My wife and I did a good thing on the day of the recent Oscar telecast: we attended a 1 pm showing at our local theater of the Oscar-nominated short films and short animation films.

Although I thought the Oscar presentation was too long and not funny enough, having seen the 1 pm showing made the presentations later that night for those two categories much more interesting.

If you get the chance to see the winning short animation film it is simply brilliant. It was Logorama, a 16-minute animated film set in what is presumably Los Angeles that uses . . . [more]

On January 19th the Small Claims Court of Nova Scotia awarded $750 to an aggrieved surfer whose new surfboard was dinged by another surfer who breached the “paddle behind” rule of surfing etiquette.

The rule of surfing that the defendant was proven to violate is a pretty indisputable rule of surfing etiquette. The surfer paddling out should not interfere with the surfer riding the wave. This usually means that the surfer paddling out takes a path that leads into the breaking part of the wave, moderately discomforting but a warranted self-sacrifice to allow the rider to enjoy an uninterrupted ride. . . . [more]

Boy, does time fly! Although at this time of year, that ’ s a good thing. It means that spring is nearly here, bringing with it another ABA TECHSHOW , and that it ’ s time for Law Practice ’ s annual Tech Tips issue. In this special issue, for the third year in a row, we celebrate the spirit of ABA TECHSHOW with a bounty of legal technology tips that you can put to use right away to help your days go more smoothly. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find:

• Essential apps for your smartphone: Lawyers

Here it is, just about half way between Friday Fillips, and I’m feeling the urge to share some frivolous findings with you. I hope that those who read Slaw for our contributions to your understanding of law and practice will forgive me this mid-week miscellany, most of it blithely immaterial.

But let’s start with law, in a way. The Globe and Mail this morning reported on a British scholar’s announcement (assertion?) that the 1613 Elizabethan drama, Cardenio, is in fact (mostly) by Shakespeare, and not Fletcher (his ghost blogger?) or Theobald, the later plagiarist. In the brief excerpt cited I . . . [more]

A Spanish judge, Raul N. García Orejudo, has ruled that linking to copyrighted material is not illegal in SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) vs. Jesus Guerra over the link site elrincondejesus.com.

Stan Schroeder of Mashable summarizes the proceedings:

First, he denied SGAE’s request to shut down Guerra’s site in June, saying that “P2P networks, as a mere transmission of data between Internet users, do not violate, in principle, any right protected by Intellectual Property Law.”

Now, he decided that “offering an index of links and/or linking to copyright material is not the same as distribution.” His decision

An article from yesterday’s Globe and Mail points out that the Tories are quietly cutting funding to organizations that benefit from Industry Canada’s Community Access Program (CAP). These organizations, which include hospitals, seniors groups and employment centres, use the cash from CAP to provide free Internet access to Canadians who don’t always have access to high-speed Internet or even access to computers, particularly those living in rural communities. Organizations that are located within 25 kilometres of a public library will no longer receive funding. . . . [more]

The ABA Techshow “tips” issue of Law Practice Magazine is live today. The Editor in Chief is Dan Pinnington, and the issue is full of practical technology tips. I am not sure that I am truly “totally mobile” as described, but I do have some tips in that regard in my article Working Virtually: High-Productivity Tips for Traveling Lawyers. . . . [more]

Olivier Charbonneau, doctoral candidate in law, associate librarian at Concordia University, blogger, and all-around legal information expert, has a post up on VoxPopuLII, the blog associated with Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. In “Collaboration and Open Access to Law,” Charbonneau talks about certain aspects of his research work on the way in which the public and legal documents interact with each other on the web.

In this post he gives only a few suggestions as to how we might improve this interaction and points us to his paper submitted at the Law via the Internet . . . [more]

On Friday the Early Bird Deadline to register for the Canadian Association of Law Libraries conference in Windsor was extended from March 12th to April 9th. Before April 9th, the full conference registration is $460 for members ($505 after April 9th), $520 for non-members ($555 after).

This year’s conference runs May 9-12th with a pre-conference workshop on U.S. legal research and two local tours on Saturday, May 8th. This year’s conference is run jointly with MichALL, the Michigan chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries.

To register online, visit the conference website: English | French . . . [more]

The Uniform Law Conference has asked for model legislation to implement the UNCITRAL Convention on the use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (the E-Communications Convention, or the ECC). In order to prepare this legislation, one needs to answer a number of policy questions — and then some drafting questions.

I have done an issues paper outlining the questions that have occurred to me. I would very much like your views on the right answers.

Here are the questions, to pique your interest:

1. Should Canada accede to the Convention?

My proposed answer is Yes. Each province and territory can . . . [more]

Lawyers are asking the wrong question when they wonder whether to upgrade their operating system (OS) to Microsoft Windows 7 or stay at Windows XP or Vista. If you’re upgrading, the question should be what are ALL my options? Now that Microsoft issues its operating system in so many versions that you need a score card to keep track of which does what – did you know that Windows 7 Starter for netbooks even locks down your wallpaper – you might as well compare them to other alternatives. The legal technology world has changed a lot since you installed that . . . [more]

Simon Fodden already mentioned Avvo, a website that rates lawyers which was ironically sued soon after its launch.

I’ve noticed some traffic recently from one of their pages for Top Legal Blogs. Slaw ranks quite well at #26, which is rather impressive when you consider the size of our American counterparts (there aren’t many other Canadian sites in the listing).

Their methodology is based on Alexa Rankings, which do have significant flaws, and are subject to manipulation. The page might still serve as a useful resource for some of the top law sites out there, . . . [more]