Library Boy

Access 2008 Library Tech Conference Program Now Available

2008-07-04T14:08:00.000-04:00

The organizers of the Access 2008 library tech conference in Hamilton, Ontario have posted the event program.

The conference is October 1-4.

The first Access conference took place in Calgary in 1997. The website links to the presentations from earlier meetings.

Harvard Law School First To Commit To "Mandatory Open Access Policy"

2008-07-03T19:03:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year, the faculty at the Harvard Law School unanimously voted to make all their scholarly articles available for free online.

According to the June 15, 2008 issue of Library Journal, this makes Harvard Law "the first law school to commit to a 'mandatory open access policy' via an institutional repository".

This means the contents would be searchable by other services such as Google Scholar. Authors could legally post the articles on their own websites, and educators could also freely provide the articles to students.

This follows the decision last winter by Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences to mandate open access for its members' research works.

More Top Library Tech Trends

2008-07-02T18:40:00.000-04:00

This is a follow-up to my June 20, 2008 post entitled Top Tech Trends for ALA 2008 Conference on technology predictions and tendencies for discussion at the American Library Association Summer 2008 conference in Anaheim, California.

On its blog, the Library and Information Technology Association (part of the American Library Association) has published a few more contributions on the topic:

Top Technology Trends from Sarah Houghton-Jan (June 29, 2008): Bandwidth; Sustainability; Looking away from the bright shiny things and at ourselves instead; Catalogs (or catalogues as Canadians spell it); and Open Access Content
Virtual Karen’s Top Tech Trends: APIs Galore; Virtual Participation in Classes and Conferences hits its Stride (Maybe); Mobile devices and technologies

Judging Bastarache

2008-07-02T18:08:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Constitution Foundation, a non-profit group based in Calgary that appears to lean to the conservative side of the spectrum, recently released a study detailing Justice Michel Bastarache's record on the Supreme Court of Canada.

Justice Bastarache officially retired earlier this week.

According to the accompanying press release, Bastarache has "an over-all strong record of defending individual freedom, economic liberty, and equality before the law. As between those three topics, his record was strongest on cases involving economic freedom (eg. upholding contracts) and equality rights, but weaker in respect of the individual freedoms set out in Section 2 of the Charter: freedom of expression, association, religion and conscience."

The study looked at 37 Supreme Court of Canada cases from September 30, 1997 to April 30, 2008.

It will be interesting to see what a more left-leaning group will say about Justice Bastarache.

[Source: University of Alberta Faculty of Law blog ]

June/July 2008 Issue of Information Career Trends

2008-07-01T20:38:00.000-04:00

The most recent issue of Info Career Trends is devoted to "getting unstuck" when one's library career appears to be going nowhere.

Info Career Trends is the professional development newsletter of LISjobs.com, the guide to online job resources for librarians and information professionals maintained by author Rachel Singer Gordon.

Statistical Analysis of U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts

2008-06-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

SCOTUSblog, an American blog that specializes in analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court, has produced a statistical package, or End-of-Term Super StatPack that includes "all of our stats, figures, charts, lists, and observations about the just-concluded Term".

For the sake of comparison, last week, the Osgoode Hall Law School blog The Court published an analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada's recent activity entitled The Supreme Court in Statistics:

"In his annual review of the Supreme Court, excerpts of which were featured in both the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, Dean Patrick Monahan pointed to the existence of a number of interesting trends in the character, content and volume of the jurisprudence of Canada’s top court. Among other things, Dean Monahan presented the Supreme Court’s 58 judgments in 2007 — the lowest total since 1975 — as evidence of the existence of a five judge bloc (composed of Chief Justice McLachlin, the now retired Justice Bastarache, and Deschamps, Charon, and Rothstein JJ.) notable for their pragmatic, cost-conscious approach to judicial decisionmaking."

Canadian Judicial Council Report on Improving Access to Justice

2008-06-27T12:29:00.002-04:00

The Canadian Judicial Council has released a new report entitled Access to Justice: Report on Selected Reform Initiatives in Canada.

