Supreme Court of Canada Ruling on Crown Copyright

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its decision in the Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc. case.

The case involved the idea of copyright owned by the Crown (essentially, the federal or provincial/territorial governments). Section 12 of the federal Copyright Act states that the Crown has copyright in what it prepares or publishes or where it directs or controls what someone else prepares or publishes.

According to the plain language Case in Brief summary prepared by the SCC:

"Ontario has an electronic land registry system. The land registry is a database about all properties in the province. It says who owns (or has other rights to) each one. The database contains many kinds of documents, including plans of survey (...)"

"The electronic land registry system is run by a company called Teranet, which helped create it. Teranet paid independent surveyors to help build the database and provide plans of survey. A regulation says that all plans added to the land registry become property of the Crown (that is, of the Ontario government). Surveyors bring plans of survey to the land registry office to be included. When they do, Teranet makes copies of the plans available electronically. Teranet does all of this on Ontario’s behalf."

"Keatley Surveying, a land survey company, launched a class action in 2007 (...) It said the surveyors (not the Crown) had copyright in the plans of survey they had created. It said Teranet was therefore infringing the land surveyors’ copyright by storing and copying plans of survey. It said the Crown should only get copyright in works that it created itself (or where it ordered or controlled creation by someone else). Teranet argued that the Crown should get copyright in everything it published. In 2016, a judge said Ontario owned the copyright and said Keatley Surveying’s class action couldn’t go forward. The Court of Appeal agreed."

"All the judges at the Supreme Court agreed that Ontario owned the copyright in the plans of survey."

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) had intervener status in the case in front of the SCC.

This means that representatives of the Association got to argue in front of the Justices at the hearing in March 2019.

CALL's factum, which was highly critical of s.12 and of Crown copyright, is available on the SCC website.

Resources on How to Impeach a US President

As the US House of Representatives decides how to organize its impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump, people may want to read up about what the process is, how it operates, and what the possible outcomes are.

Here are a few places to begin:

• How an Impeachment Process Inquiry Works (beSpacific blog, September 24, 2019)
• Selected Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports on the Impeachment Process and Impeachment History (Library Journal infoDOCKET, September 24, 2019)
• Origins & Development: From the Constitution to the Modern House - Impeachment (US House of Representatives)
• Impeachment (US Senate)
• Impeachment Resources (bibliography - Law Library of Congress Reading Room, 2002)

Government Information Day 2019 Call For Proposals

The SLA Toronto chapter and the Toronto Reference Library are hosting the Government Information Day (East) 2019 on Thursday, November 28, 2019.

The event takes place at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street.

The organizers are calling for proposals for presentation topics and/or speakers, within any of the following broad government information themes:

• preservation & access (can include either print collections or born-digital information)
• digitization & web harvesting
• open data &open government
• privacy & freedom of information

The submission deadline is October 31, 2019.

Library-Authored Web Content and the Need for Content Strategy

The September 2019 Issue of Information Technology and Libraries has been available for a few days.

At my place work, we are in the process of converting our library research Intranet over to the LibGuides platform so the following article attracted my attention. It is entitled Library-Authored Web Content and the Need for Content Strategy :

"Increasingly sophisticated content management systems (CMS) allow librarians to publish content via the web and within the private domain of institutional learning management systems. 'Libraries as publishers' may bring to mind roles in scholarly communication and open scholarship, but the authors argue that libraries’ self-publishing dates to the first 'pathfinder' handout and continues today via commonly used, feature-rich applications such as WordPress, Drupal, LibGuides, and Canvas. Although this technology can reduce costly development overhead, it also poses significant challenges. These tools can inadvertently be used to create more noise than signal, potentially alienating the very audiences we hope to reach. No CMS can, by itself, address the fact that authoring, editing, and publishing quality content is both a situated expertise and a significant, ongoing demand on staff time. This article will review library use of CMS applications, outline challenges inherent in their use, and discuss the advantages of embracing content strategy."

Library Associations With Reduced Student Rates

The website Librarianship.ca has published a list of Associations in Canada With Student Memberships.

Manitoba Law Reform Commission Consultation Report on Wills Act

The Manitoba Law Reform Commission has issued a consultation report called Reform of The Wills Act Revisited:

"In 2003, the Manitoba Law Reform Commission ... published Report 108, Wills and Succession Legislation (“Report 108”), which contains 77 recommendations to reform wills legislation in Manitoba, none of which has been implemented. Since the report’s release, several other law reform agencies have published reports on this topic and several legislative amendments have been enacted by other jurisdictions; they make timely an update of Report 108 and afford an opportunity to shine light on and affirm the recommendations and add several new recommendations."

The report examines many questions, including those relating to mental Capacity, minors, electronic wills, revocation, undue influence and more.

It also examines the situation in other Canadian provinces, as well as in England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand.

New Annotated US Constitution Released

The American Congressional Research Service has released a new version of The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, often referred to as The Constitution Annotated.

As explained on the blog of the Law Library of Congress, the new collection allows people to:

"(...) read about the Constitution in plain English…providing a comprehensive overview of Supreme Court decisions interpreting the United States Constitution (...) With this release, the document is available in a more accessible and user-friendly HTML format that is convenient to search and browse. "

 

Supreme Court of Canada Decisions Move to Court Domain

Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) judgments, whose electronic version has been published by Lexum for the past 25 years, are now available under the Court’s own domain.

