Perhaps the thorniest of emerging Internet legal and policy issues these days is the question of Internet intermediaries. It is a feature of the Internet that all online activity is intermediated through at least one and often several service providers, such as ISPs, social networking sites, blog hosting sites, etc. Standing at the crux of all this activity, intermediaries are uniquely placed to exert a great deal of control and surveillance over activities of downstream users, making them a compelling target for policy-makers and aggrieved plaintiffs alike. The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent seminal decision in Crookes v. Newton offers . . . [more]

Since Slawyers like to know about cool things, I thought I would share some testing I have done in the last couple of days to build an App. I have been trying out Snappii.

Snappii offers the service of building an app using one of their templates, or from scratch using variou widgets they offer. They have a previewer app which lets you see your app to test it. It works on a username and password registration to their site. The tool is remarkably easy, so I created an (unpublished – more on that later) app to post a . . . [more]

Flags are being raised by numerous privacy experts about expected federal “lawful access” legislation. This legislation–expected to be reintroduced–was last seen in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session, which ended March 26, 2011 and includes:

• Bill C-50 – Improving Access to Investigative Tools for Serious Crimes Act
• Bill C-51 – Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act
• Bill C-52 – Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act

Excerpted from a commentary by Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Ann Cavoukian published in today’s National Post:

At issue is the anticipated re-introduction of a trio of federal bills that will provide

Followers of the AvoidAClaim blog will know that fraud attempts against lawyers show no sign of slowing down. Almost daily we see new names and new email addresses being used. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done to track down the actual perpetrators who are often overseas and using free email services.

However, the free email services will shut down addresses being used for illegitimate activities. Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail all have pages where you can submit an email address used in a fraud attempt. Yes, the fraudsters can quickly generate a new one, but shutting . . . [more]

Even in 2011, I receive a surprisingly large number of documents that require me to print them, sign them, and fax them back to the sender. Ironically, most of these documents are sent to me as PDF attachments to e-mails.

We’ve banned physical fax machines at Clio, and instead use RingCentral for sending an receiving faxes. My workflow below helps me avoid having to print and scan documents that require completion and signing:

1. Download the PDF document
2. Open in Adobe Acrobat Professional
3. Use the “typewriter” tool to complete form fields
4. Open a separate PDF file where I’ve signed my name

Klout’s recent tweaking of it influence scoring algorithm has a lot of people questioning the value of the various online tools that measure influence – especially those that saw their Klout score plummet. Mine actually went up :-)

What do these scores really measure? Do they really mean anything? How do you really measure your online influence?

Listen to this impromptu audio recording by Robert Scoble for his views on the value of online influence ranking tools, and the factors you should consider in accessing your online reach, influence the value of the content your post through social media channels. . . . [more]

I want to revist Crookes v Newton, 2011 SCC 47 which Simon C mentioned previously. What I find interesting about this case is the expansion of legally defined technology terms (yes I know I might be the only one who finds this interesting). There is currently a paucity of legally defined technological terms and Crookes v Newton has expanded that pool by only adding a few definitions.

Previously hyperlink has been legally defined in in the lower court ruling 2008 BCSC 1424 in para 29 where hyperlink was defined as: “A hyperlink is like a footnote or a reference . . . [more]

I’ve been thinking about mobile commerce recently, in part because I am on a panel at the Canadian IT Law Association annual conference tomorrow entitled “Mobile Business: Industry Trends, Public Policy Issues and Legal Implications” along with Jacob Glick of Google, and Eric Gross of Gowlings.

m-commerce is already here, and will grow significantly in the near future. Consider that mobile devices are outselling PC’s.

North America is not on the leading edge of this. Places like Japan and Korea, and parts of Europe are ahead of us.

As examples of what can be done, take a look at these . . . [more]

Beware of “rumor about you” DM that is Twitter account hijack exploit

Earlier this afternoon I received the following message from a lawyer I know: “There is a rumor/blog going around about you http://tdotco/abcdefg might want to read it” (TLD is t.co and other part of the URL is s1bYMHV).

If you click on this link and successfully load this site, it sends this message to all your followers. It is currently circulating among Canadian lawyers. Beware and don’t get fooled. . . . [more]

No doubt many libraries in our community have already heard the news: SydneyPLUS has just purchased a big piece of the Inmagic pie. This includes Inmagic’s DB/Text Library Suite of products: DB/TextWorks, DB/Text WebPublisher Pro, and Inmagic Genie.

According to Kathy Bryce via Andornot’s blog:

The move will strengthen both SydneyPLUS and the new Inmagic division by bringing together complementary technologies to meet the needs of special librarians, while allowing Inmagic, Inc. to focus on new markets.

Inmagic, Inc. (the company) will retain its Presto technology and its related products PrestoKnowledgeNet, Presto AssociatioNet, . . . [more]

Already the subject of Slaw posts in the past with regard to different jurisdictions (see here and here), it is now Quebec’s turn to recognize service via Facebook after the Court of Quebec authorized this past summer a plaintiff to serve its motion to institute proceedings via this social network ing site.

In Boivin & Associés c. Scott, 2011 QCCQ 10324 (CanLII), the plaintiff submitted evidence that it had made every effort possible to serve the defendant by traditional means, but to no avail. Indeed, the defendant had no known address in Quebec and her last known address . . . [more]

Fraud attempts against lawyers can involve a great deal of counterfeit documentation, starting with the initial client ID (passports, licenses), various agreements, loan documents and bank statements, and ending with the cheque that finally arrives at the lawyer’s office. When we add posts about a fraud to the AvoidAClaim blog, we also provide images of these fake documents that lawyers have provided to us.

On a new page on the AvoidAClaim blog we have post a large selection of the fake passports, licenses, documentation and cheques in one place. The page is called “Huge collection of fake IDs, documents . . . [more]