All Slawyers seem far more expert on computers than I. I am badly confused by the verbs that I encounter—you may have noticed that I get hung up on words; I love them and believe that they actually have or should have a precise meaning.

I am occasionally invited to “install” a programme. When I try to do so, I am asked whether I want to “run” it or “save” it. Now I have lost my verb, “install.” What do I do? Neither verb seems responsive to the invitation to install anything. If I save it, how will I even . . . [more]

A post on the U of A Faculty of Law Blog caught my eye today. Other articles on SLAW have discussed legal publishing trends. The Alberta Law Review online supplement looks very much like a blog, but with a qualifier for the posts:

The Alberta Law Review is pleased to introduce a new, moderated forum for legal debate: the Alberta Law Review Online Supplement. This new forum will be a place for legal scholars, practitioners and students to discuss and debate contemporary legal issues. Please visit the forum to discover what enquiring legal minds are thinking about right now. If

FROM THE OFFICES OF LESLEY ELLEN HARRIS
Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News
__________________________________________________________________
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Vol. 12, No. 6, October 19, 2008
ISSN 1489-954X

Contents:

1. Studies, Legislation and Conventions:
WIPO Study on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries
Creative Commons Launches Study of “Noncommercial” Use
Bill C-61 Dies With Canadian Election Call

2. Legal Cases:
Harry Potter Lexicon Breached Copyright
Peer-to-Peer Magazine Site Settles Dispute

3. Of Interest:
Hollywood Demands Royalties From Irish Playschools
U.S. Music Groups Agree on Royalties for Online Streaming
Copyright Law is a Balancing Act
OCLC Pilots Copyright Registry

4. Seminars and Publications:
Canadian . . . [more]

Condé Nast publishes magazines that cater to those with money — Vogue, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, and perhaps thirty others (including the New Yorker and Wired, by the way). Which in turn means that they earn a fair bit of change themselves; and one advantage to that, for us their readers, at least, is that they have the means to make interesting websites. The one that caught my eye recently is Portfolio.com, and particularly the part with interactive features.

Interactivity is where the web really shines. Computers are too smart to spend all of their time reproducing the various . . . [more]

Voici deux sites web qui pourraient intéresser nos amis francophones:

Les présentations des conférenciers de Legal.TI 2008 – Droit et technologies de l’information à Montréal sont disponibles. La plupart (tous?) est en PDF. Et vous pouvez acheter la documentation remise aux participants.

Le site ReadWriteWeb a une version française:

ReadWriteWeb est un blog dédié aux technologies web qui en couvre l’actualité et se distingue par ses notes d’analyse et de prospective ainsi que par l’accent mis sur les usages dans les nouvelles technologies. Classé parmi les 10 blogs les plus influents au monde par Technorati et Wikio, il

Doug Cornelius–someone whose thoughts many of us have followed through his blog KM Space–is leaving his real estate practice at his law firm in Boston and with it his hard-core legal knowledge management work. That being said, I am still hopeful he will practice what he learned there about knowledge management and will continue (at least a little) to update his KM blog. He had me worried that he wouldn’t.

Doug has joined Beacon Capital Partners, a real estate firm also in Boston, as their Chief Compliance Officer.

In talking to Doug recently, I learned that . . . [more]

No this is not a pot about wine or beer although I often advocate for the use of beverages to facilitate to relationships.

This is a post for those of us who have difficulty coming up with just the right word to add pithy to the statement. Lifehacker informed me today about Tip of My Tongue.

In a post citing the effectively named digital inspiration blog, I read:

Free word search site Tip of My Tongue makes it easy to find that word that’s just out of your fuzzy mind’s reach. Type in parameters on the left—letters the word

Lawyers often talk about how entrepreneurs should make their companies “investor ready”. This uses the term “investor” in the widest sense, meaning everything from a bank loan, to a VC investment, to the sale of the business to Google that allows the owner to retire early in luxury. By “ready” we mean being able to easily survive investor diligence without risk of losing the deal or diminishing the value – by having taken all the right steps and having the right documentation for such things as an up to date corporate minute book, trade-marks for brands, documenting IP ownership, proper . . . [more]

Since I flew in only an hour back I haven’t had time to catch up on my reading, but five items on the feeds caught my eye: . . . [more]

Frobisher, 1577It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada, so we’ll be feasting with family or just taking it easy. We’ll get back to regular posting tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, a bit of Canadian bragging: The first thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in North America took place in what is now Canada. The intrepid but not very lucky Martin Frobisher sailed from England for the Eastern Arctic and arrived in 1578 with 300 Cornish miners looking for gold. It’s said that they held a formal thanksgiving ceremony, which I can well understand, given that they survived the passage. Sadly, they returned at . . . [more]

Kenneth Crews, Director, Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University, has prepared a “Study on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives” for WIPO. It’s now available at: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=109192.It is a lengthy document, 434 pages, discussing issues from the foundation of library exceptions to their prevalence, scope and structure, and the nature of the various exceptions in the copyright legislations of all WIPO member countries (including Canada.) The first 70+ pages is a substantive discussion and the remaining pages are excerpts from legislation discussed in the document.Lesley . . . [more]

With much fanfare, media attention and crashing of computers, Canada’s Do NOT Call List Today went live on September 30, 2008. At leat that was the first day for consumers to add themselves to the list (at https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/).

The scheme really isn’t live yet and the barrage of annoying calls I received last night alone is evidence of that. It really appears that telemarketers are trying to squeeze in as many calls as possible. The regulations establishing the list give a telemarketer thirty days to get an updated list and it is only then that they cannot call you . . . [more]