The government of the United Kingdom is thinking about instituting a ‘single publication’ rule for online defamation. Here’s a story about that issue, with a link to the government’s consultation paper.

The single publication rule is an American rule that makes a limitation period for defamation run from the first publication of the defamatory statement. If the defamation remains available, say through the continuing availability of a book or through a newspaper archive, that does not restart the limitation period. US courts have applied that rule to Internet publications.

Canadian and British courts do not have a single publication rule . . . [more]

I have a friend whom I can frighten by simply pronouncing the word tapioca. Not for her bubble tea or tapioca pudding. But I rather like those rubbery little eyeballs, having been introduced to them in early childhood in the company of sweet sauces and custards. The sticky, slimy concoction is a form of comfort food for me, I guess: a pablum that grownups can eat without shame.

Well, when it comes to comfort food in the form of edible slimy pastes — as it seems to have in this fillip — nothing can match ambuyat, apparently. I recently learned . . . [more]

This is a stub posting on this morning’s Bell decision from the Supreme Court (with the headnote) until we can figure out what its implications are: Bell Canada v. Bell Aliant Regional Communications, 2009 SCC 40, . . . [more]

♬Following the leader, the leader, the leader
We’re following the leader wherever he may go…♬

Lyrics and music by: Sammy Fain, Sammy Cahn, Frank Churchill, Winston Hibler and Ted Sears, from Peter Pan.

The ABA Journal on Sept 17, 2009 reported that O’Melveny and Myers revealed plans to become a high-end fixed-fee leader in their latest 5 year strategic plan.

‘The aim, according to the plan, is to become “the leader in providing high-end legal services on a fixed fee basis, reducing costs to clients and achieving superior economic performance through practice management oriented toward cost-effective client service.’

Woah! Wait . . . [more]

I once dreamt of a career in etymology. I find the concept of where words originate and thus their linguistic application is very interesting. This character trait may have been the cause for the in-drawn breath when I read the Hello Words and Phrases Online, Goodbye Words and Phrases in All Formats post on the Law Librarian Blog today.

It’s been decades since I’ve had any real need for the title. I doubt Word and Phrases is needed in either print or digital except as an instructional device to teach online searching…

With full-text searching online Words and Phrases is

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]

I was recently introduced to one of Canada’s Military Judges, learning that there are only four such judicial officers, which made me realize how little I know not simply about military law but also about the very structure of the military justice system. I suspect that many, if not most, of our readers are equally unaware of this structure, so I thought I’d provide a few links for the curious to follow.

For an overview, look at the Military Law and Military Justice pages of the Judge Advocate General’s website. As well, there is a clear and well written overview . . . [more]

A Certificate in Copyright Management, originally developed for special librarians, is now open to all. The Certificate is offered from Copyrightlaws.com jointly with the Special Library Association/Click University. It consists of 5 online courses and 2 in-person courses, leading the participant from an introduction to copyright management to digital issues to teaching others in their organizations about copyright. Canadians take the primer on Canadian copyright law rather than the U.S. copyright law primer, and all other courses deal specifically with Canadian and U.S. law as well as international copyright and licensing issues. The first course, which is a 2 week . . . [more]

Colleague Katharine Thompson has shown me how to add “refinements” to my Custom Google Search of Canadian Law Firms.

A search on “wallace” (admittedly not a very sophisticated search if looking for law firm bulletin case comments on Wallace v. United Grain Growers Ltd., [1997] 3 S.C.R. 701) results in a number of hits on the bio’s of lawyers named Wallace.

However, with the prior search results on “wallace”, if you click on the new “Bulletins” refinement button we have added, you generate much better search results of mainly law firm bulletins on the S.C.C. decision in question . . . [more]

The report by Justice Richard Goldstone on the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, released yesterday, is raising some interesting legal questions.

The report concluded that both Israel and the Palestinians had committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity. The most obvious question people are asking is the effect of this report on the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Israeli media has stated that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, as a non-signatory to the Rome Statute. Israeli legal scholars have generally taken a similar position, but this appears to be flawed. . . . [more]

1.
Big fuss yesterday as Google changed its doodle to show a flying saucer over a field of crop circles:

Then Google Tweeted a pair of map coordinates: 51.327629, -0.5616088

Despite much speculation even in the mainstream press — see today’s Globe and Mail, for example — no one seems to have solved the mystery of exactly what Google’s up to. The map coordinates point to Woking in England, by the way. An excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Woking suggests why Google might be interested in this Surrey town:

[I]t is the town in which the Martians first

Steve Rubel has a post today entitled Stats: the Internet in charts.

Before you click on the link, take a guess at how long it would take you to read the entire internet if you printed it off, or how much area that paper would cover.

Or how much video gets uploaded to YouTube compared to new content aired on the 3 major US TV networks. . . . [more]