DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – May 13, 2005

Read this on Canoe

The right to participate in meetings electronically is being recognized by the law. Telephone, video conferencing and web conferencing allow individuals to participate electronically in meetings when not otherwise able to attend.

Organizations need to consider requests for electronic attendance by those who would otherwise be unable to attend a meeting in person, or they may be faced with legal action.

In a recent case, the Alberta Court of Appeal found the City of Edmonton erred when it failed to consider a request for electronic attendance at a council meeting.

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The CRTC ruled yesterday that VoIP is phone service, therefore it will regulate existing telcos – but not the competition.

Bell and Telus plan to appeal.

The CRTC is concerned that the incumbents will underprice the competition. They also say this decision is consistent with their earlier decisions not to regulate the Internet.

Both of those comments require some reflection. I’m not convinced that other entities like cable companies and new VoIP companies will have trouble competing with the telcos. And how is this not regulating the Internet?

Read the CRTC press release
Read an ITBusiness.ca article

CNet reports that in response to customer complaints that Microsoft licenses are too confusing (to be cynical – confusing licenses are only good for lawyers like me who are asked to interpret them), they are grouping their products into 9 categories, and simplifying some of their language.

Certainly a step in the right direction. Its difficult for software users to stay onside of license requirements when they either can’t understand what they are, or are difficult to track.

Read the CNet article

Microsoft has announced that it will license some of its technologies to small business to facilitate new product development.

Critics question why anyone would want to develop technology Microsoft doesn’t feel worthy of developing themselves. There are however many business reasons why they may not want to do so – which may have nothing to do with the merits or markets for the possible products.

Anyone interested in developing software should at least take a look at the listfrom time to time.

Read a press release
Go to the Microsoft page listing the available products

Many are breathing a sigh of relief following the US Court ruling that the FCC did not have the authority to impose the Broadcast Flag. That would require every piece of equipment that could be used to play video (TV, movies) to include technology that allows the producer of the video to limit how we use it.

It has the potential to stiffle innovation and reduce consumer use. While the industry may have some legitimate concerns about unfettered copying and their revenue stream – this was another sledgehammer to kill a fly approach.

Read a Wired article
Read a Groklaw article

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – May 7, 2005

Read this on Canoe

RFID (radio frequency identification) tags have been getting a lot of attention lately from those who fear using them to track goods could pose privacy problems.

An example of a use that should pose little privacy concern is for food traceability.

Think of the advantage of being able to trace where an animal or some produce has been in its lifetime. Given the mad cow disease scares of the last couple of years, this may be an attractive solution.

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It seems rather ironic that recent reports say that within a couple of years, the number of broadband subscribers in China will eclipse the number in the US – yet at the same time China has a massive effort in place to censor information on the Internet the government deems unacceptable.

Read a Slashdot post on broadband growth in China
Read Michael Geist’s article on the “Great Firewall of China”

The May 3 2005 SMB Extra publication by ITBusiness.ca published an article I wrote in their “Ask the Expert” column entitled:

Securing client information
What are my legal responsibilities regarding data I collect from my customers?

It summarizes the advantages of small/medium sized business being privacy compliant, privacy obligations under Canadian law, and steps to compliance.

Read the SMBExtra article

David Fraser’s Pipeda and Canadian Privacy Law blog refers to an article that sets out 7 different forms of ID theft.

It’s worth a read as being aware can reduce your risk. The solutions the article suggests are not in my view totally correct (eg using a credit card instead of a debit card will not lessen “skimming” odds) -but certainly food for thought.

Read David’s post

SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) was put in place in the US in an attempt to stop corporate financial scandals. The legislation is complex and the penalties for non-compliance are significant. The basic concept is to have “controls” in place to reduce the chances of financial error, whether intentional or unintentional.

ZDNet has an article about companies complaining how much money SOX costs. Some over $1 billion.

While the goal is a good one – we have to wonder if SOX is another sledgehammer to kill a fly response.

Read the ZDNet article