In the past two weeks, the New York Times reported that Microsoft has made a minor concession with European privacy authorities about how long it retains its log files. A committee of European privacy regulators had asked that these logs be kept for only six months. Microsoft’s response? Eighteen months.Yahoo used to keep them for thirteen months and just announced it will cut retention to 90 days. Google keeps them for nine.

The privacy implictions of these innocuous log files have been underestimated, particularly when you think about the fulsome picture of your private life that companies like Google may . . . [more]

It can’t be called Lexography, as it’s too close to lexicography, and Lexology has been taken, at least for commercial purposes. Please not Rechtographical Analysis. So what do people call the study of law that is not the practice of law? Legal Studies, perhaps, but it is a tepid choice. I think people mostly resort to specialties, such as legal history, legal theory, the philosophy of law, and the ‘law ands’: law and sociology, law and film, law and economics…

The study of law from non-legal or non-black-letter perspectives can usefully be divided into those that treat data derived from . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada this morning released its reasons for judgment in BCE Inc. v. 1976 Debentureholders, 2008 SCC 69. Oddly, this doesn’t yet appear to have received much coverage in the news sites. Perhaps we’re all eager to get home early and shovel our driveways?

Having not yet finished digesting the decision, I can’t say much. There’s a wealth of interesting and essential material here: a restatement of the directors’ fiduciary duty to the corporation, and the extent to which consideration of other stakeholders’ interests may enter into that duty; the “business judgment” rule; the obligation . . . [more]

A snow day across much of the country today, a day at any event for taking it easy as the holidays approach. So nothing of any moment in the fillip today. In fact today it’s a Friday Flip.

Flip is a game devised to show some of the things that can be done with Adobe Air. But for us, today, it’s simply a game. You can play it online, or you can download it to run on your desktop, if you have Air installed. The idea is simply to cause tiles to flip so that three of a kind lie . . . [more]

♫ Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go
Laughing all the way…♫

Words and music by James Lord Pierpont.

At this time of the year I would like to wish each and everyone the Best of the Holiday Season and a Happy New Year. This upcoming year will be a challenging one and as such I hope for Peace, Hope and Happiness for all.

As has become my tradition, at this time as my gift to you I offer a few minutes of reflection. I hope this slide show and music . . . [more]

CALI – the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction has been mentioned a few times here at Slaw * *. I was reminded about CALI recently by a post of the top ten fall semester 2008 lessons at the Law Librarian Blog.

The CALI site has an interesting first page – a list shows the frequently used material for the day, and week by the student subgroup- 1L, 2/3L and there is a link to more zeitgeist¹ at the bottom of the page. One of the zeitgeist is the All Time Lesson Runs Since 2008-08-01. The following list, . . . [more]

The Call List-Serv is offering the Western Samoa Law Reports, 1930-1949 and 1970-1979 (2 volumes) free for the cost of shipment. Some Samoan cases are available online, though the Index is also on PacificLii.

Samoan law is described in PacificLii.

I’ve not found any reference to any Canadian court having considered a Western Samoan case. But it does seem sad that the inexorable rise of web-based caselaw has put this obscure bit of antipodean jurisprudence in the recycling hopper. Unless someone wants to claim it from the BC Courthouse Library. . . . [more]

An item I blogged about yesterday over at Stem, I am about to start a new role in 2009 as a column editor for the ABA LPM’s Law Practice magazine. The column will be called LegalWEB2.0, and is set to begin in the Jan/Feb issue. Here’s a small screen capture from the inaugural column:

Connected to this new role, I am hoping you’ll help one of our first columnists Doug Cornelius by taking a new survey on law firms that block social media websites via their proxy servers or firewall. If your firm blocks these sites, or even . . . [more]

There’s a new addition to the roster of domain name suffixes coming: .tel And it’s unique among extensions in at least a couple of ways. First, its distribution is in wholly private and commercial hands — you’ll pay to play — and second, it won’t locate a place on the web. Evidently, dot tel will lead to a collection of your resources located right on the domain name server, and what it serves up will depend on how you come to it and where you come from. The idea is to make the DNS emit information that is responsive to . . . [more]

The Access to Justice Network, a public legal information network funded by the Alberta Law Foundation, recently posted material about the federal political crisis relating to prorogation that shook Parliament, the pundits and the people earlier this month.

Other recent material on the topic includes:

• David Cameron – “Constitutional Crisis or Democracy in Action” (University of Toronto Law School Faculty Blog, December 9, 2008)
• Lorne Sossin – “Was the Governor General’s Decision to Prorogue Parliament Constitutional?” (University of Toronto Law School Faculty Blog, December 9, 2008)
• Peter Russell – Lessons From Our Most Recent “Constitutional Crisis” (University of Toronto

I thought I’d take this opportunity to tap into Slaw’s coast-to-coast reach for a quick poll: how many courts across the country have created a rule/practice direction/notice to the profession that lists common cases and says they don’t have to be included in the case books filed by the parties? I was aware of such a list in Prince Edward Island, and I recently learned that such a practice has existed for some time in British Columbia and, more recently, before the Federal Court (though the current list appears to be limited to immigration matters). Where else? 

I . . . [more]

Wealth of comparative and historical material in Hein Online’s Classics.

I just stumbled over a book I never knew existed:

1884 W. T. S. Daniel, The History and Origin of the Law Reports,
Together with a Compilation of Various Documents Shewing the Progress and Result of Proceedings Taken for Their Establishment and the Condition of the Reports on the 31st December, 1883

We have been debating law reporting for longer than we suspected. . . . [more]