According to the Council press release:

"The report, which focuses on the civil and family justice systems, identifies five areas in which significant reforms aimed at addressing the cost of litigation have been undertaken in recent years in various Canadian jurisdictions:"
"Proportionality: Targeting proportionality between on the one hand the scale of court proceedings and on the other hand the value of the claim, public importance of the issues and complexity of the case;
Experts: Streamlining the use of experts and limiting their number;
Point of Entry: Assisting litigants without counsel to obtain information and referrals quickly and effectively on first contact with the judicial system;
Discovery: Containing the scope of discovery procedures; and
Caseflow management: Expediting the flow of cases through the courts."
"This report (...) is based on records developed at its request for the new Inventory of Reforms created by the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice ... The report identifies 60 reforms in the five noted areas covered, ranging from pilot projects to changes that have already become permanent. "

The Canadian Judicial Council is made up of 39 members and is chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin.

Council membership consists of the chief justices, associate chief justices, and some senior judges from provincial and federal superior courts across the country.

The federal Parliament created the Council in 1971 to promote efficiency, uniformity, and accountability, and to improve the quality of judicial service in all superior courts of Canada. The Council has authority over the work of more than 1,070 federally appointed judges.

Digital Audio Recordings of US Court Proceedings Online

2008-06-26T13:06:00.000-04:00

Five U.S. federal courts have been participating in a pilot project since last summer to make digital audio recordings of their proceedings publicly available online, according to an article in the June 2008 edition of Third Branch, a newsletter of the U.S. federal courts administration.

The 5 courts are:

U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of North Carolina
U.S. District Court in Nebraska
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Maine
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama

According to the article:

"The audio files are accessible through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. Some 840,000 subscribers use PACER to access docket and case information from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts."

"Access to the recorded proceeding is through a one-page PDF document on the court’s docket. During the life of the pilot project—expected to last through 2008—the cost, regardless of the proceeding’s duration, is eight cents to download the entire audio file. "

(...)

"One goal of the pilot project is to determine the level of public interest. Early indications suggest there is substantial interest. A second goal is to determine an appropriate charge, based on demands on court staff and technological investments to provide adequate bandwidth."

[Source: beSpacific.com]

Canadian Judicial Council Publishes National Model Practice Direction for the Use of Technology in Civil Litigation

2008-06-25T12:40:00.001-04:00

Last week, the Canadian Judicial Council released its National Model Practice Direction for the Use of Technology in Civil Litigation:

"The Practice Direction provides much-needed guidance to trial judges and lawyers with respect to the best practices for exchanging productions in electronic form, as well as handling paperless trials. Counsel will be encouraged to use a format of exchange which reduces the cost of litigation and improves access to justice."

"The Practice Direction is accompanied by a Generic Protocol which can be adapted as a checklist and form of agreement between parties to establish a meaningful and simplified exchange of evidence. By using a Protocol, parties can avoid expensive misunderstandings and incompatibility, without having to buy the same litigation support software."
"In July 2006, the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued a Practice Direction on the use of technology and in September 2007, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench issued Practice Note 14, both of which are consistent with the standard published by Council. It is hoped that Chief Justices of other trial courts will consider implementing their own Practice Directions based on the National Model."

Making the Switch from Print to Online

2008-06-24T13:44:00.000-04:00

A bilbiography of recent material on the transition from print to electronic has just been published on DLIST, the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology.

It is entitled Making the Switch from Print to Online: Why, When and How?:

"This bibliography was created for an ALCTS Collection Management & Development Section program at the 2008 American Library Association Annual Conference. It annotates selected articles published from Jan. 2006 through April 2008."

[Source: ResourceShelf]

Role of Public Law Libraries

2008-06-24T13:25:00.000-04:00

The most recent issue of the AALL Spectrum features an article about what are called public law libraries which are law libraries that serve the general population, including self-represented litigants.

The article is entitled The Glue that Holds Legal Society Together - Public law libraries forge networks among the courts and judges, the legal community, and self-represented litigants:

Federal Library Web 2.0 Interest Group News

2008-06-23T12:17:00.001-04:00

Federal government librarians in Canada recently created a Web 2.0 Interest Group (WIG) to explore ways of incorporating wikis, RSS, collaborative technologies, open source, etc. into their work.

The WIG's first meeting took place June 9 here in Ottawa.

Here is a summary.

Oryst Iwanycky of Industry Canada welcomed the audience of over 40 participants to the inaugural meeting. To date over 60 staff from across the Government of Canada and others have joined the group.

