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]

This week, we’ve been outlining the biotech industry trends we’ve been following on the Cross-Border Biotech Blog and noting some recent developments and directions for 2011:

Social media in biotech and healthcare continues to grow in importance to the industry. At this week’s JP Morgan conference, there are live blogs and Twitterati galore. And when even the government gets in on the game… well, the FDA hasn’t issued social media guidelines for regulated companies, but it’s using the web and Twitter frequently and well, so companies had better be listening.

Every drug company is talking about getting “the right medicine . . . [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]

While becoming a lawyer was always my career goal, I always felt one downfall to the career path was the lack of the opportunity to travel. As law is very jurisdiction-specific, we rarely have the opportunity to go on “business trips”. This is especially true for solo and small-firm lawyers, however I’ve heard the same is true for those who practice in larger firms. Some lawyers certainly get the chance to appear before international tribunals, however this is clearly unique and not something most lawyers will experience. While those in other professional fields like accounting and consulting will be quick . . . [more]

Ahh 2011, brought to you by Canadian Copyright Laws; tablet wars, Facebook fatigue, (anti)social media, what does that cloud look like?, A Space Odyssey (if you read the title slightly incorrectly). Where is tech going to take us? Before we start to look forward I thought we could look back…wayyyyyyy back to what is widely regarded as the first personal computer, the Kenback-1.

Available in 1971 for $750.00 the Kenback-1 ceased production in 1973 as the Kenback Corporation went under. This personal computer did not have “intel inside” (no microprocessor) and had 256 bytes of RAM, it was the . . . [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]

The annual Consumer Electronics Show is about to start in Las Vegas. The CES officially runs from January 6 to the 9th, but there are several press conferences today for new product announcements. The show is huge – 2700 exhibitors, and over 100,000 attendees. Most of the major electronics brands will be there showing off their latest computers, cameras, TV’s, home theatres, and accessories. (With the notable exception of Apple.)

One of the hot items this year will be tablets. As I’ve mentioned before, (and I’m certainly not the only one) tablets will forever change how we consume . . . [more]