Today, any book bought online in England, even one published exclusively in another country, can ostensibly be subject to English libel law.

I reproduce the text of a major announcement this morning

To: All Canada Law Book Customers
From: Stuart Morrison
Date: September 26, 2007
Re: LexisNexis QuickLaw / Canada Law Book

Canada Law Book’s databases, including the Dominion Law Reports, Canadian Criminal Cases and Labour Arbitration Cases will no longer be available on LexisNexis QuickLaw after the current publishing licence agreement expires on March 31, 2008. To continue to have access to these and the other Canada Law Book databases from April 1, 2008 please register online at www.canadalawbook.ca/databaseregistry.html

Canada Law Book has a long publishing history within the Canadian legal

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A great deal has been written both here and elsewhere about the future of publishing in general, and book publishing in particular. And while there are probably as many different prognostications as there are prognosticators, my impression is that a solid majority of those who have commented on these things are in agreement that the publishing industry, as we know it, will soon become a thing of the past. According to a recent piece by novelist Jon Evans in The Walrus, ((Jon Evans, “Apocalypse Soon: The Future of Reading,” The Walrus 4:7 (September, 2007) 38.)) which Neil Campbell cited . . . [more]

Although law-related (print) monographs in Canada are far from dead, perhaps we are at a tipping point now on the availability of law-related e-books. I recently made (an extremely) rough count of the number of e-books available through each of Quicklaw, WestlaweCARSWELL and Canada Law Book ((For this study, I am not considering the numerous “black binders” from CCH as “monographs”, although those binders are available online through CCH Online)).

I counted a total of 85 e-books, many of them being major Canadian legal treatises. Examples of an e-book from each of these vendors (where there are also print equivalents) . . . [more]

We missed last week’s news that Thomson is Acquiring Deloitte Tax LLP Property Tax Services, picking up another 420 employees in Scottsdale. The Scottsdale folks staff a national provider of property tax compliance outsourcing and consulting services. The official announcement declares that “This transaction will further enable us to fulfill Thomson Tax & Accounting’s overall growth strategy to serve our corporate tax clients with a full-range of technology, information and service solutions” .

Meanwhile back in Eagan, the consulting business goes from strength to strength, notwithstanding our scepticism about strategy. The Baker Robbins deal we discussed has two . . . [more]

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is concerned that street level photography, as currently deployed in the United States, may not meet the basic requirements of Canadian privacy laws.

The Privacy Commissioner has written to Google and Immersive Media to seek further information and assurances that Canadians’ privacy rights will be safeguarded if their technology is deployed in Canada.

Privacy Commission, Sept. 11 2007

Although Google Street View hasn’t come to Canada yet, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has written expressing concern to Google and to Immersive Media Corp, a Calgary company whose large database of photos gathered with high resolution . . . [more]

Yesterday a new book on the Law of Blogging was released. It’s available for $9.95 directly from the author as a PDF download only.

The Contents sketch out a broad range of topics: . . . [more]

Here’s a link passed on by Rich in our library to an article at TechCrunch describing a new eBook service from Amazon and Google. It is meant to be delivered on a new piece of hardware called ‘kindle.’ As one reader notes, a bad choice for any book-related product, but perhaps it is meant to be a book killer.

As an interesting aside, see the second comment on the article which must be astroturf. Further into the comments there are some worthwhile thoughts, especially #8. . . . [more]

That is the question asked in an article published last week in the Legal Times.

It provides an overview of the increasing use of the legal blogosphere by tenured law professors to pursue legal scholarship:

“If you are looking for the future of legal scholarship, chances are that you may find it not in a treatise or the traditional law review but in a different form, profoundly influenced by the blogosphere (…) Who are the bloggers? The uninitiated might think they would be young professors, those who have grown up with the Internet and are comfortable with self-publication in

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Today’s WhatPC magazine has an interesting discussion of the high prices charged and poor service delivered by the major legal information companies, specifically naming Thomson (with its Westlaw and Sweet & Maxwell services) and LexisNexis (including the Butterworths and Tolley brands).

A few choice quotes:

“Although the sector boasts a lot about listening to customers, this is largely not so,” says one independent business information consultant. “Customer consultation is often just going through the motions because it’s expected or it looks good.”

“One key supplier introduced a new platform without adequately reflecting the needs of UK users and has been

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