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MCGILL STUDENT CHANNELS GREEK GOD K ent Mewhort, a final-year McGill University law student, has channelled the Greek god of law to take on the big legal search engines. The 28-year-old named a new Internet site he designed nomus. ca, Latin for the mythical deity. It took him about a year, work- ing off and on, to develop what is Jiwa claims the action for breach of copyright was initiated by Shafik Sachedina, a senior Ismaili who works at the Aga Khan's offices in Aiglemont, France. Ismailis form a branch of Islam which accepts the hereditary Imam, who traces A his line all the way back to a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, as its spiritual leader. If the action "is authorized by the Aga Khan, it was authorized based on mis- leading information given to the Aga Khan by his advisers," Jiwa says in the state- ment of defence. Brian Gray, a senior partner at Ogilvy Renault LLP and counsel for the Aga Khan, declined to comment on the merits of the defence, but did confirm the Aga Khan authorized the action, although he says he has also dealt with Sachedina on the matter. "We are thinking about how we can convince the defendants that it really is the Aga Khan that's bringing this action," says Gray. A statement of claim previously listed the Aga Khan as the plaintiff, accusing now Canada's second free site after CanLII, the non-profit case law web site managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. "I was motivated to create a sys- tem that better ties together citations from judgments across the country," Mewhort tells Canadian Lawyer. He says Nomus not only produces more relevant results, but it's also easi- er to use than other existing sites. As does CanLII, Nomus uses exist- ing publicly available databases like provincial and federal government sites that publish court decisions. Mewhort says his search engine, which went live in March, rivals the subscription sites Westlaw and LexisNexis, which he calls "very expensive." For now, he doesn't intend to charge for his content "but I'll look at business models for the future." The computer science gradu- ate from the University of British Columbia will manage Nomus while continuing to further develop the project in his spare time. — MK Jiwa, along with Nagib Tajdin, a Montreal businessman, of infringing the Aga Khan's copyright and moral rights by compiling and selling a book of collected Farmans, a type of religious message delivered by the Aga Khan to his followers. None of the allegations have been proven in court. In an e-mail, Jiwa said the Ismaili constitution does not prohibit reproduction of Farmans and that the Aga Khan would have explicitly banned the practice in one of his teachings if he objected. "Our Imam urges us to comply with our con- stitution, and as such I cannot imagine that my Imam would bring such an action when my activities are not breaching any articles of our constitution," he said in the e-mail, adding, "If the claim really is brought by the Aga Khan, then there will be no dispute to resolve at all." If the Aga Khan does object to the distribution of his Farmans, Jiwa says he will "submit to the instructions of his Imam without reserva- tion whatsoever." It is in those expressions of belief and devotion that Gray sees a potential solu- tion to the case. "They clearly believe in what they are doing and don't think the Aga Khan is against them," he says. "We are looking for the most convenient, or maybe the least inconvenient way for the Aga Khan to convince them that he authorizes this action, short of flying him over to Toronto simply because this has happened. That is something he does not wish to do." Gray is hoping a sworn statement or an affidavit from the Aga Khan will be enough to resolve the matter, but earlier pleas to halt fell on deaf ears. A spokesperson for the Aga Khan said the defendants had been warned personally by the Aga Khan and his brother to stop distribu- tion of their book. In his e-mail, Jiwa denies this, while Tajdin claims in his statement of defence that correspon- dence he received from the Aga Khan bore a forged signature. — MICHAEL MCKIERNAN mmckiernan@clbmedia.ca www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2010 9 AGA KHAN SUES TORONTO LAWYER Toronto lawyer facing a lawsuit from the Aga Khan says he does not believe his spiritual leader is behind the action. In a statement of defence filed with the Federal Court in late April, Alnaz