I was off for a couple of weeks and am quite proud to say that I did not access my email for 10 days, which is up there with my personal bests. I did have 266 messages in my inbox when I returned but it was worth it. I still find it nice to know that there are places where wireless signals aren’t bouncing off of me and I can’t plugin.

Upon getting plugged back in this week, it has been interesting to watch the goings on with Facebook, Scrabulous and Hasbro. I find it curious that Hasbro has . . . [more]

If you’re planning to be near Kingston Ontario come August 7, 8 and 9, you might want to check out “copyright’s counterparts,” an academic workshop on the connection between copyright and creativity. From the “about” page:

In some forms and circumstances, copyright, the main reference point for the workshop, can encourage creativity, promote and regulate the circulation and preservation of knowledge and creative work, and ensure compensation for authors. But this workshop ventures in a different direction: it will invite scholars to compare the workings of a number of existing alternative systems, both ancient and emerging,

I’d like to thank Slaw for inviting me to be a regular contributor.

Ironically, this first post is a reference to my latest weekly London Free Press article that was inspired by a post on Slaw entitled “SCC Recognizes Blogging“.

While I can’t reproduce the article here for contractual/copyright reasons, you can read it on my blog, on Canoe, or on the Free Press site.

The article starts off with “A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision concerning a libel suit against a radio host referred to the changing attitudes surrounding public comment and defamation . . . [more]

Out-Googling Google.

by David J. Bilinsky

July 29, 2008.

♫ I tried my best to let you know
That I’m not trying to test you
It’s just so hard to let you go
When I have nothing against you…♫

Words and music by Midtown

It was just a matter of time. It isn’t that I have anything against you, Google, indeed I have learned so much from you, but in time, all things must end. Alas, I have found another.

Cuil (pronounced cool) is the new well, Cool search engine in town. And she is big – very big . . . [more]

What with the arrest of Radovan Karadžić, world attention will likely return for a moment at least to the Hague, and to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in particular. One way to stay in touch with developments at the ICTY and, indeed, all international justice doings at the Hague, is to frequent the Hague Justic Portal. Available in Dutch, French and English, the portal is the creation of The Hague Academic Coalition, a consortium of various institutes in the Hague. . . . [more]

Or rather the value of access to Halsbury’s Laws. That’s the issue that the English courts must decide in a breach of contract claim involving a Reed-Elsevier legal author and the Anglo-Dutch legal publishing conglomerate.

English silk, David Phillips is suing the English division of the publisher, trading as LexisNexis Butterworths, for £316,730 including interest and costs.

Legal publishers aren’t used to being sued.

The claim alleges that LexisNexis breached a deal with Phillips’ father a High Court judge who edited the Income Tax volume of Halsbury’s in the 1970s. I suspect that his Lordship didn’t think it . . . [more]

The Twelfth Annual Canadian IT Law Association Conference, October 27–28, is being held in Halifax this year and offers two days of heavy-duty talks on issues such as “Structuring Multi-Jurisdictional IT Contracts” and “Extraterritorial Application of Laws: The Borderless Internet.” The full program is available in PDF from the sponsoring IT.CAN site. . . . [more]

The Toronto Star has been taking an in-depth look at recent moves by the federal government to “get tough” on crime by increasing sentences for major offenders and by boosting the number of crimes for which mandatory minimum sentences will be imposed.

The newspaper’s multi-part series is entitled Crime and Punishment and looks at popular perceptions of crime rates, the costs of incarcerating more people, the impact of tougher criminal laws on poor and aboriginal Canadians, crime in the suburbs, etc.

It also provides links to documents used by the team of reporters and researchers to develop the series. . . . [more]

Yesterday, the French parliament approved changes to that country’s constitution by the narrowest of possible margins. The amendments are described in the International Herald Tribune story:

Under the French Constitution, tailored for the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, the French head of state has vast powers, including the right to nominate the prime minister, dissolve the National Assembly and set the voting agenda. François Mitterrand, the late Socialist president, famously referred to it as a “permanent coup d’état.”

Sarkozy’s overhaul – the most sweeping change in half a century – allows the president to address Parliament directly, a privilege he

Ars Technica is reporting that during the course of the “tot dancing to a Prince song” trial, in which the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the tot’s mum are suing Universal for giving her “a bad-faith DMCA takedown,” Universal’s lawyer stated that all fair use must constitute infringement, and that fair use is an affirmative defence.

It’s worth noting for bloggers like us that whatever may be the legal position of fair use under U.S. law, in Canada it’s clear that fair dealing does not constitute infringement of copyright: the legislation is explicit on this point:

29. Fair dealing for the

American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy has put together a funky Digital Copyright Slider that helps you determine what kind of copyright is held on works within certain time periods, and whether permission is needed to copy those works or if they are in the public domain. It was designed by Michael Brewer who also developed their hard copy version.

The tool is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike License and can be copied and distributed according to the conditions set out under that license. It can also be adapted with an institution’s own branding and . . . [more]

Doubtless our friends at The Court will be on this but Binnie J (writing for a court of seven) handed down today in Canada (Privacy Commissioner) v. Blood Tribe Department of Health a decision which confirms the importance of legal professional privilege, and confirmed that the Privacy Commissioner, while an Officer of Parliament, lacks the authority of a judge to make determinations of privilege. . . . [more]