Thomas Kearney from Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) demonstrated the prototype TBS Wiki which was created for use by federal public servants.

The TBS has divided the proposed wiki into 7 main categories for content ("our Dewey Decimal System" he called it). It runs on Mediawiki software (the same as Wikipedia) so no huge development is involved. It will be mostly for policy, with official and unofficial content, complete documents and works in progress.

TBS is attempting to document the costs involved for server hosting, management, and complying with the federal government Common Look and Feel standards. The prototype is now called the Collaborative Library Prototype - TBS is looking for suggestions for a cooler name that works in Canada's both official languages.

The ultimate goal: create a wiki to be offered throughout the government of Canada, as common a tool as your work phone and e-mail account.

Kearney acknowledged that there are mixed messages about interactive Web 2.0 tools inside the government. While TBS is very pro-Web 2.0, Public Works and Government Services Canada objects that it has no policies in place to address Web 2.0 liability issues (privacy, security, confidentiality, official languages, access to information), and procurement policies in the government sector cannot easily handle open source products.

For example, there are no hard and fast rules on official languages for wikis. Digital collaboration, and high-speed broadband were never envisaged back in the 70s when official biligualism was launched. The TBS attitude is that a wiki is like a virtual workplace, where "language of choice" applies: at a meeting, you can speak the language of your choice.

TBS however is developing rules on official languages. For example, it might be a good idea to make bilingualism on the wiki mandatory for broad consultation documents or final drafts. Preliminary discussions could be in any language.

As for access to information legislation, Kearney specified that wiki material will likely be "ATIPable" (it can be the object of an access request under the Access to Information Act). But Web 2.0 creates new situations: who is in charge of handling ATIP requests concerning cross-departmental collaborative docs in a wiki? And since the wiki content changes all the time, what constitutes a "record" for the purposes of the access legislation?

Kearney's overall sense of the situation is that the government is pushing ahead even if no perfect model for Web 2.0 tech exists for the public sector. The federal government machine jumps into permanent beta, in other words.

And, in the spirit of putting your money where your mouth is, everyone in WIG is being invited to join the Ning social network group called Wigwam123 to communicate, interact and collaborate on all issues relating to Web 2.0. Wigwam123 is closed to non-members for the moment.

The next WIG meeting is Monday, July 7.

Earlier Library Boy posts about Web 2.0 in the Canadian government include:

Federal Library Community Forms Web 2.0 Interest Group (May 3, 2008): "We are proposing (...) to identify & publish a list of key resources on Web 2.0 specifically for federal libraries; to identify topics of interest in Web 2.0 for discussion, for example, wikis, RSS, collaborative technologies, open source, etc.; to identify departments engaged in Web 2.0 projects and to show the results to the community this fall."
Government of Canada: The Web 2.0 Genie Is Finally Out of the Bottle (June 6, 2008): "A contribution today on the FLC/CBF listserv (Federal libraries community/Collectivité des bibliothèques) pointed to examples of implementation of social networking on government Web sites: ... 'A comprehensive system for online collaboration and social networking projects by government departments is in the works. The project involves systems that can provide social networking capabilities for around 250,000 people and will cover 58 government departments. Key technology for this initiative is being provided by Waterloo, Ont.-based OpenText...' ".

Yahoo! Pipes Tutorial For Dummies

2008-06-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

Steven Matthews has posted a tutorial on slaw.ca on how to use the Yahoo! Pipes tool to mix RSS feeds.

"Yahoo Pipes is a tool that we’ve covered a few times here on Slaw. And having fielded a few questions myself on its use for RSS feed mixing, I thought it might be nice to demonstrate how simple the process is with a tutorial."

"What you’ll find below is pretty granular in detail, with way too many screen captures. But if you like the KISS principle (a.k.a. Keep It Simple for Steve), a little hand-holding never hurts. So ... go over to Yahoo Pipes, create an account, click on the big blue Create A Pipe, and let’s get started!"

Google Scholar Uptake in Research Libraries

2008-06-22T16:35:00.001-04:00

Two Rutgers University librarians have written an interesting evaluation of Google Scholar, a free web-based search engine to scholarly literature, (Google Scholar and Academic Libraries: An Update. New Library World 109 (5/6), pp. 211-222).

