The Canadian Archivist Blog

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25522070/

Google has been ordered to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom as part of discovery for Viacom's lawsuit. Privacy advocates cringed at the news, while copyright mavens applauded.

Viacom says it isn't interested in individual viewers' information, just in proving Google's violation of copyright. However, Google's request to redact personal information such as addresses was rejected.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/080711/e071117A.html

Still undead after all these years...

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/080711/e071108A.html

A decade after a first-edition Shakespeare folio was stolen from Durham University Library in England, the book has turned up when the thief, in a stupidest-criminals moment, took it to be valued at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

The man claimed to have bought it in Cuba.

The part I like best is that the FBI is letting the Folger Library store the volume while the case goes to trial, since it has better conditions for storage than the FBI. I would love to know who convinced the FBI of that - it's amazing that they would listen to advice on storage!

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/07/10/lennon-lyrics.html

A while back, I posted a story about the lyrics for Give Peace A Chance, which were originally owned by a Canadian woman who snuck into John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in when she was a teen.

Now the lyrics have finally sold for better than $200,000 more than the expected price of $600,000.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/11/qc-quebectorrent0711.html

Quebec's own version of Kazaa has fallen to the copyright behemoth. Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) took them to court and has won an injunction in Quebec Superior Court against the peer-to-peer sharing network.

The comments seem to be implying that this is an example of Quebec as a police state, but this has been happening all over to English websites for months. Anyone out there have an opinion: an example of Quebec as police state, or just status quo on copyright enforcement?

A coalition of artists known as Appropriation Art has published an amazing primer on the proposed new Canadian Copyright law, Bill C-61. They have produced a comicbook-style document filled with clickable links to the sources they quote (193 websites, blogs, films and papers and articles), both supporting the government's bill and those who vehemently oppose it. This is a concise but detailed introduction to the issues surrounding the copyright bill and the politics that has had a hand in shaping it.

You can get your own copy of "The 51st State" here. For more information on the issues click here.

http://www.slate.com/id/2191902/

Once upon a time, when I was just a user of archives and not an employee of one, I thought that all historical files were valuable, and that archives were places where all historically valuable files were stored ad infinitum.

Then I got a job at an archives, and one of my first tasks was to pick through a collection and chuck stuff out.

Yes, here from Slate, an article with the classic user's lament: Hey, I needed that! Why did you throw it out? It also features a bit of conspiracy theory on why archivists toss stuff (because we're in evil cahoots with evil government agencies who want to deceive you!) and a lot of complaining (because, although the writer admits the figure is obscure, that's no reason for an archivist to have not saved the information forever!).

Also, records retention plans are evil plots to deprive researchers of their valuable research materials. Take that, ARMA!

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/06/17/library-food.html

The Toronto Public Library system has lifted its ban on food and drink in the public library.

The story here seems to imply that the reason for the ban has always been so patrons weren't disturbed, but I think we all know it probably had more to do with insect predation and possible harm to materials from spills than anything else.

So I'll throw this question out to you: is it pointless to try and prevent eating and drinking in a library or archives in a society where everyone hauls Starbuck's and bottled water everywhere they go? Or should libraries and archives worry about their collections first and be strict enforcers of the "no food or drink" rule, even if that means they come off as killjoys?

I'll spout off with my own 2 cents first. I think it's ridiculous that healthy grown adults can't refrain from eating or drinking wherever they go, and I think it's ridiculous that adults are teaching their kids that it's appropriate to haul food and drinks around to places where it isn't appropriate, like a public library. My three-year old knows we don't eat at the library. He can't have anything to eat when he's in there and he doesn't even ask anymore. And if he wants a drink he uses the public fountain out in the hallway, well away from the books. (I will admit, though, that the baby gets fed wherever we happen to be. I try to minimize mess whenever I can and time visits around feedings, but it's not always possible.)

