Lawrence Lessig’s column in September’s Wired magazine points out how the recent US Supreme Court decision is out of touch with reality.

That decision found that entities like Grokster that create technology that can be used for illegal copying may be found liable for copyright infringement. The test they created is to look at the intention of the entity.

That just leads to uncertainty, more expensive lawsuits, and changes the focus from the technology itself to the inner workings and minds of the entity.

His column is a good read.

Read Lessig’s column

The CRTC approved 2 satellite radio providers last June. This service has been available in the US for some time.

Reports on the weekend say the government may overturn the decision and start the process all over again.

As Michael Geist puts it: The entire satellite radio process has become an embarrassment. Like it or not, the CRTC held lengthy hearings on the matter and sought to develop a solution that added significant Canadian content to satellite radio offerings…

Once again, government bends to lobbying without considering the public interest. Delaying this further is in no ones interest. Whatever happened to trying to keep Canada at the technological forefront?

Read Prof Geist’s comments

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – August 27, 2005

Read this on Canoe

Ever wonder how the Internet has changed? Instead of wondering, you can see for yourself with the Wayback Machine — unless a recent lawsuit is successful.

The Wayback Machine (www.waybackmachine.org) is a free website that allows you to search for old web pages. It keeps historical copies of websites all the way back to 1996.

The Wayback Machine collection includes 10 billion pages — about 100 terabytes of data. Consider the U.S. Library of Congress has about 10 terabytes of data.

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Techdirt refers to a USA Today column that talks about the gradual erosion of the legal ability to do what we want with things we have purchased. Examples include making back-up copies of DVD’s in case the original gets scratched, or sending one person a copy of a commercial photo.

The issue is that we seem to more often have actions individuals can take that in reality don’t negatively affect anyone, but may technically be illegal.

To quote from the article:

But as technology marches on, our laws don’t always march with it. They’re written by men with agendas that are different than ours — men who don’t understand (or have the incentive to understand) what they’re trying to legislate.

So chances are there will come a day when there won’t be room for men to meddle with technology. The sad thing is that we’ll think what they do is against the law in the first place.

This brings to mind the current Bill C-60 that will amend the Canadian Copyright Act. One of the provisions will make it illegal to defeat digital rights management technology. I don’t agree with that kind of law for many reasons.

Read the Techdirt post
Read the USA Today article

I have been on a course for the last 3 days, hence the lack of blog entries.

Presenters included a representative of Heritage Canada, which has partial responsibility for the copyright bill.

The controversial bill is expected to pass 2nd reading in late September, followed by hearings in October by a special legislative committee that will be struck solely for that purpose.

The government hopes the bill will get through the house and be on its way to the senate by the end of the year. That may be a bit optimistic. And if an election is called before that, the bill will have to be re-introduced by the new government.

Read an earlier posting on the subject

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – August 20, 2005

Read this on Canoe

Black Hat is a group of security experts that provides consulting, training, and briefings to corporations and government agencies around the world. Court action surrounding a recent Black Hat conference highlighted how sensitive this topic is.

Founded in 1997, Black Hat was established to provide education to security professionals in corporations and federal agencies. Black Hat offers global forums that feature the most respected underground hackers in the world and the best minds from government and global corporations.

Recently, at the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas, security expert Michael Lynn demonstrated how easily a router can be taken over. Lynn’s presentation focused on a previously undisclosed flaw allegedly present in Cisco Systems routers, units which are prevalent throughout the Internet.

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Michael Fitzgibbon has a post in his Thought’s From a Management Lawyer blog that refers to an article about computer forensics.

The article points out that if there is a suspicion that an employee has used his/her computer improperly, or it may contain evidence of wrongdoing, it is crucial to have a forensics expert look at it. Resist the temptation to look at it yourself, or even have your IT department do it. Indeed, don’t even turn it on or off.

The article states that: Such amateur searches are as damaging to the integrity of the computer forensics investigation as having a company’s security guard muck around at a crime scene prior to the arrival of the criminal forensics experts

And of course it is much better if the business has a computer and internet use policy in place.

Read Michael’s post

There has been a lot of press over the last few days about the worms that have recently infected many computer systems. Reports say they have caused serious problems at many large, well known companies.

Another reminder about how important it is to install Windows patches as soon as they are available, and to use anti-virus software with up to date definitions.

Read a Wired article

Techdirt has an article about the UK government’s attempt to pass a law to limit advertisers from even mentioning the Olympics (England is hosting the 2012 summer games) or using Olympic related imagery.

The IOC has always jealously guarded and controlled advertising and reporting of the Olympics, as it is a significant revenue source for them. They have, for example, allowed only very limited use of the Internet.

Another example of perhaps well intentioned but overreaching control.

Read the Techdirt post
Read an article I wrote before the 2002 games

Thanks to David Fraser’s The Canadian Privacy Law Blog for pointing out an article in a UK newspaper that reported credit card numbers being found in an alley beside a major department store.

They were on a cash register receipt. No good can come out of printing full debit/credit card numbers on either the customer’s or the store’s copies.

Read David’s post

Read an earlier article of mine on the topic.