Wikipedia records the event, before the mainstream or electronic media.
Quake hit at 13:45 EST
Twitter feeds start reporting 13:50
Wikipedia entry for Ottawa edited to show quake 13:51
Globe and Mail reports quake 13:56 . . . [more]
One of the most common complaints I hear from partners – especially those in the boomer generation – is that younger associates today are not willing to work as hard as partners. This leaves many partners frustrated at not getting the support they need and working even longer hours to ensure that the client’s work is completed on time.
When I talk to younger lawyers about this, they are equally frustrated by what they see as unreasonable demands from senior lawyers and a lack of acknowledgement about how hard they are working. So what is contributing to this generation gap? . . . [more]
First year property law profs everywhere are surely revising their casebooks as a result of Barclays Capital et al. v. Theflyonthewall.com, a case decided in March by the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, particularly now that Google and Twitter have filed amicus briefs in the on-going matter. The nub of the story, which is nicely expounded in a series of Ars Technica Law and Disorder columns (1, 2, 3), is that The Fly, in the business of promulgating market information and rumours, would as a matter of routine obtain and . . . [more]
I’m on a panel tonight at the Ivey Business School talking about trends and opportunities in social media. I’ll be talking about legal and privacy issues.
Some of the risks that come with social media arise from its newness. There seems to be two opposing (and apparently inconsistent) factors at play whenever anything new arises.
First, when something new comes along, people often don’t put it in the proper context, and forget all the old rules. For example, people might make a comment on a blog or facebook that reveals something confidential, even though that same person would never have . . . [more]
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) are in court today seeking an injunction against the police from using LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices), also known as sound cannons, against G8/G20 protesters in Toronto.
The police claim that they will be used for broadcasting messages, but they are also capable of emitting loud noises for crowd dispersal.
A press release from the CLC can be found here, and the factum by Paul J. J. Cavalluzzo and Michael D. Wright of Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish is available here through the CCLA.
The factum . . . [more]
Maritime Law Book is proud to have been part of the development of the only provincial bilingual law reporter in Canada. Namely, the New Brunswick Reports (2d).
Here is how that development took place.
New Brunswick has a population of approx. 750,000. And approx. 35% of New Brunswickers speak French as a first language.
In 1969 New Brunswick enacted its first Official Languages Act, making it Canada’s first and only officially bilingual province.
In 1969 the province’s statutes, regulations, by-laws, etc., were in English only. In the courts, pleadings and trials, both civil and criminal, were in English only; in . . . [more]
HBR’s blog post “How Cloud Computing Can Transform Business” (June 4) provides a clear brief overview of cloud computing and its benefits to organizations. It argues that cloud computing’s low cost and agility allow it to deliver real business value. The post goes on to provide the definition of cloud computing and its five main characteristics according to the National Institute of Standards and Testing, part of the US Department of Commerce:
It illustrates how Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s use of cloud computing . . . [more]
The Amendments
I recently had an opportunity to speak with a representative in the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta in connection with Alberta’s new obligations surrounding notification and disclosure of outsourcing arrangements involving personal information. On May 1st, Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Amendment Act, 2009 amended the provincial Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Now, while I’m not an Alberta lawyer, it’s clear to me that the amendments impact all organizations that collect personal information from residents of Alberta. I have worked from time to time with my firm’s Alberta office when PIPA privacy issues . . . [more]
This week in biotech, regulators ran amok.
On the plus side, the FDA approved two new drugs this past week, including one — prostate cancer drug Jevtana — months ahead of the FDA’s deadline.
The FDA also moved this week to regulate LDTs (laboratory developed tests) more closely. Most direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests fall into this category, and a series of letters from the FDA to DTC manufacturers last week is evolving into broader action.
Health Canada also took action this week, with the goal of soliciting reports of adverse drug reactions directly from patients. Unfortunately, the benefits . . . [more]
This is simply too good not to pass along.
The website ThinkGeek (“Smart Stuff for the Masses” — robots, zombie blood, all edges brownie pan, and more ejusdem generis) — got a 10-page Cease & Desist letter from the 475-lawyer firm, Faegre & Benson, on behalf of their clients, the U.S. National Pork Board (delightfully at pork.org). Seem ThinkGeek had made use of the phrase “the new white meat,” and the NPB took the view, through their lawyers, that this trespassed on their registered trademark, “The Other White Meat.”
The only catch? The page that the NPB . . . [more]
The new Google Scholar Blog announces that it’s now possible to get email alerts when material that matches your query is added to the index. Full instructions are given on the page linked to above; but here I’ll reprise a paragraph from that page, broken down into steps and using a search for a legally relevant matter as an example (i.e. with the “legal opinions and journals” option selected). Click on the green links to see a cropped screenshot of the results and the blue links to see the actual results in a new window.
What makes a website a great experience from an end user’s perspective? This topic was recently discussed at a meeting of legal knowledge managers in Toronto where Kerri McKenna from imason and Heather Ritchie from McCarthy Tétrault shared some excellent tips and challenged some myths. Most of the tips are common sense, with the key to web usability being consistency – within the site itself and with web design standards and conventions.
One of the best tips is to maximize the use of white space between paragraphs and in the left and right margins which makes the site easier to . . . [more]