♫ If you want it you can get it
If you choose it don’t regret it
If you feel it make it real
It’s what you wanted don’t forget it..♫

Music and lyrics by April Start.

During the first week of November, 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia will hold the first ever conference devoted to the topic of Consumer Protection Issues and Online Dispute Resolution (“ORD”). The conference proponents include the US Government, the EU, The Czech Court of Arbitration, eBay and PayPal, and the ICANN Office of the Ombudsman.

According to Dr. Frank Fowlie, the Ombudsman for ICANN . . . [more]

I can’t resist my annual greeting–I hope you are having a great day and for those of you celebrating, a fun evening.

Photo: Ring of Kerry in Ireland by Connie Crosby, September 2006 . . . [more]

The Library Journal has issued its list of Movers & Shakers. (ht to Stephen Abram). See the list here, and more importantly, the stories which led to the nominations.

I like the way the list is categorized – makes navigation much easier. There are lessons to be learned from each of these people, but it is much more efficient to read up on those working in your own area of obsession/interest.

Like all good librarians, I encourage you to have a look through these profiles, and find some ideas we can steal, er, adapt to our own work. . . . [more]

If the pre-1978 U.S. Copyright Act was still in effect, copyright-protected works from 1953 would have entered the public domain on January 1, 2010. Current U.S. law protects works for 70 years from the date of the author’s death, but prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for an additional 28 years). Copyright-protected works from 1953 include Casino Royale, Marilyn Monroe’s Playboy cover, The Adventures of Augie March, the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Crick & Watson’s Nature article decoding the double helix, Disney’s . . . [more]

ICANN, the international body that manages the business of approving domain names and numbers, decided about two years ago to permit generic top-level domain names (gTLD), creating an application process that is expected to get underway this year.

The camera and technology company Canon Inc. announced yesterday that it has done what it can now to apply for the gTLD “.canon”, not suprprisingly, and staked out its territory:

Following approval for the new gTLD system, which is expected to take place after the latter half of 2011, Canon will make full use of the new domain name to increase

The quality of Canadian internet access continues to decline in comparison to that of other countries. See, for example, previous Slaw posts here and here. This while high speed access is more increasingly considered crucial for the economy, competitiveness and innovation – even to the extent that many feel that the internet is a fundamental human right.

The Canadian government talked about a digital strategy in its recent throne speech, but so far we don’t know what that translates to.

Contrast that with what is happening in the US. The US FCC just announced an aggressive plan to . . . [more]

My wife and I did a good thing on the day of the recent Oscar telecast: we attended a 1 pm showing at our local theater of the Oscar-nominated short films and short animation films.

Although I thought the Oscar presentation was too long and not funny enough, having seen the 1 pm showing made the presentations later that night for those two categories much more interesting.

If you get the chance to see the winning short animation film it is simply brilliant. It was Logorama, a 16-minute animated film set in what is presumably Los Angeles that uses . . . [more]

On January 19th the Small Claims Court of Nova Scotia awarded $750 to an aggrieved surfer whose new surfboard was dinged by another surfer who breached the “paddle behind” rule of surfing etiquette.

The rule of surfing that the defendant was proven to violate is a pretty indisputable rule of surfing etiquette. The surfer paddling out should not interfere with the surfer riding the wave. This usually means that the surfer paddling out takes a path that leads into the breaking part of the wave, moderately discomforting but a warranted self-sacrifice to allow the rider to enjoy an uninterrupted ride. . . . [more]

Boy, does time fly! Although at this time of year, that ’ s a good thing. It means that spring is nearly here, bringing with it another ABA TECHSHOW , and that it ’ s time for Law Practice ’ s annual Tech Tips issue. In this special issue, for the third year in a row, we celebrate the spirit of ABA TECHSHOW with a bounty of legal technology tips that you can put to use right away to help your days go more smoothly. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find:

• Essential apps for your smartphone: Lawyers

Here it is, just about half way between Friday Fillips, and I’m feeling the urge to share some frivolous findings with you. I hope that those who read Slaw for our contributions to your understanding of law and practice will forgive me this mid-week miscellany, most of it blithely immaterial.

But let’s start with law, in a way. The Globe and Mail this morning reported on a British scholar’s announcement (assertion?) that the 1613 Elizabethan drama, Cardenio, is in fact (mostly) by Shakespeare, and not Fletcher (his ghost blogger?) or Theobald, the later plagiarist. In the brief excerpt cited I . . . [more]

A Spanish judge, Raul N. García Orejudo, has ruled that linking to copyrighted material is not illegal in SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) vs. Jesus Guerra over the link site elrincondejesus.com.

Stan Schroeder of Mashable summarizes the proceedings:

First, he denied SGAE’s request to shut down Guerra’s site in June, saying that “P2P networks, as a mere transmission of data between Internet users, do not violate, in principle, any right protected by Intellectual Property Law.”

Now, he decided that “offering an index of links and/or linking to copyright material is not the same as distribution.” His decision

An article from yesterday’s Globe and Mail points out that the Tories are quietly cutting funding to organizations that benefit from Industry Canada’s Community Access Program (CAP). These organizations, which include hospitals, seniors groups and employment centres, use the cash from CAP to provide free Internet access to Canadians who don’t always have access to high-speed Internet or even access to computers, particularly those living in rural communities. Organizations that are located within 25 kilometres of a public library will no longer receive funding. . . . [more]