Thanks to Larry Lessig for pointing out a great report from the Brennan Center on how web-based collaboration is being challenged by the misapplication of old print approaches to copyright. See Brennan Center on Fair Use.
As the Report’s Press Release states:

Misinterpretation of ‘Fair Use’ Stifles Free Expression
Artists, Writers and Bloggers Targeted for Using Copyrighted Material
New York, NY — Today, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released a new report, “Will Fair Use Survive?” which documents the increasing number of artists, writers, bloggers and others who are unjustly targeted for using copyrighted or

Online Rights Canada (ORC) is a grassroots organization that promotes the public’s interest in technology and information policy. We believe that Canadians should have a voice in copyright law, access to information, freedom from censorship, and other issues that we face in the digital world.
Online Rights Canada [Via beSpacific.]

To help in the understanding of the current gun control debate following Prime Minister Paul Martin’s proposed ban of handguns in Canada, Michel-Adrien Sheppard has put together an extensive list of gun control resources , both Canadian and international, at his blog Library Boy. . . . [more]

1. VLLB: Canadian law blogs list
2. Opinions politiques
3. Le monde politique et judiciaire
4. La pub et le droit
5. Culture Libre.ca
6. C’est une Blog?
7. CaDerange
8. FP Infomart Mobile
9. Wikipedia: concept map
10. Wikipedia: topic map
11. Grokker: search for Chaoulli
12. NY Times: Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar
13. Medworth.org.uk: Reliability of Wikipedia
14. Wired: Wikipedia Faces Growing Pains
15. The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia
16. Le Réseau juridique: Foire aux questions juridiques
17. Canadian Industrial Designs Database
18. University of Michigan: Government Gazettes Online
19. Carnegie Mellon: unofficial Canadiana
20. Carnegie Mellon: Stewart Clayman
21. Library and Archives Canada: Canadian Information By Subject: 34 Law
22. AdmiraltyLaw.com
23. Joe Magnet: Constitutional Law of

Could I get some Slaw help? I’ve created a list of Canadian Law Blogs over on the VLLB, and I’d like to expand it as much as possible.

If you know of anyone else, feel free to leave a comment here on this post, and I’ll add it in. Any leads will be very much appreciated. :-) . . . [more]

First out of the starting blocks for providing Canadian news service to the PDA is CanWest Global with its FP Infomart Mobile service. It is available for certain PDAs and cell phones. I had a demo earlier this week from my CanWest rep and was impressed. . . . [more]

Because it’s Friday, I thought I’d pass on a nifty expression I found in today’s Globe and Mail business section. “Fat finger flub” means a mistake with a keyboard, and fits perfectly my style when I’m hurrying.

Also seems topical to those of us east of the banana belt, given how annoying it is to try to do things with gloves on. Now a “mitten mistake” would be something of a different order… . . . [more]

For some time I have wanted to take concept or topic mapping, into the computing sphere of legal research. Topic or concept mapping essentially means mapping our ideas and knowledge in a visual format, a boon for the visual learners out there. The tool I have been looking at is Grokker. Utilizing the free preview of Grokker I have run a search that illustrates how it works.

If you select the chaoulli search that I have linked to below, you will be taken to the Grokker search page. Once you have followed the link, select: Zoomable Map on the left . . . [more]

Interesting December 4, 2005, story in the New York Times entitled “Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar” that is a good reminder to everyone that the quality and reliability of content on Wikipedia relies directly on the concept of “garbage in, garbage out.” . . . [more]

Heads up to Canadian IP Lawyers:

“Canadian industrial designs are now available on the web. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) launched the Canadian Industrial Designs Database as a response for better online service and easier access to industrial designs. The new database includes over 10,000 designs registered since June 15, 2002 and is fully searchable by text, title, registration number, classification code, court order number, client reference number and registration date.”

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/cipo/id/displaySearch.do?language=eng . . . [more]

This from Kim Nayyer, National Research Lawyer at Miller Thomson LLP:

I didn’t see a reference to this CALL post on Slaw and I thought readers who don’t subscribe to CALL-L might be interested. It’s basically a catalogue of government gazettes for countries – the attempt was to include all countries with online gazettes (but likely federal only for each country, as is the case for Canada).

The site is at http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/gazettes/ and it sounds like it was begun by some students as a project. The letter grouping links on the home page refer to country names.

I thought I’d do a simple search for law AND Canada OR Canadian in Google and Yahoo (and Yahoo’s Mindset, set all the way to “research”) to see those sites that have been updated in the last 3 months. Some observations about the results:

1. Google’s results were more interesting and fruitful than Yahoo’s, including those from Mindset. Now this might change from day to day, but it means for me at least that I’m not making a huge mistake in going with Google for the first round of internet searching.
2. There’s not a whole lot out there about or of