Websites of 113 Association of Research Library (ARL) members were examined in 2007 to see if Google Scholar appeared on the library homepage, in the OPAC, and on various database lists and subject guides. Data was compared with findings for 2005. Results: the mean number of paths to Google Scholar more than doubled from 2005 to 2007.

From the discussion section:

"In 2007, the presence of Google Scholar on ARL academic libraries web pages is clearly more pervasive than seen two years ago. Partnering institutions are particularly likely to include paths to Google Scholar and the number of partnering institutions has dramatically increased. Alongside this trend, libraries have also seen the emergence of commercial federated search products as well as free competitor search engines."

"Libraries have subscribed to available commercial federated search products (...) in an attempt to provide a one-box 'place to start' for scholarly search from the library web site. (...) Interestingly, in this survey of web sites approximately half of ARL libraries did not appear to be utilizing a commercial federated search product. Is it possible that libraries have decided that Google Scholar is effective enough as a 'place to start' when users are confounded about which database to choose from the long lists on the web site? Haya, Nygren and Widmark’s study of 32 undergraduates’ use, with and without prior instruction, of both Google Scholar and Metalib at Uppsala University showed that Google Scholar 'performed better in almost all measures.' Many students found Metalib’s complexity of use a problem ... It would be valuable to see expanded usability studies comparing Google Scholar to commercial federated search products to see whether Google Scholar could suffice for institutions where subscribed content is able to provide enough full text articles to searchers. Both Google Scholar and commercial federated search products, although different types of products, have value as a more simple 'place to start' for inexperienced searchers, or for those looking for a few scholarly articles on interdisciplinary topics."

The Supreme Court of Canada Library links to Google Scholar through its federated search engine from SirsiDynix.

Partial Restoration of Court Challenges Program

2008-06-20T13:32:00.002-04:00

The Canadian government announced this week that it is restoring parts of the Court Challenges Program abolished in 2006.

The Program provided funding to minority, women's and other disadvantaged groups to launch "test court cases" challenging laws that may violate equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The government is only reestablishing the official languages minority component of the program, under the name Program to Support Linguistic Rights.

However, funding has not been restored for Charter challenges by other groups such as ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians or people with disabilities.

The new program will focus on "mediation and consensus-based decisions to facilitate amicable agreements (...) The program will also provide funding for court proceedings to focus on linguistic rights under the Constitution of Canada, when mediation efforts have failed and a test case is involved."

This can be read as excluding funding for court challenges under the Official Languages Act or provincial/territorial laws affecting official language minority rights.

Earlier this month, the government reached an out-of-court settlement with the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, ending the francophone lobby group's legal battle to restore the $3-million-a-year Court Challenges Program the Conservative government killed at the end of 2006.

Earlier Library Boy posts about the Court Challenges Program include:

Court Challenges Program Challenged? (September 7, 2006): "Newspapers of the CanWest Global chain distributed a Janice Tibbetts article today that claims that the federal government may be considering the elimination of the Court Challenges Program as part of an overall review of government programs (...) The CanWest News Service article entitled Funding for minority groups to challenge federal laws under review reports that the program, first set up under former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, 'has been the target of harsh criticism from social conservatives and critics of so-called judicial activism, who assert the initiative is a slush-fund for left-leaning groups to circumvent the will of elected legislators by challenging them in court'."
Lawsuit to Reinstate Federal Court Challenges Program (January 8, 2008): "According to [the Osgoode Hall Law School blog] The Court, 'Last month, a coalition of eight organizations representing equality-seeking communities announced that it will file a motion in Federal Court to intervene in a case challenging the decision of the federal government to cut funding to the Court Challenges Program (...) While operating, the program funded cases dealing with issues such as same-sex marriage, accessibility rights for people with disabilities, sex discrimination, violence against women, criminal law provisions regarding the use of disciplinary force against children, and racial discrimination in the immigration system'. "
Impact on Language Minorities from Court Challenges Program Cancellation (January 22, 2008): "The most recent issue of the Canadian government's Weekly Checklist of official publications lists the December 2007 report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages on the Court Challenges Program."

