A reputable legal researcher recently suggested to the chief executive officer of a legal publishing company that the day was coming soon when his company would be offering its secondary content for free on a kindle. Needless to say, the CEO’s response was “not any time soon”. As an aside, he noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to pay authors to write secondary content even now. He was frustrated by the growing market expectation that everything, including secondary content, would soon be available for free.

There is a growing assumption in the market that “someone else”, other than the . . . [more]

A group of Canadian authors has launched an online petition to protest the proposed settlement intended to put an end to a class action copyright lawsuit by U.S.-based author and publisher groups over Google’s plans to make and sell digital copies of millions of books.

In November 2009, the settlement was amended so that it would now apply only to books registered with the U.S. Copyright office or published in the U.K., Australia, or Canada.

The Book Rights Registry board, the entity that will be responsible for paying authors and publishers from revenues earned by the digitization project, would also . . . [more]

Readers of Slaw may have come across the small volumes that have been published annually for over sixty years – the Hamlyn Lectures. They resulted from an application for directions before Mr. Justice Wynn-Parry of a Trust resulting from the Last Will and Testament of Miss Emma Hamlyn. They’re delightfully accessible general talks on various aspects of English and comparative law.

And the older volumes of the series are now available from the University of Exeter Law School website. CUP is publishing the current volumes.

Miss Hamlyn bequeathed the residue of her estate to her executors as . . . [more]

I’ve never pre-ordered a textbook until Melanie Bueckert’s “The Law of Employee Monitoring in Canada.”

This is no slight to Melanie’s fantastic background, but I didn’t expect much. Though there are exceptions, many privacy texts tend to be thin on substance, perhaps because the domain is evolving so quickly.

Given I had set my expectations low, I was delighted when I received Melanie’s text last month and discovered it included a thorough and deep discussion of the law of employee monitoring in Canada. This led me to introduce myself to Melanie, who is Legal Research Counsel at the Manitoba Court . . . [more]

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak October, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost print source - For the rare and radiant index whom the angels named Table of Public Statutes and Responsible Ministers - Nameless here for evermore.

The newest version of the University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, known as the Maroonbook, is available online in PDF. This brief — 77 page — competitor to the Bluebook is not directly applicable to us here in Canada, of course, but may assist with material filed in the United States. And it serves to remind us that we, too, ought to have available to us a free, online manual.

We’ve mooted this on Slaw a number of times, and, if some irons I’ve got in the fire at the moment get hot in the next few weeks, . . . [more]

A couple of releases from Thomson-West and Reed Elsevier that may interest Slaw readers.

The first radical search innovation in a while from Dayton is the use of semantic search methodology to enrich searching for prior patent art. Here is a slide show advert – which sadly doesn’t explain how it all works. And Kindles are coming to West’s monograph series. . . . [more]

At the request of VLC Chair Shaunna Mireau, who is boarding a plane to NYC, I’d like to relay the 2010 anticipated price increases from publishers in the Canadian market. These numbers are gathered by the Vendors Liaison Committee, and archived on the CALL website.

• Canada Law Book is advising a 3% to 6% price increase for print and electronic products.
• Carswell price increases will be in the 5-7% range for print products.
• CCH Legal/Business/Tax subscription products will increase approximately 3-9%. The price increase for Legal/Business books available in print should be in the 2-5% range and

. . . [more]

An interesting article in the NYTimes from October 3rd: Will Books Be Napsterized?

The premise being, as the consumer public migrates from paper to Kindles and e-book readers, there will be a growing temptation to skip the low-cost Amazon digital purchase, and run to the free alternative – sites like RapidShare, Megaupload, and Hotfile.

In the larger sense, we can certainly see this issue adding to the commodification of commercial content – a downward force on pricing. And while we frequently view legal publishing as somewhat insulated, Publishers will need to see this as a risk on the horizon. If . . . [more]

. . . pretty much.

Amazon announced today that Kindle now comes in an international version that will be released on October 19. For US$279 you get the e-book reader and the ability to download books with “international wireless.”

Except that it is still unavailable in Canada.

Cape Verde (the next country on the dropdown list), yes.

But Canada, no. All of which makes my refusal to buy one on aesthetic grounds kind of meaningless. Sigh.

Clearly this is the result of an inability to strike the necessary deals with copyright groups in this country. It would be good to . . . [more]

Today, we received an email update that said:

Dear e-note subscriber:

Please be advised that s. 255 of the Criminal Code was amended by 2008, c. 6 and c. 18, as well as by a coordinating amendment (S.C. 2008, c. 18, s. 45.2), which was omitted in error. The coordinating amendment affects subsecs. (3.1) and (3.3).

The Criminal Code is amended by 2009, c. 22, ss. 1 to 19; to come into force by order of the Governor in Council. As well, the Approved Breath Analysis Instruments Order (s. 254 of the Code) has been amended by SOR/2009-205, s. 1,

. . . [more]

Google today announced its partnership with On Demand Books, developers of the Espresso Book Machine, which can “perfect bind” a copy of a book printed on an attached copier in about three minutes, at a cost of one cent per page. (The press release [PDF] from On Demand Books is somewhat more detailed.)

This video shows the machine in action:

. . . [more]