A recent notice from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency indicates that the deadline to make a claim for compensation under the class action lawsuit on behalf of freelancers and other contributors to online databases launched by Heather Robertson has now passed.

According to the notice, the class action alleged that the creators were not properly compensated for the electronic reproduction of their works in online databases. The notice advised that Thomson Reuters, CTVglobemedia, and The Gale Group, agreed to pay $11 million to settle the lawsuit, while making no admission of wrongdoing. No reference was made to any other legal . . . [more]

I noticed there is a SharePoint conference coming up in Montreal later this month, SharePoint Summit 2010, April 12-14th. While the sessions are not specific to law, I am pleased to see the depth being given to these topics:

• taxonomy and metadata
• information architecture
• what one speaker is calling social computing (microblogging, blogs, wikis, mobile social clients)
• archiving of content
• enterprise search
• migrating to SharePoint 2010

There are many more subjects covered in 6 tracks of sessions over 3 days, so lots for anyone from beginner to advanced. If you are managing a SharePoint initiative in your organization, or . . . [more]

Connie Crosby previously outlined some of the privacy concerns surrounding the use of Google Buzz.

Following its launch, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Google in a San Jose Federal Court, as well as a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center which stated that Google had engaged in unfair and deceptive practices.

Google responded to the feedback (read complaints) with a number of changes to Buzz, including a shift from auto-follow to auto suggest, ability to block users, and better inbox controls.

Some time today Google is expected to . . . [more]

The situation on privacy expectations of e-mails for employees continues to develop both in Canada and the U.S. A unanimous decision released by the New Jersey Supreme Court this past week in Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc. adds to this area.

Prior to leaving the employer to file a discrimination suit, the employee exchanged 7-8 e-mails with her lawyer through a personal Yahoo! e-mail account through the company’s laptop computer. The employer then retrieved these e-mails through the Temporary Internet Files cache and used them in preparation for the suit. The trial court initially ruled that the employee had . . . [more]

For those of you who read Slaw via RSS or email (and who don’t subscribe to the comments feed), let me point you to a discussion that you might like to visit. There are now fifteen considered and well-written comments on Yosie Saint-Cyr’s post on April 1: “Quebec Government Bill Upholds Gender Equality and Secularism.” Have a look; join the discussion. . . . [more]

I have to admit, when I started a recent series of trips to make presentations in the U.S. and Canada, I’d been questioning whether my recent assessments of and predictions for the legal profession had maybe become too radical. Having now returned from speaking with and listening to some of the sharpest and most engaged minds in the business, I’m coming to think I haven’t been radical enough.

Certainly, there was encouraging news. Delivering serious and perhaps discomfiting messages to state bar leaders in Chicago and law society executives in Toronto, I was heartened by the openness to these ideas . . . [more]

As a number of Slaw readers will already know, Tara Calishain at ResearchBuzz digs up some great stuff. This week it was the news that the Internet Archive has added its 2 millionth free digital book.

The text chosen, Homiliary on Gospels from Easter to first Sunday of Advent, has a bit of a Canadian angle too, in that it was donated by the University of Toronto.

It was also interesting to observe that the “manuscript was copied on parchment by at least three different scribes“. The journey of the text was jumping right from . . . [more]

Today is a holiday in Canada, and for Christians a solemn holiday. I thought that it might be appropriate for this Good Friday to offer you a site about life, life in all its splendid abundance and variety (1.9 million identified species, and growing). Moreover, it’s a site that, like so many nowadays, is built through the cooperative action of us — all of us, potentially.

Sensibly, the site is called the Encyclopedia of Life — with a nice, snappy URL that’s easy to remember: eol.org. But don’t think that this is some feel-good, amateur effort: the Encyclopedia is the . . . [more]

This bit of news from Techdirt had me smiling until the truth began to dawn on me. Developers in Texas are taking a page from the sale of digital goods and trying to convince people to accept their claims to eternal payments on the basis of, it seems, creative work:

“Just like authors who write books and musicians who write songs that will be enjoyed for generations to come, those who improve property are also engaged in the creative process, and the economics of the transaction should reflect that reality,” . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal to the plaintiff in the British Columbia case of Crookes v Newton 2009 BCCA 392.

The Court blog has a summary of the facts and of the appeal judgment.

Basically, the question is whether someone who posts a link to a defamatory publication has him/her/itself published a defamation. The BCCA held 2:1 that in some circumstances the link could be defamatory — but only if in context the poster of the link called particular attention to it and indicated agreement. The majority held (as had the trial court) that . . . [more]

It was great to be quoted on the benefits for law firms of having a business plan in the April 2, 2010 Lawyers Weekly

There is great advice in this article. Unfortunately, it fails to mention that practicePRO also provides lawyers a sample law firm business plan (in Word) and a law firm budget template (an Excel spreadsheet). PDFs of both documents are also available, and all can be found on our Precedent Documents and Retainers page.

New and established lawyers alike can use these documents to plan for a more successful future.

Cross posted on Avoid A . . . [more]

What is in a date? Well if it is April 1, people might think that you are kidding. There are some really funny items floating around the legal blogosphere today.

Why would a government ever make April 1 a coming into force date for legislation? What comes into force in Alberta today?

• Gunshot and Stab Wound Mandatory Disclosure Act (pdf)
• Sections 77 and 91 of the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (pdf)

April 1, 2007 was the in force date for the Fuel Tax Act. Sections 3 to 6, 12(a), 16 to 19, 21 to 23, 25, 31 and . . . [more]