Top Tech Trends for ALA 2008 Conference

2008-06-20T13:10:00.000-04:00

The Library and Information Technology Association (part of the American Library Association or ALA) has published a list of top tech trends on its LITA Blog:

"Here is a non-exhaustive list of Top Technology Trends for the American Library Association Annual Meeting (Summer, 2008). These Trends represent general directions regarding computing in libraries — short-term future directions where, from my [Eric Lease Morgan] perspective, things are or could be going."

The LITA Blog has an entire section devoted to tech trends.

Report on Inuit Concepts of Civil Justice

2008-06-19T17:04:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (based at the University of Alberta) has released a report entitled Justice for Nunavummiut: Partnerships for Solutions that deals with the territory of Nunavut and Inuit living in Ottawa:

"This report is drawn from the Civil Justice System and the Public research data specific to Nunavut and to Inuit living in Ottawa (the largest community of Inuit outside of the territory). The data are based on interviews, community workshops and participant review of draft reports between June 2003 and June 2007. Based on the research findings, the report begins by asking the root question, what is justice in the context Nunavut and Nunavummiut living outside of the territory? In order to examine this question, important issues are considered in providing family, civil and administrative justice that generates respect, harmony, peace and rehabilitation — the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit philosophy of justice and offers related recommendations. The importance of networks and partnerships in generating creative solutions for meaningful change to justice and social systems is discussed. The report concludes by asking how the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice can best support their partners in achieving the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit vision of justice — not only for Nunavummiut, but for all people in Canada."

The objectives of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice are:

collecting in a systematic way information relating to the system for administering civil justice;
carrying out in-depth research on matters affecting the operation of the civil justice system;
promoting the sharing of information about the use of best practices;
functioning as a clearinghouse and library of information for the benefit of all persons in Canada concerned with civil justice;
developing liaisons with similar organizations in other countries to foster exchanges of information across national borders; and
taking a leadership role in providing information concerning civil justice reform initiatives and developing effective means of exchanging this information

Online Q&A on New Copyright Bill

2008-06-18T20:41:00.000-04:00

Earlier today, the Globe and Mail newspaper invited University of Ottawa law professor Jeremy deBeer to participate in an online question and answer session with the reading public about the federal government's proposed new copyright bill.

According to the intro:

"Prof. deBeer specializes in classic and intellectual property law, and the intersection between property, IP and torts, and is a member of the law faculty's law and technology group. He has worked for the Department of Justice and as legal counsel to the Copyright Board of Canada."

"He has written about the constitutional implications of copyrights, the role of copyrights in the music and entertainment industries and the notion of balance in copyright and patent law."

Quebec Government Introduces Anti-SLAPP Legislation

2008-06-18T09:12:00.001-04:00

Last week, the Quebec government introduced a bill in the National Assembly (provincial legislature) to tackle the issue of SLAPPs.

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs for short, typically take the form of defamation actions brought by large corporate actors in an attempt to shut down criticism by non-governmental organizations or local citizens. The actions are seen by critics as an abuse of process, or a form of legal bullying by interests with deep pockets who try to bankrupt opponents or intimidate them into silence.

Bill 99 will amend the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure to authorize courts to "promptly dismiss a proceeding that is abusive. It specifies what may constitute an abuse of procedure and authorizes the reversal of the burden of proof if the abuse of procedure is obvious."

More context in the Library Boy post of July 22, 2007 entitled Quebec Expert Panel Says Protect People Against Abusive Defamation Suits.

Controversy over SLAPPs started a few years ago in Quebec after one of Quebec's oldest environmental organizations was threatened with imminent extinction because of a multi-million dollar lawsuit from a scrap metal operator.

More than half of the states in the USA have anti-SLAPP laws on their books.

