Some professors and students in Canada are grumbling about a new copyright-reform bill that was introduced there Wednesday, saying that it would lead to new restrictions on the use of media in classrooms, distance learning, and libraries.

The proposed law is designed to make it easier to go after commercial pirates while allowing individuals to copy legally obtained content from one device to another and to make backup copies. But critics say the bill's protection of so-called digital locks—encryption that publishers place on music, movie, or software files to keep them from being illegally copied—could make it impossible for users to do things that are technically legal, like making copies for educational use.

"The government has struck some pretty good compromises over all, but the one place where they didn't compromise at all was with digital locks, and that's incredibly...

Students have long turned to Wikipedia for answers -- often to the frustration of professors, who complain that the user-written encylopedia is not always accurate. But students at McGill University have taken their love of the free resource guide to a new level by starting a Wikipedia club on the campus.

The university's student government granted interim status to Students Supporting Wikipedia last month, making it a bona fide student organization. It might be the first officially sanctioned Wikipedia club on a college campus.

"I wasn't surprised when the group applied, because Wikipedia is so often used by students now that it wouldn't be long before students somewhere rallied round to show support," said Sarah Olle, the Students' Society vice president responsible for clubs.

The main purpose of Students Supporting Wikipedia is to raise money and contribute information to the...

Memorial University, in Canada, has created a research Web site inspired by online dating services — only this one matches researchers to interested members of the public, politicians, students, journalists, and other interested scholars.

The service, called Yaffle, was designed to connect researchers at or near the university and to allow members of the public or businesses to suggest projects. All the research is described in lay terms. "Google Scholar doesn't have the matchmaking ability that Yaffle does," said David Yetman, Memorial's manager of knowledge mobilization, who put the project online last year. He called it a cross between a dating site and a search engine.

Yaffle has drawn attention from far outside campus boundaries. The site has attracted users from Australia, Asia, and Africa.

A primary benefit is to improve the university's ability to communicate the breadth and...