We learn yet again, from a recent N.Y. Times piece that book titles can’t be copyrighted: there are now two books in print (one 30 years old, mind you) called The Saucier’s Apprentice.

Apart from the fact that Raymond Sokolov, the author of the older book, has done a brilliant job of promoting his work through this piece — it’s the work that comes up when you search for “the saucier’s apprentice” — what interests me is the question of why. Why can’t you copyright a book’s title? Or, to put it more broadly, why can’t you protect . . . [more]

The new iPod Touch software released by Apple lets you put icons for your favourite websites on your “desktop,” so naturally I gave Slaw pride of place in the dock. Better still, Apple lets you put a custom icon on your website that the iPod Touch will pick up and use (otherwise it simply uses a weensy pic of the front page). So for all of you (three?) iPod Touch Slawyers out there, I’ve put the Slaw icon where your slim machine will find it — as you see in the photo below. (Note that it’s Apple that gives the . . . [more]

One of the most controversial electronic discovery cases in the U.S. in 2007 involved the preservation of ephemeral, or transient, electronically stored information (“ESI”) stored in Random Access Memory (“RAM”). In Columbia Pictures, Inc. v. Bunnell [PDF], 2007 WL 2702062 (C.D.Cal. Aug. 24, 2007), the court addressed plaintiffs’ motion for an order directing the preservation of information in the RAM of defendants’ computers. The court rejected defendants’ argument that ESI included only information stored for later retrieval. Defendants also argued that ESI could not include information held in RAM because the period of storage (less than six hours) was too . . . [more]

Everyone knows the ubiquitous bar coding — though reading it might be another matter. But I for one wasn’t acquainted with it’s potential replacement, QR Code — QR for “quick response” apparently. What you see below is a large version of a QR Code symbol that contains the first 250 characters of the “About Slaw” page.

(I imagine, but don’t know, that the object could be shrunk considerably, the only limit being its readability by a scanner.) By comparison, a bar code can only contain 20 digits.

Invented in Japan in 1994, QR Code is gradually spreading throughout the world. . . . [more]

Read MacDailyNews

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/16120/

Read ZDNet

 http://asterikdotinfo.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-so-dumb-about-macbook-air-thinnest.html . . . [more]

A recent proposal from France President Nicolas Sarkozy is either crazy, crazy like a fox, or trying to distract attention from his recent PR issues. I’m not quite sure which category the proposal falls into, maybe all three. From the International Herald Tribune, “Sarkozy proposes taxing new technology to finance the old.” More specifically, the proposal is to ban commercials from public television in France and make up for the lost revenue by taxing the internet and mobile phones. The proposal is to place an “infinitesimal” tax on internet and mobile phone connections and directing that tax revenue . . . [more]

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.

And in country too…

Which is why I was taken aback when I learned that some in the U.S. use “Canadian” as a disguised slur to refer to Blacks — as code for the ‘n’ word, in effect. As is common on the web I learned this fourth hand, and traced the story back from the Language Log, to Defending People, the Art and Science of Criminal Defense Trial Lawyering, which had a brief post about a memo from the Harris County (Texas) . . . [more]

Martin LaMonica blogs today that “Microsoft eases access to Office binary formats for OOXML”, while Mary Jo Foley provides additional context in “Microsoft bends over backwards to prove there’s an ‘open’ in OOXML”. It’s all part of Microsoft’s battle with ODF over who controls the future of storage formats for word processing files, spreadsheets, etc.–an important issue for the archivally inclined. . . . [more]

Yesterday, Larry Dignan blogged on ZDNet that “Sun acquires MySQL”. It’s fascinating that open source software could make its developer worth $1 billion US. . . . [more]

Called “Law21, dispatches from a legal profession on the brink,” Jordan says of the new year’s baby:

In the 21st century, the practice of law is shaking loose from its traditional moorings and heading out into uncharted territory. Opportunities abound, but so do pitfalls. Most of the old rules won’t apply anymore, while some will matter more than ever.

Welcome to the new legal profession, powered by collaboration, innovation, and client service. This is your front-row seat.

The RSS feed for posts is http://law21.ca/feed/.

As readers of the National or Jordan’s column (Law21) in Slaw will know, . . . [more]

A letter has gone out to Canada’s law deans from the Director General of Legal Affairs Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) stating that the Bureau wishes to “enhance Canada’s current engagement with the work of the [International Law] Commission, including its studies and recommendations.” The Bureau would like

to hear of Canadian legal academics who are following the Commission’s work, whether in total or with respect to a specific topic. …We would welcome receiving an email providing us with the name, contact details, and areas of specific interest with respect to the Commission’s work

The Library of Congress announced on its blog that its partnering with Flickr to put photos from its collection online where users can interact with them. To start, the Library of Congress will post about 3,000 photos from two of its most popular collections on Flickr (there are about 14 million prints, photos and other visual materials at the Library in total). This project will include only photos for which no copyright exists. For more information about this project (and Flickr’s new tagging initiative called The Commons), read the announcements from Flickr and the Library of Congress. . . . [more]