Here are the other, more scattered privacy stories as promised:

1. The Information and Privacy Commissioner in the Canadian province of Ontario, Ann Cavoukian, is organising the ‘Privacy By Design Challenge‘, a workshop and presentations on how technology can be used, and in particular designed, to promote personal privacy. The fact that this event is organised by a statutory privacy commissioner is still quite remarkable (and welcome) and I look forward to finding out how it goes. Spotted via Mediacaster.
2. Another Canadian one: the 2007 and 2008 report of the federal Privacy Commissioner has been published: get it here
3. The Bar Council gets visited by some tea-leafs, who run away with the contact details of all of the barristers in England and Wales, and more besides (BBC News)
4. In related news, the Open Rights Group has a new tool to find out if your data has been disclosed, Who’s Been Losing Your Data? Nice.
5. And finally, unlucky for lawyers: Law firms are expected to register as data controllers in the UK - if not, like these three firms, they may end up paying a fine, and more importantly, probably never get a privacy case again…

Tags: Canada, dataprotection, privacy

Welcome IP Osgoode, the “Intellectual Property Law & Technology Program” at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, given its official launch this week.

“We need to see a more balanced, objective approach to the IP debate and IP Osgoode will fill that niche,” said [director Prof. Guiseppina] D’Agostino. “In particular, the new IP Osgoode Web site will be the go-to place on IP matters. It is a new source of information and inspiration, not just for our students, but for anyone who is interested in IP.”

Even in a purely Canadian context, this is possibly the perfect time to launch. The blog, IPilogue, is over here. More (including some wonderfully freestanding photographs) on the program’s mission and activities here.

Tags: Canada, copyright, osgoode

The Canadian federal election has really been overshadowed by the US campaigns - with the English-language debate between party leaders even taking place on the same night as the very much anticipated Biden vs Palin showdown. However, on election day, here is a particularly enjoyable web-video on one particular aspect of the campaign that - to the surprise of some - became quite a totemic issue, that of the future of the (comparatively generous) systems for supporting Canadian cultural and media industries. (I touched on this in a recent conference paper and wish that I’d had the video for that presentation - oh well - next time).

The video is not in support of nor commissioned a particular party although clearly it is an attack on the (Conservative) government’s well-known criticisms of State funding for the arts, and it is particularly targeted at Francophone audiences, though is certainly of broader interest.

You can also watch it without the subtitles or in (eight-minute!) long form.

Tags: arts, Canada, quebec

Reviewed in today’s Globe and Mail is a book by University of Toronto history professor Steve Penfold, published by University of Toronto Press: The Donut: A Canadian History. (For anyone who happens to be knocking around Toronto, there’s a talk being given by the author (with free donuts included) on Monday.

Penfold, of course, is well-known in Canadiana, not least as the author of a PhD on donut shops (given an Ig Nobel award in 1999 for said research; actually I’ve always thought that that was a little unfair, as it’s probably on the more relevant and interesting wing of 21st century sociology PhDs…). Looking forward to reading this.

On a related note, Facebook types may wish to give virtual donuts and coffee to their (virtual) friends with this application. We Love Tim Hortons.

Tags: Canada, coffee, donuts, facebook, penfold, timhortons, uoft