The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is to be held in Tunis in mid November.

This book, by Oceana Publications, was written as background for the conference by several international legal experts.

It looks at topics such as patents, copyright, data protection, technology surveillance, Internet regulation, and contract formation. These topics are looked at from a high level perspective, including the rationale behind such laws and some history. Examples are given of specific laws in various countries and of international treaties. It contains plenty of footnotes for sources of further research.

For example, I learned that the first patent was issued by King Henry VI in 1449 for the manufacture of stained glass. The idea was to slow the importation of stained glass from other countries.

The chapter that discusses international surveillance capabilities over communications is quite sobering.

The book does a good job of exploring the various issues that will be discussed at the summit.

It is also a useful summary for anyone interested in understanding how these issues are dealt with internationally, and what businesses might face when selling outside of their own country.

See more info on the Oceana web-site

Go to the WSIS website

David Canton – for the London Free Press – October 29, 2005

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The Consumer Measures Committee (CMC), a Canadian forum of representatives from all levels of government, conducted a public consultation from July 6 to Sept. 15 on how to prevent identity theft in Canada.

Its discussion paper, Working Together to Prevent Identity Theft, set out proposals for preventing and detecting identity theft as well as for providing assistance to victims.

Identity theft occurs when someone’s personal identity information is acquired and used without their knowledge for fraudulent purposes.

The effect of identity theft on victims can be extensive, from having to pay debts incurred by the perpetrator to loss of their personal credit rating and reputation.

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LED lights promise to cut electricity consumption dramatically. One estimate is that they could reduce US electricity consumption by 1/4. Last year we saw LED Christmas lights in the stores, and I recently noticed an ad for normal replacement light bulbs.

One issue is that white LED’s are generally not really white – they have a blueish tinge.

Over the past couple of days there have been some articles about the use of quantum dots to make white LED’s that use even less power than current LED’s. No word on when we might actually see products.

Read an engadget article

Professor Michael Geist reports that the do not call legislation that is about to be passed is so watered down with exceptions that it will be totally ineffective.

The legislation is intended to set up a list where one can register your phone number, making it unlawful for telemarketers to call those numbers.

Michael’s article is a good read both for the substance of the legislation, and the politics behind it.

Read Michael Geist’s article

David Canton – For the London Free Press – October 22, 2005

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Google is in the process of scanning 20 million books into digital format and intends to make their text fully searchable on the Internet.

This ambitious plan is putting copyright laws to a digital-era test and is just the latest example where creative applications of technology challenge traditional thinking and the application of laws.

Google is scanning millions of books into its system to allow users to search them using keywords, much like we now do with items on the Internet.

Google says while entire books will be scanned, users will be able to see only snippets of text where the search terms appear. It will also provide basic bibliographic information and links to online booksellers and libraries.

Google claims its project is consistent with U.S. copyright laws, but some authors and publishers differ.

The Authors Guild, an organization of more than 8,000 authors, has accused Google of “massive copyright infringement,” saying Google can’t do this without permission.

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I don’t mention a lot of personal information leaks, but this one is close to home. The University of Western Ontario sent letters to about 1000 students this week advising that their personal information was accidentally available on the Internet for a while.

The students were told to contact credit agencies to put a fraud alert on their files. UWO believes only a small number of people actually looked at the information. Of course the issue is not how many people saw it, but whether anyone who saw it is inclined to abuse the information.

As much as we all think about security from the viewpoint of external access/hackers – the reality is that most information breaches or leaks are a result of internal errors or malfeasance.

Read a London Free Press article

David Fraser’s The Canadian Privacy Law Blog has a couple of entries about an arrest of an employee at a Halifax gas station. Allegedly he scanned customer bank cards a 2nd time on another scanner to capture the numbers for himself, then observed the customers entering their PIN numbers. He then created new cards – leaving as many as 400 victims.

To lessen the risk of this sort of fraud happening to you, block the view of the keypad when entering PIN numbers – ignore the strange looks others make when you do it.

Try to limit the situations where your debit/credit card is out of your sight.

David also points out how companies that print full credit/debit card #’s on receipts are helping others commit fraud. I have written about that before as well.

We should all protest every time we see out number printed in full on receipts – including the store’s copy – not just ours. And if the store is not receptive – consider complaining to the privacy commissioner.

Read David’s first post
Read David’s second post
Read an earlier article of mine on the number printing issue

David Canton – For the London Free Press – October 19, 2005

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EBay’s recent purchase of Skype, a popular voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service provider, shows the Internet is the future of voice communication.

VoIP refers to telephone calls made over the Internet. Traditional telephone service is on the way out.

Skype, started in 2002 by the creators of the Kazaa file-sharing program to provide free computer-to-computer voice calls over the Internet, has 57 million customers and gets about 150,000 new users a day, most in Europe and Asia.

Skype also allows — for a modest fee — calling to and from people using traditional phones. Other VoIP services such as Vonage allow calling using a normal phone.

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The big news here in London today is that Bill Clinton made an appearance yesterday at the John Labatt Centre. Our firm was a sponsor of the event.

He spoke about many international issues.

He supports Canada’s stance on the softwood lumber dispute with the US.

He mentioned the Internet as one of three things that have given ordinary people more power than ever.

London Free Press editor Larry Cornies refers to him as “Clinton 7.0″. It is Bill Clinton the multilateralist. Clinton the environmentalist. Clinton the humanitarian. Clinton the philanthropist. And, for all his fears of the future — pandemics, terrorism, unsecured biological and chemical agents — Clinton the optimist. He sums it up by saying Clinton is a man adept at precisely tailoring his message to the audience he is addressing.

Read a London Free Press article
Read Larry Cornies’editorial
Read a Globe and Mail article

In an article entitled The licence labyrinth, ITBusiness.ca talks about recent changes in Microsoft’s corporate licensing arrangements. They say those arrangements are still too complex.

Microsoft would like all its corporate customers to roll out their latest versions of their software soon after they are released. That makes it easier for Microsoft to support, gets its customers the latest features, and of course makes more revenue for Microsoft.

Corporate customers don’t always want to do that for several reasons.

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to create new licensing models, they don’t necessarily reflect what customers want or need. They are also so complex that even Microsoft’s own reps don’t agree on their meaning.

Read the ITBusiness.ca article