The latest issue of the New York Law Journal has an interesting piece on how the law of copyright applies to contracts and other documents drafted within a law firm.

Does contract drafting reach the necessary level of originality? I would have thought that these contracts are essentially collaborative works, given the extent to which one rarely sees someone starting with a blank sheet of paper. Novel clauses keep getting borrowed and reappearing in future contracts.

Does it matter what the status is of the lawyer drafting the contracts? Associates are employees and drafting is within the scope of their

Jim Milles has shared a video of his presentation (“slides” and audio) about the flood they experienced at the University at Buffalo Law School in the first week of August, and the emergency measures they undertook to put things back in order. 3,500 books had to be sent out for vacuum freeze drying in an attempt to prevent mould, and fans and dehumidifiers were brought into the library to remove the water. See The UB Law Flood of 2006 on Check This Out! They were fortunate in that this happened when school was not in progress. My favourite line: “I . . . [more]

The lastest newsletter from the UVic e-learning group provides evidence, if any is needed, of the importance of web 2.0 t hinking and technology in higher education.

There is reference to a good article in Educause review, “Web 2.0: A New Wave for Innovation for Teaching and Learning” described as “an interesting survey of many projects and practices built on social software which are leading which are leading to new ways of learning and teaching.

There is also a link to a very useful site at UBC on social software. . . . [more]

This is a little late in coming to SLAW, as I have been in at a conference the antipodes, and did not get a chance to post the good news when it came through. The following messahge was posted by a colleague (and came from the Statutory Publications Office) on 21 September:

“We are also pleased to announce that the website as it stands will be launched free of charge to the public once piloting has been completed.
A commercial strategy will still be developed next year, but will primarily be looking at options that concern the commercial reuse of . . . [more]

Information technology is being increasingly used to… make books. And now anyone can print them:

…Espresso Book Machine… can print black-and-white text for a 300-page paperback with a four-color cover, and bind it together in three minutes.

So says Jason Epstein, former Random House editorial director, whose new company, On Demand Books, developed the print-on-demand machine. Apparently considered “affordable,” the press will cost “under $100,000.” As the article in PublishersWeekly.com says, this will mean that stores such as Kinko’s or Wal-Mart can go into the book-selling business. Great. On a more upbeat note, the New York Public Library will acquire . . . [more]

Seems that the English judiciary will soon be unwigged. The Lord Chief Justice has begun a consultation that is expected to see all English judges except those in criminal courts wearing plain European-style judicial robes and their own “do” by Christmas time. The Times has the story.

[via Lo-Fi Librarian, who links to a fascinating pdf on the history of legal robes and wigs.]

  . . . [more]

Dans la mouvance «on va régler la communauté par la communauté», vers la fin des années 90, la fin du millénaire quoi, on a cru à la solution des certifications de sites Internet par des organisations respectables et respectées. Si quelqu’un en doutait, une récente étude, reprise sur le blogue de Wired, est en train d’officialiser le fait qu’il s’agit bien d’une formule qui a vécue. Précisément, une recherche de Ben Edelman, doctorant à Harvard, semble suggérer le manque de fiabilité de certaines organisations et tout particulièrement TRUSTe.

Selon l’article,

“5.4% of Trust-E sites were untrustworthy, while only 2.5%

Sadly, Jordan Furlong’s week as guest blogger is over. As you can tell by the number of comments to Jordan’s posts, his provocative and thoughtful contributions were a hit with Slawyers. Thanks, Jordan, for giving Slaw your insights and your graceful prose. We’ll be returning to your essays again and again to get inspiration (and to pick quarrels) as this blogging carnival of ours rolls along. And now that you’ve got the posting thing down pat, don’t hesitate to give us a piece of your good mind whenever and as often as you feel like it. . . . [more]

Recent postings about legal education have recalled something I used to teach students in legal writing seminars, but gave up because I couldn’t really find any good class readings on the subject – the use of email as a form of legal writing. It seems pretty obvious, as email is undoubtedly the most prevalent form of legal writing, but it seems to be missed out in most law school curricula of which I am aware.

I have touched briefly on this by referring to the Law Society of British Columbia’s “Sample internet and Email Use Policy”

I’ve done some searches . . . [more]

Jeff commented on the announcement of the LCC closure, as have others, and there has been a response in the legal community, most visibly in the open letter published today on pge A17 of the Toronto Star, but also from the Commission.

Any other news on this? . . . [more]

The second sevice described here, WebCites, looks interesting, especially considering SSHRC’s Knowledge Mobilization focus.

From the GreyLit list:

Scopus Enriches Literature Research With PatentCites and WebCites Features PRNewswire, 27 September 2006

Scopus®, the world’s largest abstract and citation database of research information and quality Web sources, today announced the launch of two new features. PatentCites, released to customers on September 22nd, allows users to track how primary research is practically applied in patents. WebCites, which is to be launched shortly, is the first step towards enabling Scopus users to track the influence of peer reviewed research on web literature. Researchers