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/06/17/key-tags-privacy.html

I have an amputee parent, so personally I feel that the War Amps key-tag fundraiser is doing good work. But not everyone agrees with the way it's getting the addresses for the little key tags it sends out to solicit donations each year.

Pat Hanney received her key tags this year - and they used her middle name on them. The middle name she never uses. Well, except on her driver's license.

You guessed it - the Manitoba Public Insurance company gave her information to the War Amps.

Now Hanney has complained to the privacy commissioner, which is investigating.

Government agencies have been providing third-party access to charities and nonprofits for a while now. Alberta stopped giving its information to the War Amps two years ago for similar concerns. In Saskatchewan about a year ago the privacy commissioner dinged Sask Health for providing third-party access to women's health records when it commissioned an outside agency to send reminder letters to women who had not received a regular pap smear.

The War Amps say when they don't have access to the addresses, their donations plummet.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Home+Family/080612/U061206AU.html

This sounds kind of cool: a cookbook bibliography that covers the history of Canadian cookbook publishing.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/cira-whois-privacy.html

Dot.ca web domain addresses often fall afoul of registered trademarks, but the privacy of domain owners needs to be protected. That's why the Canadian Internet Registry Authority (CIRA) has drawn up new rules to protect the privacy of individuals who own website domain names, unless the website violates laws concerning child pornography, intellectual property disputes, internet threats or identity theft.

Privacy advocates, including Michael Geist (better known as the copyright guy) say it leaves a back door for law enforcement and trademark holders that must be closed.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/tech-copyright.html

After one false start and months of speculation, Jim Prentice unveiled his grand copyright bill today, to much criticism and anger. It will allow users to make one copy from a copyrighted work (so you better not borrow your boyfriend's CD if he already put that song on his iPod), but you have to own the original media (so if you break your CD afterward you're in violation). If you break a digital protection, though, that'll be in violation. Reusing your cell phone if you change carriers will also be impossible under this legislation.

As to penalties - if you download illegally, it'll be $500 per violation. If you upload illegally, though - $20,000. It'll also probably make the fees for iPods, computers and Tivos go up, because producers of material could demand extra fees under the law.

Critics like Michael Geist liken the new bill to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the United States. The changes are too superficial from the earlier version of the bill, Geist says.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3025/1/

And here's a CBC in-depth article about the proposed changes.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/who-copyrightlaw/

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080606/z060608A.html

First up: a Missouri university is forcing students to pass a quiz on digital copyright law before it's allowing them to access peer-to-peer music sharing technology. I'm sure that will stop them...

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080605/z060506A.html

Next: a Wikipedia rewrite war has broken out on Industry Minister Jim Prentice's biography. Prentice's office is sitting on copyright legislation that's been highly criticized. It seems that magical elves on government computers (I'm sure they have no connection to Prentice) have been rewriting his biography on Wikipedia to delete any negative references to the copyright battle. The war was being monitored by copyright expert Michael Geist, and the entry has been locked for changes by Wikipedia staff for vandalism.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/080608/e060804A.html

He bought the camera in 1939 with his life savings of $12.50, rolled and developed his own film, and spent 4 years documenting the life of his small Iowa community of Ridgeway. But it wasn't until he was diagnosed with cancer years later that Everett Kuntz printed the more than 2000 pictures he'd taken - and left a remarkable record of life in a small prairie town in the 1940s.

Kuntz had hauled the negatives with him for years but never created prints until his cancer diagnosis. Now the prints have been gathered in a book called "Sunday Afternoon on the Porch", published by the University of Iowa.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/06/07/information-vacuum.html

The breast cancer test scandal is turning out to be about records management and information management almost as much as it's about faulty lab results. The latest news from the inquiry blames an information vacuum, coupled with some old-fashioned spin doctoring, for delays in notifying patients that their lab tests may have been wrong.

Carolyn Chaplin, a communications advisor, has been testifying, and her testimony blames the health district's poor communications policies for the mess. She says they were trying to contain the district's image during a time when the crisis was still ongoing.

