I often consult WestlaweCarswell for electronic access to the Index to Canadian Legal Literature. I use the search template designed for that purpose. Usually I rely on general keyword searches. But today, since my research related to a specific piece of legislation, I thought I would use the “Legislation” field. Unfortunately, my various search term combinations did not easily yield the results I sought.

Here is a hypothetical example to illustrate my point:

If I entered Criminal Code 123 into the “Legislation” field, I got one hit, which actually related to s. 123 of another act and a different section

Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog has a great post about what we will probably see happening in 2008 in the Web 2.0 realm. Here are some of the more interesting predictions:

• As social media begins to mature and new online stars emerge, a new industry of Web 2.0 talent agents and production companies will form to provide professional help. YouTube star Esmee Denters is a perfect example of the potential of online talents.
• Ownership of data contributed to Web 2.0 sites becomes a growing PR issue. I like this quote of Hinchcliffe’s: “the more control you give up, the more

Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright.

The New York Times is speculating that the big ISP’s may be getting ready to filter what passes through their server to and from machines in the U.S., at least. Such a prying would place a premium on law firms’ either being their own ISP’s or using encrypted data when moving it via a commercial ISP. . . . [more]

Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright.

The New York Times is speculating that the big ISP’s may be getting ready to filter what passes through their server to and from machines in the U.S., at least. Such a prying would place a premium on law firms’ either being their own ISP’s or using encrypted data when moving it via a commercial ISP. . . . [more]

Via Michael Geist:

The CBA is reporting a security breach of their computer system:

An audit of the CBA online web systems has revealed unauthorized third party access to the system during the recent holiday period.

Immediate steps were taken to further enhance the security of the site, and those whose records were potentially affected are being notified of this unauthorized activity.

The CBA takes the privacy of members very seriously and has taken appropriate steps to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.

Michael quotes them as telling members:

Your records may have been affected

Three or four times in the last week I have had discussions with various people on the issue of the versions of copies of court cases that are provided to the court in a book of authorities – are you required to provide a photocopy of the case from an official (or unofficial) print version of the case or is it acceptable to provide a printout of an online version from one of the commercial databases or from CanLII?

A decade or more ago – when online versions of judgments did not always format well or may not have . . . [more]

The Law Librarian Blog today drew attention to the relatively new Best Practices for Legal Education Blog, “a site [that] was created with two goals in mind: 1) to create a useful web-based source of information on current reforms in legal education (…) ; and 2) to create a place where those interested in the future of legal education can freely exchange ideas, concerns, and opinions.”

Contributors are from the United States and the UK (or Glasgow anyway – is Scotland still part of the UK? In, out, half in, half out, sovereignly associated with the Brits?). . . . [more]

This just in, Lexis/Quicklaw is intending to charge $50 per head for Academic Access at Canadian Law Schools starting next September.

So a Canadian Law School with 500 students would be charged $25000 starting September 2008.

I’m going to save my comments for later. . . . [more]

I missed this last summer: TimesOnline reported that China passed regulations forbidding Tibetan Bodhisattvas (i.e. living Buddhas) from reincarnating without permission from the Chinese government. This joins the Malaysian prohibition on Christian use of the word Allah in the “implacable force meets immovable object” category of demolition derby.

Of course, as I said when I blogged about Malaysia, without the text of the regulation it’s hard to say how sensible or silly the prohibition actually is. TimesOnline does at least throw quotes around a small portion of text, suggesting that this is how the law reads, in translation at . . . [more]

The Adbusters suit to get the major TV outlets to run its ads entered a new phase yesterday. The British Columbia Supreme Court began hearing argument on two motions, one to add the CBC as a party and the other by CanWest to have the case dismissed, presumably as showing no cause of action (the details are scarce, as usual when a lawsuit is involved). Adbusters has tried and failed to get the major networks to run its ads for Buy Nothing Day or those attacking the fast food and forestry industries. It seems–as I said, the details are scarce–that . . . [more]

An interesting article in the NYTimes on the recent health issues of Om Malik. Om, for those of you that don’t follow tech blogs, is a long time industry insider and the publisher of GigaOm.

On Dec. 28th Om had a heart attack, and well wishes aside (I’m a long time subscriber), the combination of the sedentary life style, smoking and scotch (nah, couldn’t be the scotch…), are cited as causes to his health issues. The big kicker for me was the fact that Om is 41! Now that’s a wake-up call if ever there was one. Ouch.

The . . . [more]

Xerox, a company that’s been part of your daily life for seemingly ever, is fed up with our thinking “copy” when we hear their name. (Hell, I still use xerox as a verb.) They do many more things than make copiers and want “a brand identity that reflects the Xerox of today,” as their vice-president of advertising says. So they’ve ditched the capital X and now will use this new logo:

I can’t say I’m impressed by the ball thingy. The 3-D look that’s popular nowadays will soon be out — if it isn’t already — and weren’t we using . . . [more]