honesty, providing general information about law, how to handle website visitor inquiries, and disclaimers of duties to website visitors.

Second, Avvo has posted the actual opinion even thought the ABA has asserted copyright over it and asked that others not post it.  Carolyn Elefant, at My Shingle, decided not to post it, out of respect for the ABA's request, but she says that she considered doing so as "civil disobedience."  It's been a while since I've looked at this, but the copyright for ABA's formal opinions seems legit to me.  

On the other hand, asserting copyright for model rules is a more complicated and difficult matter, because the very act of promulgating "model" enactments seems to presuppose that you want others to copy, use, adopt, and adapt your work product and because once any state enacts the rule, then the model and the law merge, and you can't assert a copyright over law.  If I recall correctly, one of the leading ethics textbooks finessed this issue by including the model rules, but emphasizing that it was including Delaware's enactment of the rules.  If I recall correctly -- and if I'm wrong you'd do me a favor of pointing it out in the comments -- there was a split in the cases about the enforceability of copyrights for model statutes.