One of the ways that we at Slaw stay in touch with our readers is through search engines’ reports on websites that refer to us. The fact that the internet has shrunk the world — or expanded my small part of it, which is the other way to look at it — continues to amaze me, as it did once again when I came across a reference to Slaw in a Bulgarian blog on media law, [Медийно право] [Нели Огнянова]. What caught their attention, I should mention, was the recent post by Dan Pinnington, The 2/3 Rule Will Make . . . [more]

The AODA customer service standard outlines what businesses and other organizations in Ontario must do to make their goods and services more accessible to people with disabilities. Every person or organization that provides goods and services to members of the public or other third parties, and has at least one employee in Ontario, must comply; this includes law firms.

I’m wondering what readers think about ipad2 vs Android tablet.

Lets assume for the sake of argument that one wants a tablet now, rather than waiting for another year to see how the market shakes out. And assume that the choice is between the iPad2 and the Motorola Xoom. 

Lets also assume that the intended use is a combination of work and personal.

While this is not an exhaustive list, some things to consider are:

ipad2 pros: 

existing user base of 15,000,000 units for ipad1.

huge number of apps

thinner and lighter

ipad2 cons:

no flash support

must use . . . [more]

Thumper’s law: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”.

The cost of not being nice was recently measured in a recent social media defamation settlement. The New York Times (among others) recently reported a $430,000.00 settlement was reached in Simorangkir v. Love.

The Citizen Media Law Project has a great deal of information on this saga, including pleadings.

I would like to see a judicial decision address the issue of whether there is defamation via a 140 character tweet. I don’t think media reports of a settlement are quite enough to settle this . . . [more]

Boasting performance that is an order of magnitude faster than traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid State Drives (SSDs) are quickly becoming a must-have upgrade for desktops and laptops. While HDDs utilize spinning platters that encode data magnetically, SSDs make use of solid-state memory that stores data electronically, therefore eliminating all moving parts and magnetic sensitivity.

While SSDs offer vast performance improvements over traditional HDDs, they introduce new issues for users that would like to wipe data from their SSDs. As pointed out by a recent Ars Technica article, the usual protocol of “secure deleting” files by writing zeroes . . . [more]

A few months ago, I left my Blackberry in favour of an Android device and I thought I’d share my experience for any lawyers out there who have been drooling over the many devices that have been hitting the market in the past while and may be wondering about making the switch.

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant on the Bell Canada network for a few months now and I have to say that I adore it. It’s my first Android device and I switched from a Blackberry Bold that was on the Rogers network.

I’m the only person . . . [more]

In a previous post, I have outlined a draft Request for Proposal structure (RFP) in relation to courts securing services to develop, deploy and manage a web site designed in accordance with the CCCT IntellAction Working Group Guidelines on Court Web Sites.

In this post, please find our draft evaluation criteria in relation to the RFPs. . . . [more]

It seems Canada is not experiencing the same level of conflict over the issue of citizens photographing police as our neighbours are. In the UK, the US, and Canada, the general rule seems to be that a person is allowed to take pictures of whatever is visible while standing in a public place. But, as always, the devil is in the details.

In the UK the Counter Terrorism Act of 2008 makes it an offense to photograph certain types of police (see s. 76) where the photos could be useful to a terrorist (with the onus of proof on the . . . [more]

The guidelines have the following objectives:

• to enable a common understanding and context of what modern web sites offer and how they are powered (Part I)
• to identify and review issues that are specific to court web sites, as opposed to web sites in general (Part II)
• to develop a principled approach to court web site development (Part III)
• to make specific recommendations on the modernization of court web sites based on modern web site context, court web site issues and selected principles (Part IV)

Part V of the guidelines facilitates adoption of the recommendations in Part IV by providing . . . [more]

Apple just held its press conference. Details about the iPad 2 will be found in the tech press. Engadget.com, wired.com/gadgetlab, and cnet.com are good ones to look at. Even the CBAPracticelink has an article about it. No doubt they will all have articles very soon comparing the iPad2 to the Motorola Xoom, and the upcoming Blackberry Playbook. And speaking of the Playbook, RIM gave an update and demo yesterday – but apparently still no details on launch date or price.

As I’ve mentioned before, tablets will forever change how we consume information and media – both as a consumer . . . [more]

Software developer Aji has just released a new version of iAnnotate with some feature upgrades that will please lawyers who’ve given up reading printouts of cases but crave an active electronic reading experience. Here’s Aji says about version 1.4:

Version 1.4 adds: Typewriter annotations, thickness and transparency for drawing annotations (including a “free-form” highlighter), and ability to view many other types of PDF annotations created in other tools. The ability to save web pages as vector (fully-searchable, highlightable) PDF files. The ability to import Word and PowerPoint files as vector PDF. Single-page mode option including swipe, slide, and tap to

. . . [more]

This post concludes with the last two draft recommendations of the CCCT IntellAction Working Group on Court Web Site Guidelines:

• Site Features – Keep It Simple
• Publication of information – Make It Simple

The previous draft recommendations can be found here:

• Court Web Site: Use a Web Content Management System
• Court Intranets: Use the same Web Content Management System
• Recommended content of court web sites
• Search, Navigation & Taxonomies – Keep It Simple

Grateful for any comments and suggestions that you may have – merci! . . . [more]