More information has been posted on Slaw.ca.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection from September 1-15, 2019 is now available on the Court website.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Statistics Canada Article on Canadian Police Performance Metrics

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article entitled The Canadian Police Performance Metrics Framework: Standardized indicators for police services in Canada:

"In 2014, Statistics Canada, in collaboration with Public Safety Canada and Police Information and Statistics (POLIS) committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) undertook a review of current performance measures being used by police services in Canada. This work was done to determine whether or not there is a need for standardized, national measures and to determine the types of data needed to support police leaders in decision-making and management. As a result of this work, it was found that, in the absence of national indicators of police performance, police services in Canada rely on traditional metrics that do not reflect the complexity and scope of contemporary policing responsibilities. As such, there is a need for a standard police performance metrics framework for Canadian policing."

"As a result of this development work by Statistics Canada and its partners, in April 2017, a preliminary police performance metrics framework was approved by the POLIS committee, and in November 2017, the proposed police performance metrics framework was presented to and received the endorsement of the Board of Directors of the CACP."

"(...) The article provides a review of the literature on performance measurement, an examination of how Canadian police services are currently using data in public performance reports, and the results of a consultation of Canadian police services on measuring police performance based on data availability and information needs. Preliminary results from a pilot project on the feasibility of collecting uniform calls for service data from Canadian police services are also provided."

September 2019 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World

The Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World newsletter, published by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sectors around the world.

The September 2019 issue has just been published.

It includes:

• news items from Canada and around the world
• announcements of upcoming Canadian and international events (meetings, conferences, seminars)
• project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, open source, e-government, access to information and Web 2.0
• listings of papers and readings (white papers, presentations, reports)

Supreme Court of Canada Off to Winnipeg Later this Month

Later this month, all 9 Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada are off to Winnipeg, Manitoba to hold 2 hearings.

It is the first time in its history that the Court will be sitting outside of Ottawa.

While in Winnipeg, the Justices will also hold various meetings including a few with the public.

A full list of events is available on the Court's website.

Survey of Law Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection

Primary Research Group, a New York-based publisher of research reports and surveys about law libraries, has published the Survey of Law Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection, 2020 Edition (print copies $144.00US):

"The sample includes 17 law firm, 5 university, 10 government and 8 courthouse, among other libraries. The study presents highly detailed data about their spending on and plans for primary legal materials, secondary legal materials, books, directories, newspapers and magazines and other print materials (...) "

"Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:

• The government law libraries in the sample spent a mean of $774,000 on print materials in the past year.
• Canadian law libraries in the sample culled a mean of 6.38% of their book collections in the past year.
• Large law libraries with 5 or more librarians reduced the number of print subscriptions to law journals that they maintain by nearly 19% in 2019.
• Small and medium-sized law firm libraries expect to increase their spending significantly on print editions of newspapers and magazines in 2020.
• Primary legal works accounted for a mean of 34.21% of the print materials budget for the organizations sampled."

Earlier Library Boy posts about Primary Research Group Reports include:

• Survey of Law Library Database Licensing Practices (February 14, 2016) 
• Survey of US Law School Faculty: Evaluation of the Law Library (April 21, 2016)
• Primary Research Group Report on Bundled Journals Package Contract Negotiations Benchmarks (June 19, 2016)
• Primary Research Group Report on Benchmarks for Academic Library Use of Bibliometrics & Altmetrics (July 12, 2016)
• Primary Research Group Report on Inter-Library Loan Services for Research University Faculty (February 20, 2017)
• Primary Research Group Report on Use of Law School & Other Digital Repositories (July 13, 2017)
• Primary Research Group Report on University Faculty Use of Library Assistance in Navigating Bibliometrics & Altmetrics Tools (October 19, 2017)
• Law Library Benchmarks 2018-19 (December 13, 2017)
• Report on Higher Education Inter-Library Loan Management Benchmarks (April 23, 2018)

Most Recent Issue of LawNow: Back to School

The most recent issue of LawNow is available online. The magazine is published by the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

The issue features a series of articles on school-related legal topics.

There is also a special report on bilingualism in Canada.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Effective Budgeting

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is hosting a webinar on September 25, 2019 on Effective Budgeting for Libraries.

The speaker is Lori Anne Oja, Executive Director of the Health Science Information Consortium of Toronto:

"This webinar will help participants understand effective practices in planning, reporting and monitoring library budgets and ensure your finances are aligned with your strategy and goals."

"Participants will learn about:
- The vocabulary of budgets
- The basics of budgeting, forecasting and reporting
- Techniques for documenting budget activities for operational and planning purposes
- Standard elements of an operational budget
- Ways to expand critical data into planning tools"

The webinar takes place from 1 to 2:00PM Eastern.

Cost is $45.20 for CALL members ($28.25 for CALL student members), $67.80 for non-members.

September 2019 Issue of In Session - E-Newsletter of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The September 2019 issue of In Session is available online.

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

There is news about:

• the call for program proposals for the 2020 annual CALL conference in Hamilton, Ontario
• news from the editorial board of the Canadian Law Library Review
• a report about a conference on Indigenous archives
• updates from the Membership Development Committee which is recruiting people to visit library schools to talk about law librarianship
• news from the Professional Development Committee

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection from August 16-31, 2019 is now available on the Court website.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.