Information that's come out via FOI requests and subpoenas is directly contradicting press releases from the health district that were released back when the crisis began in 2005.

Posted on behalf of Heather Homes:

ACA Foundation to launch Virtual Auction on eBay

The ACA Foundation will launch its first virtual auction on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008. The auction will include certificates from three businesses as well as an eclectic array of pieces donated by ten Canadian artists.

The artists consist of full-time professionals as well as archivists. The individuals include: portrait photographer and Order of Canada recipient Al Gilbert; Alberta artist and curator, Gordon Snyder; archival professionals Marlena Wyman (Provincial Archives of Alberta) John Lund (Provincial Archives of Alberta), Cathy Bailey (LAC) and Patrick Cummins (City of Toronto Archives); Jessica Bushey who graduated from UBCs MAS program, and is the head of the digitization program for the Department of Anthropology at UBC; Robert Burley, photographer and head of the Photo Preservation program at Ryerson University; and professional photographers Nir Bareket and Vince Pietropaulo.

The artwork involved varies from a glass pendant produced by Cathy Bailey, mixed media pieces created by Jessica Bushey and Marlena Wyman, a woodcut illustration from Gordon Snyder, as well as different styles of photography by the remaining artists. There are also a number of gift certificates which have been generously donated from various hoteliers on offer. We hope that there will be something here to appeal to everyone.

For a preview of the auction items please visit the Foundation website at http://www.archivists.ca/foundation.
The auction will go live on eBay at 10am, June 11, 2008 and continue until June 21st, 2008.
All proceeds go to the Foundation to fund scholarships, travel bursaries and other educational initiatives.

We encourage members to forward the link to friends and family and bid often and high.

If you have any questions about the auction, please contact Ellen Scheinberg, Duncan Grant or Heather Home at the following e-mail addresses: escheinberg@ujafed.org, execdir@archivists.ca and home@queensu.ca.

Happy bidding!

Heather Home
Public Services Archivist
Queen's University Archives

You heard her - get bidding! Facebookers can read more at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=55581090004, and there's more information on the Foundation website http://www.archivists.ca/foundation.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/06/03/universal-fire-accident.html

It appears that roof work may have caused the fire that burned a video archive, several sets, and a big chunk of Universal's back lot on Sunday. Officials say proper protocols were followed, although the lack of water slowed down firefighters.

Among the sets was the courthouse featured in Back to the Future and To Kill a Mockingbird.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/06/03/privacy-report.html

Outdated security systems, unprotected laptops, and crappy training in PIPEDA's implications is leaving personal data vulnerable to thefts such as the TJX theft of last year, says Jennifer Stoddard, Canada's privacy commissioner.

She wants PIPEDA amended so that businesses are forced to 'fess up if they have a security breach. Reporting isn't mandatory under current laws.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24715555/

Google has launched Google Health amid many concerns by privacy advocates.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/080602/x06029A.html

Walter Reed Medical Centre is warning that some patient records may have been compromised.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/080602/x060225A.html

It was probably a bad idea for Susan Bonnell, the PR head for Newfoundland's largest health board, to refer to patients who complained about mismanaged breast cancer diagnoses as "schoolyard bullies". She didn't have such a great time testifying today when the email was quoted at the inquiry underway about the lab problems.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080530/z053011A.html

To say that Facebook has privacy law issues is a wild understatement. Facebook not only shares your information with other users, it gathers that information, sells it to advertisers, and then harasses your Facebook friends with ads based on what you just purchased and added to your Facebook pages.

In short, it was just a matter of time before something like this happened.

Facebook has been put in the hot seat by Canadian law students, who have complained about PIPEDA violations committed by the social networking site. The site features a negative-option-billing scenario - if you want privacy, you have to select it specifically. This is in direct opposition to PIPEDA, the law students charge.

The Privacy Commissioner has a year to investigate the charges.