Archive for November, 2006

SPARC and CARL Support CIHR Open Access Policy

Thanks to Peter Suber's site for pointing out the public support from two organizations that together represent more than 200 academic libraries in North America.

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November 30, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

BBC News Launches User Generated News Show

BBC News has announced plans to launch a news program based solely on user generated content. Your News will feature user-submitted stories and respond to user questions. I discussed similar possibilities for the CBC in a column last summer.

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November 29, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

PIPEDA Hearings – Day 03 (Privacy Commissioner of Canada)

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada appeared before the committee on Monday in what is likely to be the first of two appearances (she indicated she would return at the end of the hearings).  While the Commissioner asked for security breach disclosure legislation and identified cross-border data transfers as a concern, the big story of the day is that she effectively killed the prospect of order-making power.  A shift toward order-making power was raised in both prior hearings and is likely to surface again when several privacy advocates appear before the committee.  My guess is that the issue is now dead – the Commissioner opened by stating that she was not seeking any additional enforcement powers. 

The move took committee members by surprise – several asked for clarification or reasons behind the decision.  The Commissioner indicated that order making power raised other concerns and that it was premature to change the PIPEDA framework.  With order making power likely finished (the committee is not going to add order making power if the Commissioner and the Industry Minister don't want it), the key remaining issues to look out for are security breach disclosure, cross-border transfers, the costs of PIPEDA to small business (a big concern for the Conservative members of the committee), and questions around the definition of "work product." 

A full review of the day's events, thanks to Kathi Simmons, follows.

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November 28, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Conference Coverage

I've been giving a lot of talks lately – four in the last week alone.  There is some coverage: IT Business reports on the EDGE Network conference and my comments on open access and open source.  Meanwhile, CAPCHI has a podcast interview conducted just before I delivered a talk on […]

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November 27, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

We’re All On Candid Camera

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, BBC version, homepage version) focuses on how Internet video, in combination with ubiquitous video cameras embedded in millions of cell phones, has dramatically increased the likelihood that someone, somewhere will capture video evidence of once-hidden events that can be made instantly available […]

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November 27, 2006 1 comment Columns