Background on SLAPPs:

SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out: "George Pring and Penelope Canan [originated the term] after investigating a range of behaviour that led to legal action against activists, including peaceful demonstrators, seeking signatures for petitions, and even reporting corporate breaches of environmental regulation... They suggest that SLAPPs are not intended to reach the courts (where they typically lose) but are designed to silence criticism through legal intimidation. The goal is to limit public debate and to allow corporations to continue their activities without restriction."
Defamation and SLAPPs (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, University of Ottawa): "The plaintiff's goal in a SLAPP is not to win the lawsuit, but is rather to silence a critic by instilling fear of large legal costs and the spectre of large damage awards. Despite their right to free speech, critics may be frightened into silence..."
Corporate Retaliation Against Consumers: The Status of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) in Canada (Public Interest Advocacy Centre): "The report describes a number of lawsuits or threats of a lawsuit in Canada that fit the definition of a SLAPP. This evidence suggests that SLAPPs are very much a Canadian phenomenon and have been initiated against consumers for public criticism of products or services as well as against individuals for advocating on environmental issues. The report briefly analyses the constitutional questions raised by SLAPPs and draws comparisons to the constitutional and judicial treatment of SLAPPs in the United States."
California Anti-SLAPP Project: "the Project is a public interest law firm that provides assistance to people on the receiving end of SLAPPs. About half the states in the United States have enacted anti-SLAPP legislation and the website provides links to case law and statutes for California and other states. As well, the site offers other resources, including a bibliography on the issue (updated to 2003) "
SLAPP's in Australia (Center for Media and Democracy Sourcewatch): "The following is the beginning of a list of Australian cases where civil litigation has transformed public debate into legal cases... The Center describes itself as a 'non-profit, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism'. Its most well-known project is perhaps the quarterly PR Watch which investigates the public relations or 'spin' industry."

OECD Statistical Profile of Internet Trends

2008-06-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released The Future of the Internet Economy: A statistical profile which compares major trends in the diffusion of the Internet across OECD and selected non-OECD countries.

It was prepared for the June 17-18 meeting of OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy in Seoul.

On a related note, last week, Statistics Canada published its Canadian Internet Use Survey 2007.

Profile of Canadiana.org Digitization Initiative

2008-06-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

The most recent issue of the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research features an article by Brian Bell, co-director of Canadiana.org.

Canadiana.org was formed recently through the merger of CIHM (Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions), and the former AlouetteCanada.

As the article explains, the new organization "will help to synchronize the efforts of partners in Canadian libraries, archives, museums and historical societies, as well as Canadian content creators themselves. It is mandated to facilitate long term digitization of Canadian collections and the gathering of metadata for new, born digital content, to coordinate the long term preservation of the digital content, and to enable permanent, open access to that content which is in the public domain or being made available with permission."

I wrote about the merger and creation of Canadiana.org in an April 7, 2008 Library Boy post entitled Two Major Canadian Digitization Projects Merge.

Use of Amateur Video To Fight Human Rights Abuses

2008-06-16T16:16:00.000-04:00

I saw a mention of the organisation witness.org on the Smart Mobs website.

According to its mission statement, witness.org "uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change."

It works with grassroots partners around the world and uses video:

to corroborate allegations of human rights violations
as a resource for news broadcasts
to catalyze human rights advocacy via the worldwide web
as evidence in court and quasi-judicial hearings
to complement official written reports of human rights abuses
as a deterrent to further abuse

Witness.org was founded by rock musician Peter Gabriel.

Earlier Library Boy posts about the use of video technology for human rights include:

YouTube as a Legal Information Tool (January 14, 2007): "The Parisian daily Le Monde reported last week that lawyers representing an individual being detained by U.S. authorities at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp have produced a video posted on YouTube."
More on YouTube as Legal Information Tool (March 30, 2007): "This Wednesday, Slate.com published an article entitled The YouTube Defense - Human rights go viral that analyzes the impact and potential of non-traditional means such as web 2.0 technologies as legal tools: (...) 'Critics pooh-pooh the importance of all of this by pointing to the fact that civil rights advocates have traditionally had a friend in the press. But they're missing the point: YouTube goes where the mainstream media can't or won't go. It's visceral. It's story first, message second. And it gives advocates instant access to an audience in a way that press releases and op-eds never ca' .The Slate article also describes an online video created by a former Marine who paid two friends $800 to waterboard him in his basement."

CBC Tries To Answer Your Copyright Questions

2008-06-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio programme Search Engine is taking questions from Canadians about the impact of the new copyright reform bill introduced in the House of Commons last Thursday:

"Okay, we know emotions are running high on the new Copyright Bill, but what we're trying to do for our coverage next week is get beyond the anger and focus on some substantive, practical questions."

"To be precise- what exactly will be criminalized if this bill becomes law?"

