♫ Feel in my heart
the start of something new…♫

Lyrics and music by: Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil, from High School Musical.

The BC Courthouse Library Society is launching their new website today (http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/cms/) which should be ‘live’ shortly (the old site is still there as this is posted).

The new site certainly fulfills their Strategic Direction as set out on their site:

Provision of Legal Information, Products, and Services to Members of the Legal Community:

Goals:

To understand the changing practice of members of the legal community and how they obtain and use legal information.

To design . . . [more]

The Supreme Court has just released the judgment in Miazga v. Kvello Estate, 2009 SCC 51, what would appear to be the final stop in a long and unhappy ride through both the criminal and civil legal systems in Saskatchewan. Essentially, several adults were prosecuted for, and convicted of, sexual assault against children based on what turned out to be false testimony. The adults brought suit for malicious prosecution against a number of people, including the Crown prosecutor, the appellant Miazga.

The Supreme Court overturned the judgment against Miazga, and in so doing set out what is required . . . [more]

Today we’re offering what the menu of one of my much-frequented restaurants might call “Google two ways.” But have no fear: the fact that our favourite double-O agent is the subject doesn’t mean this is business. No, this is about doodles, Google doodles — and particularly some of the hundreds out there that you have never seen before.

The main lode can be found on Google’s Holiday Logos page. This is a truly astonishing collection of inventive plays on the name.

If you’d like a source that’s organized a bit differently, go to Doodle Source, which started collecting the . . . [more]

The HST is coming and its ramifications for those who practice law and those who purchase legal services is going to be extreme.

While other industries (notably mutual funds, auto, and real estate) are all engaged in full-court-press mode as they lobby the Ontario government for exemptions, we in the legal services field have remained disturbingly complacent. The problem is simple to define. Starting in July 2010 when Ontario’s GST and PST are replaced by the new Harmonized Sales Tax, virtually everything, including legal bills, will be subject to the new 13% HST. For those of you who are blessed . . . [more]

I have been asked (by an American colleague) if I know of any synopsis of “Canadian cybersecurity laws”. I am told that this expression means some mix analogous to the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, covering as well wiretaps, crimes, specific requirements for securing data. Core is private sector rather than critical infrastructure or national security.

It is conceivable that there is a chapter or more in the various collections of learning on IT or e-com law on the topic, which Canadian members of this blog are familiar with. Care to name them? Is there a book in Sunny . . . [more]

For those with trouble prioritizing which of their next great ideas to undertake, there’s a fun column in the Oct. 20th edition of Business Week: The Seven Deadly Sins of the Innovator:

1. Lust: Innovating in a space you have no business being in.
2. Gluttony: Trying to create too many initiatives with too few resources. Innovation takes emotional and financial capital and focus.
3. Greed: Taking short-term profits at the expense of long-term growth.
4. Sloth: Taking short cuts—not doing the hard work, not following the proven process.
5. Wrath: Being so focused on your competition that you

I’ve groused here many — perhaps, too many — times about the inability of the Canadian music industry to get it together so that we can listen to music over the internet like our neighbours to the south. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled on BlueBeat, a website streaming music here, when Pandora et al. are forbidden to do that. Now imagine my super-surprise when I discovered that BlueBeat is streaming free and marketing MP3s of the Beatles’ music at 25¢ a song. Apple Inc. is unable to strike a deal with EMI for the distribution of the Fab . . . [more]

Today should be the day that the new Nova Scotia Mental Health Court hears its first case. (See the story in the Chronicle Herald .) In effect a criminal court under the Provincial Courts Act, the MHC is staffed by people who are able to understand and assist those who come before it because a mental illness has played a significant role in their criminal behaviour.

More formally, from the MHC Overview [PDF]:

The Nova Scotia Mental Health Court Program is a voluntary offender-based program for adults (persons 18 years of age and older) who have been charged with a

One of my colleagues, found a colourful way to describe his growing disconnect with finding legal information on his own: “It’s like trying to find a piece of hay in a haystack.”

A Law Librarian blog post offers an excellent visual representation of this concept:

These two haystack comments make me think of teaching legal research. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately. And recent debate here at Slaw about sources of legal material tells me that others are likely thinking about it too.

On the weekends, I am a farmer. There is no hay on my . . . [more]

Steven Covey is addressing the Drucker Institute live on the web: http://www.drucker100.com/

Not sure if it will be available afterwards.

Thanks Dave Bilinsky for the link. . . . [more]

All the concerns about Google amassing information about users has led to the Internet giant deciding to be more transparent.

You can see a video of Google Dashboard here. The control panel lets you see what Google is collecting about you, and modify your preferences.

The Globe points out that some of the bigger privacy concerns, such as Street View, have still not been addressed. . . . [more]

One of the things I enjoy about reading the Language Log, a cooperative blog by academic linguists, is the ease with which some of the authors slip into high dudgeon. (I suppose I might be like that, too, if my subject were language, in which everyone is an expert.) The latest target of Geoff Pullum’s indignation is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, who, it turns out, doesn’t know his active from his passive, when it comes to voice.

The offending passage occurred in the judge’s dissent in Jones v. United States 526 U.S. 227 (1999) where Kennedy is interpreting a . . . [more]