Around the house, my wife and I have lots of computer cables, old printers and screens lying around, in other words, “e-waste”. Do we throw it away, keep it, find some charity to recycle it? And if we replace some of it, how do we know which manufacturer to trust?

The international environmental NGO Greenpeace recently released its 4th Guide to Greener Electronics:

“The electronics ranking guide has been our answer to getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-waste. We want manufacturers to take responsibility for the unprotected child labourers who scavenge the mountains

A brief exchange with Ian Kerr of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa led me to a project he’s involved with there, On the Identity Trail. It’s a research project funded in part by the SSHRC and involving an impressive list of collaborators and partners aimed at “understanding the importance and impact of anonymity and authentication in a networked society.”

There’s an impressive list of published research you should visit, if you’re interested in privacy and ID, e.g. “Identity Theft: A Conceptual Analysis,” [PDF] by Steven Davis; “To Oberve and Protect? How Digital . . . [more]

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the arrival of a do-not-call registry for mobile users in India. I considered whether I had missed something here in Canada, as it seemed to be that talk of the implementation of similar legislation for phone users in Canada happened ages ago but I’d heard nothing more of it. Although the legislative framework in ss. 41.1 to 41.7 of the Telecommunications Act received royal assent in November 2005, nothing had been done to implement the registry until yesterday, according to this CP story. Implementation is now underway with the CRTC’s release . . . [more]

Simon a déjà écrit à propos de la publication pour commentaires des Principes de Sedona Canada sur la “Production of Electronic Document”.

Finalement, après de longues heures de rédaction et de traduction (merci à ma conjointe!!) les Principes de Sedona Canada concernant l’administration de la preuve électronique (édition française!) sont disponibles pour commentaires. . . . [more]

Here’s a little video to explain RSS to the rest of your firm/friends/colleagues who just don’t get it but should. From Commoncraft [via Law Librarian Blog].

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Between Lawyers’ own Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell are pleased to announce that they will be writing a book on collaboration tools that will be published in early 2008 by the American Bar Association. The book is tentatively titled: “Collaboration Tools for Lawyers: Essential Ways to Work Together with Colleagues, Clients and Even Opposing Counsel.”

[via Between Lawyers] . . . [more]

The White House Commutation of Sentence makes the news. Here for Slaw aficionados is the commutation itself, triggered by the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit‘s rejection of Scooter Libby’s request to remain free on bail while pursuing his appeals and here the justification, setting aside a jury’s decision.

Let the firestorm commence. . . . [more]

Today’s Australian IT News reminds us that we are approaching a significant Antipodean anniversary. Just thirty years ago – when some Slaw readers were not even born – the then Attorney General Bob Ellicott – whose smiling visage is caricatured below – announced Australia’s first computer-based legal information retrieval system. It was to cover statute law. And at the 4800 baud transfer rate then available, the PDF of the Constitution would take a minute to download. Progress indeed.
. . . [more]

Is there a funding crunch at Austlii?
When the history of public access to legal information comes to be written, high honours must be given to Graham Greenleaf, Andrew Mowbray and Philip Chung, whose vision has inspired Canlii and Bailii too.

But the latest Annual Report shows that while AustLII’s funding position has improved steadily during 2007, to the extent that it is certain that AustLII will continue to operate in 2008 and beyond, the position has not yet improved sufficiently to enable employment of all core staff needed, or to guarantee equipment maintenance and replacement. The shortfall may . . . [more]