You'd think the Crown would get this sooner or later.  •  As my old law prof, Bruce Wildsmith, has pointed out one more time, we recognized the rights of First Nations in 1761, did deals with them (especially in the Maritimes) as we dealt with other nations, we continued the recognition in theory …

Two unrelated stories caught my eye which gave me pause while reclining on the chesterfield this weekend.  •  One of the worst of the Boston pedophile priests has been murdered in jail. While there is no doubt a special spot in Hell now occupied by the guy, what really bugs me is how jail can work …

Odd crimes sometimes do occur. Hope they had lots of batter.  •  “THIEF STEALS 3,000 QUAHOGS - ALBERTON, P.E.I. -  •  RCMP are searching for a thief who struck on the weekend, and made off with 3,000 quahogs, a kind of large clam. The owner of Mills Seafood discovered he was missing the quahogs on …

As we watched two recent Charter rulings play our during yesterday's TV broadcast of the SARS-stock concert - public weed puffin' and happy nudies - the Pope was planning a statement on another Charter Right, as rightly pointed out and rejected by the Flea. Butt out, JPII. Nunya.  •  As a UCC PK …

I have been thinking more about the limits about what is appropriate referencing of the stuff of others on a blog like this. Well, looking at the Canadian Copyright Act helps.  •  “  •  29. Fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright.  •  29.1 Fair dealing …

Here's a good example of what I have been saying. It appears Jevon has had a spot of bother with the name of one of his widgetty websites, blogtrack, which has existed since December 2001* according to the Way Back Machine. Another site uses the word to describe their widget which does much the …

A few New Yorkers ago there was a very good article on patent creeping in the US which describes the apparent desire of the US court to declare everything existing and being done in the universe as patentable. An interesting thread on MetaFilter was spawned.  •  As noted at the time in a …

A few weeks ago, when I was back in PEI, Steve Garrity asked me to rethink my post on Dave Weinberger's column in the June edition of Wired in which I wrote:  •  “In another article called "Copy Protection is a Crime", David Weinberger makes possibly the most naive stand on any legal issue I have …

Canada is like a different country according to the Washington Post. Go figure. When I was a kid and Trudeau was Prime Minister, we knew we were not the States and that we did things differently, and not just with the beer or saying "eh" from time to time. Along came Mulroney in the 1980's and …