"We need your cooperation here: submit your scenario, and we'll find out if the new copyright bill makes you a criminal."

Canadian Human Rights Commission Report on National Security

2008-06-15T10:22:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has released a new report entitled Human Rights Issues in National Security: An Inventory of Agency Considerations:

"In 2006, the CHRC commissioned research by Wesley K. Wark. His report, National Security and Human Rights Concerns in Canada: A Survey of Eight Critical Issues in the Post-9/11 Environment, examined the application and evolution of national security policy since September 11, 2001 and the key accountability and responsibility mechanisms for those policies. The report recommended that the CHRC consider monitoring legislative changes in the mandate of national security agencies and develop a database of human rights concerns from the public reports issued by the review agencies responsible for national security and intelligence."

"Stemming from these recommendations, this report examines the extent to which national security agencies and their monitors are directed by legislation to consider and report on human rights issues, as defined by the Canadian Human Rights Act. It also explores any statements that consider human rights made by these agencies in reports or parliamentary appearances."

"The research process was initiated by examining the legislation and regulations that generally apply to national security agencies. This legislation and associated regulations were examined for any reference to human rights, whether direct or indirect, including those portions that outline the agencies’ reporting mechanisms. Only those statutes that relate to national security were reviewed rather than those that assign general enforcement power. These findings are outlined in the first section of the report."

"In the second section, each of the agencies is reviewed in turn. Each review begins with the legislation and regulations that create or recognize national security agencies or their monitors. The legislation and regulations are reviewed for any general reference to human rights, whether direct or indirect including those portions that outline any reporting mechanisms."

"The findings from the agencies’ public reports and parliamentary committee appearances are subsequently analyzed. All of the reports submitted to Parliament in the last 10 years by national security institutions were examined to determine their consideration and reporting of human rights issues."

New Canadian Copyright Bill Introduced - Librarians Unhappy

2008-06-13T11:53:00.002-04:00

Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! Big headaches ahead.

After multiple delays, the federal government finally introduced its much awaited copyright reform bill in the House of Commons yesterday (the LEGISinfo site links to the text of the bill and provides backgrounders from government agencies).

The Canadian Library Association is very disappointed:

"Overall, the Bill is extremely complex and will need more detailed study, but there are many glaring problems. Fundamentally, the Bill circumvents user rights (...)"

"Another example is desktop delivery of interlibrary loan. Bill C-61 ignores the fact that the 2004 CCH Supreme Court Judgment already allows Canadian libraries to do desktop delivery of interlibrary loan. The provisions in Bill C-61 require libraries to lock up interlibrary loan with DRM, something that most libraries would not have the resources to accomplish. This would force many libraries back to delivering interlibrary loan via paper copies."

Other reactions:

Reaction to planned copyright law changes (Globe and Mail compilation): "Here is a sampling of reaction to the draft copyright law that Canada's government unveiled Thursday."
The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print (Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law School): "As expected, [federal Industry Minister Jim] Prentice has provided a series of attention-grabbing provisions to consumers including time shifting, private copying of music (transferring a song to your iPod), and format shifting (changing format from analog to digital). These are good provisions that did not exist in the delayed December bill. However, check the fine print since the rules are subject to a host of strict limitations and, more importantly, undermined by the digital lock provisions (...) The education community received several provisions that are largely gutted by the fine print. For example, library materials can be distributed in electronic form, but must not extend beyond five days. In other words, it turns librarians into locksmiths."
CIPPIC Disappointed With New Copyright Bill - Proposed Law Adopts Worst of DMCA (Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic): "... the big copyright players, and the American administration, should be thrilled with the government’s draft legislation – they are the big winners here. Losers, unfortunately, include Canadian consumers, security researchers, educators, students, privacy advocates, Canada’s public domain and Canadian innovators and creators ..."
Copyright bill: All ours, or a DMCA copy? (Mathew Ingram, Globe and Mail columnist): "It's also worth noting that this copyright legislation is just one of the fronts the government is working on when it comes to protecting the interests of U.S. content companies: there's also the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is a multi-country effort to create laws that would extend the powers of border guards -- allowing them to seize devices that are suspected of containing copyright infringing materials, for example -- and would also force ISPs to reveal the identities of even suspected infringers without requiring a court order."