Interface design matters. More and more, usability and user-focus are central themes in website design manuals such as Krug’s Dont Make Me Think, King’s Designing the Digital Experience, and Goto and Cotler’s Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow that Works. These successful popular works rely on a lot of serious user testing of the Jakob Nielsen variety, which tracks eye movement and identifies typical scanning patterns and optimal designs based on them.

If you have wondered why, then, the interfaces at WestlaweCarswell and Lexis-Nexis QL are so difficult to use, Julie Jones of Cornell has the answer for . . . [more]

As you may know, in the U.S. federal government documents are not protected by copyright. (Canadian federal government documents are protected by copyright in Canada.) Take this in context when reading the summary of the February 5th, 2009 decision by the California Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District released its decision in California first Amendment Coalition v. County of Santa Clara.

In this case, the County of Santa Clara tried to enforce copyright in public records and to impose licensing restrictions (resulting in license fees) on commercial vendors. California first Amendment Coalition (CFAC) sued the county to release . . . [more]

Pew Internet has released a demographic of Twitter users. Hat Tip to the Law Librarian Blog.

No surprises that Twitter users are mostly young, urban, mobile, and they also use other social media. The report reveals the comparative median age of major social networking sites:

• Facebook – 26
• MySpace – 27
• Twitter – 31
• LinkedIn – 40

Broad source demographic information (Americans as a whole group + or – 3% accuracy) is interesting, but it may not give organizations the right kind of data for decisions making.

It is great to see stats that might give a picture of . . . [more]

The National Post is reporting that India is now open to foreign law firms in a limited way. The Post has its information from Dezan Shira & Associates whose “briefing note” of a week ago makes it clear that the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2008 [PDF] permits foreign firms to register and offer “consultation services” but not practice law. It seems that the Bill has received presidential assent.

S.59 is the relevant enabling section and reads as follows:

59. The Central Government may make rules for provisions in relation to establishment of place of business by foreign limited

Master’s students at the Université de Paris X – Nanterre have produced a comparative guide that provides an overview of the legal situation in 70 countries on issues relating to:

• nationality, adoption, marriage and divorce
• estates
• international private law

The guide is written in French.

[Source: Précisément.org, un blog pour l’Information juridique] . . . [more]

Vol. 13, No. 2, February 16, 2009 (ISSN 1489-954X) of Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News, is now available. Email lehletter @ copyrightlaws.com for a copy. This issue will shortly be posted at: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/copyright/.

Contents include:

Is Illegal Use of Subscription Web Site a Copyright Violation?

Obama: Hope artist asks for Fair Use Ruling

NFB Makes Films Available Online

Copyright in Africa

Digital Music Report 2009

Some YouTube Videos Get Download Option

Authors Guild Claims Kindle’s Text-to-Speech Violates Copyright

Online Copyright Courses

Book: Licensing Digital Content: A Practical Guide for Librarians

This e-letter, from 1996 to the present, . . . [more]

The CRTC started its new media hearing yesterday. It will consider whether the CRTC should regulate the Internet in some way – the thought being that it is just another form of broadcasting.

It’s an important issue that will no doubt garner a lot of press. Michael Geist will provide detailed ongoing coverage. From his post yesterday:

Throughout the hearings, I’ll be teaming up with Carleton professor Ira Wagman to offer up a full summary of the day’s events as we’ll have students carefully taking notes on all the presentations and discussions. . . . [more]

This from Louise Hamel, Manager of the Judges’ Library at the Ontario Court of Appeal:

The Court of Appeal for Ontario launched today an RSS feed for when:

• Decisions are added to the decisions page
• Case lists are available
• Leave to appeal notifications are posted
• Non-publication orders and in-camera hearings are announced

Additional feeds are under development and in the future you will be able to subscribe to separate feeds for each service.

You can check out this new service at http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/coa/en/
rss/index.htm.

♫ Everything, everything, everything, everything..
In its right place
In its right place…♫

Lyrics by Thom Yorke, music written and recorded by Radiohead.

One of the long-standing tenets of Google Mail (or GMail) was that you didn’t need folders – that its search abilities eliminated that need.

Problem is, as the size of your GMail Inbox grew, the ease of using Search to manage your GMail diminished. One was left wishing for a good-old fashioned folder structure that allowed you to stuff emails into them and thereby take them out of your Inbox.

Well, that wall came quietly crumbling . . . [more]

There are some people — well, there used to be — who keep their notes in a notebook and keep their notebooks. (Some even pass them on to posterity.) But that was then, and, Moleskine notwithstanding, this is now. Paper may be passé, the urge to note, however, is still with us; and because the brain is no larger than it once was, despite all the pushing this way and that from importunate data, notes must be recorded externally somehow. I use scraps of paper left strategically in key places, post-its glued at eye level, Stickies on my . . . [more]

We will be posting news of our new project on our website shortly, but let me give Slawyers advance notice. The Board of Governors recently approved a project on joint and several liability, primarily considering whether the Ontario Business Corporations Act should be amended to eliminate or restrict the joint and several liability imposed on professionals. For example, auditors may be liable if there are misrepresentations or omissions in the financial materials and statements they prepare for their clients and if the other defendants are unable to pay damages awarded for their wrongdoing in the same case, the auditors may . . . [more]

I’ve always had a fascination with DNA, simply because it tells the hidden story of our species that should put to rest many of the controversial debates on the issue.

I have already spent a small fortune investigating my Y-chromosome and mitochondral DNA. Given our very mixed ancestry, I was curious to see what I came up with.

Apparently I’m haplogroup R1a1a from my father’s side, not that exciting because it’s the largest group in the world. But I can also cross-reference my markers with samples of human populations around the world, and I seem to have an remarkable . . . [more]