Every day, lawyers are engaged to help individuals and companies respond to damaging web-based communications. Though engagement is a measure of final resort, issues about evidence preservation arise at the point counsel first picks up the phone. What are we to do?

I’ve endorsed different means to preserve evidence of web-based communications in practice, each meeting the essential requirements for preserving admissible and credible evidence but none perfect in all regards. I’m not going to propose a solution though. For one, I’ve confirmed through discussions with a computer forensics friend that preserving web pages is challenging and that there is . . . [more]

ACJNet from the Legal Resource Centre Alberta has long been a mainstay for Canadian legal researchers. This resource has now been relaunched as three new portals for the public and those who work with the public:

• LawNet Canada
• LawNet Français
• LawNet Alberta

The press release from the Legal Resource Centre:

LAWNET IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Legal Resource Centre is pleased to announce the launch of LawNet, three web portals that will help you find the legal-related information you need: LawNet Alberta, LawNet Canada, and LawNet Français.

What can LawNet do for you?

LawNet

A hat tip to my good friend and Sooner Jim Calloway for pointing out this helpful ZDNet iGeneration blog post on locking down Facebook.

While privacy as we used to know it is dead – unless you stay off the web (and even that probably doesn’t work anymore because your friends will post information or pictures about you), you can still do things to keep your Facebook page information a bit more private (Note: I didn’t say totally private). The difficulty is that Facebook frequently changes its profile and privacy settings pages, and with all the different pages and . . . [more]

From the Law Library of Congress, a new report: New Zealand: Maori Culture and Intellectual Property Law.

The protection of the traditional cultural expressions of indigenous people from inappropriate use raises issues relating to the differences between standard intellectual property concepts and the “worldview” of such groups.

This report might ring some bells in Canada. The Maoris work to maintain traditional forms while addressing current issues, as in this powerful video. As usual, one of the main troubles is actually cashing the cheque. Perhaps a tipping point is approaching, especially for those with some cultural capital. . . . [more]

I had an interesting App experience this morning. While using The Weather Network’s iPad Application, my device crashed. Hard. It locked up so completely that my attempts to hard boot the device with a forced power-cycle didn’t work. Ten minutes later, the OS did finally auto-reboot on its own; but during that time, I seriously considered that my battery was going to have to run out before I would be able to regain access.

The experience was a gentle reminder to a long standing issue for me. That the web, as a working environment, is so incredibly rock solid; and . . . [more]

Ooh, the App Store is here!

For those of you who use Macs at home or (less and less rarely) at the firm, this is Apple’s new venture in vertical integration of the computer experience and world domination. Just as the iTunes Store sells products for iPads, iPhones and iPods, so this Mac application will front end the sale of a thousand apps (as of opening) with more to come.

Whatever else it turns out to be, it’ll be a boon for the small app developer who has had a hard time getting our attention up till now.

For what . . . [more]

If you’re not familiar with Instapaper, may I suggest you take a moment now to click on that link and get acquainted? Too busy? See, that’s the whole point. Instapaper is for you because you’re too busy — too busy now, at least. It’s a way to lodge the text of an interesting web find in a personal archive so that later, when you do have the time, you’ll be able to read it. It’s free and it’s easy.

And when “later” comes, you can read your saved gems in your computer (iPad, iPod, laptop), of course, or on . . . [more]

At this time of year many legal bloggers are busy making predictions about what major trends, technologies and shifts we’ll be seeing in the legal space in the coming year. Here’s a roundup of what some of the legal blogosphere thinks is in store in 2011:

• What Surprised you in 2010 (and What Should Lawyers Expect in 2011)? by Adrian Lurssen on the JD Supra Scoop Blog
• 10 Legal Tech Predictions for 2011 by David Bilinski at Thoughtful Legal Management
• 2011 Tech Trends for Lawyers by Niki Black at Sui Generis
• 10 Legal Trends for 2011 by John Wallbillich at

You may have seen the recent Wall Street Journal article on the privacy implications of certain iPhone, iPod Touch and Android apps that disclose information to advertising networks without the explicit knowledge of the user. It didn’t take long, but now a class action lawsuit filed in California against Apple for allowing this to happen. See: Apple sued over privacy in iPhone, iPad apps | Apple – CNET News.

I think that this lawsuit is directed at the wrong party (Apple Computer Inc.) and, if it is at all successful, will be harmful to the internet.

This is similar . . . [more]

A lawyer with the City of Ottawa was active in community activities, and with permission of his employer spent some time on those activities at the office. His email to and from one of the charities became the subject of an access to information request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). He resisted disclosure of the emails on the ground that they had nothing to do with government business, the disclosure of which was the purpose of the Act.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner held in April 2009 that the emails must be disclosed: . . . [more]