David Canton – For the London Free Press – January 15 2005

Read this on Canoe

The Internet has provided new ways for many to do business. When advertising real estate online, website publishers may run afoul of laws requiring licensing of real estate agents. There has been recent controversy on both sides of the border in trying to decide whether a website publisher needs to be a licensed real estate broker to post advertisements of real estate for sale.

Both Canada and the United States have exemptions allowing newspapers to post such advertisements without being licensed. Until recently we did not know if the Internet would be treated like traditional media.

(more…)

There is a great deal of debate and tension over what should be protected by copyright, and what should be freely available to the public. This is true for many types of creative works – but especially for books, music, video, and software.

On the one hand we have governments extending or considering extending the length of copyright protection.

On the other, we have projects where various parties are working to digitize entire libraries (or at least the parts no longer protected by copyright) and make them available to the public for free.

One fundamental problem is that as copyright is automatic, there is often no easy way to track down copyright owners to ask for permission. It also thus protects material that no longer has commercial value, with therefore no practical reason for protection. And many works that the copyright owners would be glad to make available to the public are not because of that.

Professor Lawrence Lessig writes a thought provoking article in Wired entitled: They’re Not Worthy – Why extend the copyright on works that no longer have commercial value?

Read the Wired article

The Electronic Privacy Information Center – a privacy watch group based in Washington DC – has published its list of the top privacy issues for 2004, and some issues to watch in 2005.

Of interest to Canadians is that the number 1 item on the list refers to Canadian opposition to the Patriot Act:

Foreign Opposition to USA PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT Act, which gave government new authority to collect
information about American citizens and visitors to the United States,
came under increasing criticism from foreign governments in 2004.
Latin American countries objected to sending census data and voter
records to U.S. law enforcement agencies. Canadian officials warned
that the Patriot Act would violate Canadian law.

Read the EPIC list

Those in the open source community just got a late Christmas gift.

IBM just announced that they will not enforce 500 of its software patents against those using them for open source software development. In other words, the technology covered by those patents is available for use by anyone using them to create open source software.

One can speculate as to many reason’s why IBM would do that – but it will be a mutual benefit to the open source movement and IBM.

Read a CNet article

Read an IBM press release and the list of patents

Cell phones are the device of choice to become the portable convergence platform. As evidence of that, the Microsoft windows mobile operating system is gaining popularity. It allows multiple functionality and easier interoperability with the desktop. Last weeks CES even featured TV to cell phones.

Phones will function as a camera, pda, mp3 player, game console, TV, credit/debit card, and gps.

They won’t do some of those as well as a single purpose standalone device, but the convenience factor means they will be “good enough” for many people.

Security of the device will become more of an issue, especially for sensitive information they may hold as a pda, and their value as a credit/debit card.

The New York Times published an article discussing the current use of phones as payment devices in Asia, and experimentation in North America.

Read the NY Times article on CNet

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – January 8 2005

Read this on Canoe

Just when you thought your bank and government have your privacy interests protected — think again.

Recent privacy gaffs show privacy breaches can happen despite the best intentions of business or government.

Protection of privacy rights is not an automatic concern for many. However, people are becoming more aware of the repercussions of not having privacy top of mind.

(more…)

You know surveillance in the workplace is a hot topic when it gets the attention of talk show hosts.

In the wake of the revelation that the CIBC is using Blackberry emails as evidence in a lawsuit against former executives (I’m surprised this comes as a surprise) comes David Letterman’s top 10 signs.

Read a Globe article on the CIBC case

Read David Letterman’s top 10 list on David Fraser’s Privacy blog

Info~Tech Research Group’s Info~Tech Advisor (a subscription based newsletter – reproduced here with permission) has an article pointing out the dangers of using desktop spreadsheets for business decisions. It can lead to isolated, incomplete and inconsistent information and analysis.

Spreadmarts Bad for Business
Date: January 04, 2005

For many, Microsoft Excel is the application of choice for budgeting, forecasting, graphs, and financial reporting. Yet spreadsheets containing crucial information often exist in limbo, cut off from the enterprise view. Rein in these “spreadmarts” now, before they start causing serious problems for the organization.

What Is a Spreadmart?

Excel is the most popular decision support tool for business users worldwide. When spreadsheets containing valuable corporate data are duplicated uncontrollably, and then modified differently by different users, each file becomes a separate version of the “truth.” Each one of these fractured versions of the truth is called a “spreadmart.” Coined by Wayne Eckerson in 2002, spreadmart is a word meaning both spreadsheet and data mart. It’s a suitable name for a growing crisis.

(more…)

David Fraser – a privacy lawyer in Halifax – has a good summary on his blog (PIPEDA and Canadian Privacy Law) of Canadian privacy issues for 2004. They include new statutes, several court decisions, a few fiascos, and a backlog of complaints.

Read the posting

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – January 1 2005

Read this on Canoe

It’s time to hazard some predictions for developments in technology and related laws in 2005. The old year saw the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) — the federal privacy law — come into force for provincially regulated organizations.

In 2005 we may finally see a generally applicable privacy legislation in Ontario. This would replace PIPEDA for provincially regulated organizations. It should fill gaps contained in PIPEDA and provide more user-friendly legislation.

(more…)