David Canton – for the London Free Press – December 24, 2005

Read this on Canoe

‘T was the night before Christmas, when all through the nation
Last-minute shoppers were growing in frustration
Mall shoppers were choosing CDs with great care
In the hopes the Sony “rootkit” would not be there.

W ith XBox 360 in limited supply
Even though many wanted to buy
And iPods and camera phones in much demand
Gift-givers had to line up, cash in hand.

Then outside the mall there arose such a sound
All ran to the windows to see what was around
A gasp of shock and a flash of red
Then eight flying reindeer pulling a sled.

This sight, to be frank, it did give one pause
All thought, “Is it possible? Could it be Santa Claus?”
The sleigh moved swiftly through the sky
Then suddenly the red-clad man did cry:

“Now EBay, now newegg, now Amazon
These websites are where I get my shopping done
Buying from them is such a treat
Not even my very own elves can compete.”

As the sleigh descended, landing in the lot
Rudolph and team set down in a busy spot
But none of those present was upset one whit
Once learning the jolly old elf was legit.

He brought an XBox 360 for under the tree
Accompanied by Mega Bloks, thanks to the SCC
An iMac, an iPod and that elusive DVD
A VoIP phone to call long distance for free.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for that offbeat movie!”
Cried one of the enraptured shoppers with glee.
Santa winked and said, “I know the wishes of all.
And not just because I can monitor every phone call”

The crowd was surprised by this tech-savvy St. Nick,
To see him type speedily on his Blackberry, so quick!
And so knowledgeable about protecting personal information.
“The confidentiality of my ‘Naughty or Nice’ list is my obligation.”

“Now be sure,” Santa said, “That no errant receipts
Will fall into the hands of an identity thief
And also ensure, when shopping online
That you use secured websites each and every time”

Then, with a snap of the reins, the reindeer prepared for flight
And quickly they carried Santa into the night.
But before the sleigh disappeared, the crowd hear Santa cheer
“Merry Christmas to all, see you next year!”

The CBA PracticeLink has an article entitled New Media Marketing, Part I – Blogs: How Lawyers Can Become Thought Leaders in a Niche Market.

It is a good article on lawyers and blogging – although I admit to be biased as this blog is referred to, and I am quoted in the article.

Read the CBA article

DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – December 22, 2005

Read this on Canoe

The Supreme Court of Canada recently released its decision in the Lego trade-mark case. The company that produces Lego was trying to stop a competitor from making Mega Bloks on the grounds the post design was a trade-mark.

The Court did not agree with Lego.

Lego held a patent on its toy building blocks that expired in 1988. Mega Bloks saw this as an opportunity to capitalize on the popularity of Lego and brought to market a line of small blocks, identical in size to Lego, which used the same pattern of stubs on top.

They are completely interchangeable with Lego blocks and are essentially different only in name. Mega Bloks have become a significant global competitor of Lego over the past 10 years.

Not surprisingly, Lego was unhappy about giving up market share in a market they had created and held a monopoly on for the last 50 years. With an expired patent, however, their options for legal recourse were limited.

(more…)

I have not mentioned the RIM/NTP patent litigation before as it seems to get lots of mention in the press anyway – but this comment by Techdirt that refers to a NY Times article is too good to pass up.

Seems that the US patent office has taken the unusual step of advising both RIM and NTP unofficially that they will revoke the NTP patents at issue in the lawsuit.

To quote from Techdirt: The move to publicly inform both parties of likely decisions is the USPTO’s way of trying to force Judge Spencer to either throw out the case on lack of merit, or delay the court proceedings to give the patent rejection process time to follow its slow course. So the USPTO has turned the pressure up on Judge Spencer — if he forces RIM to shutdown or pay-up based on what he now knows to be bad patents, he will look bad, not the USPTO. Don’t you love it when two branches of your government pass the buck while the free market and the incentive to innovate are held hostage to them?

This will no doubt increase the calls for patent reform, or at least more scrutiny on patent applications.

Read the Techdirt post

Read the NY Times article

This proposed US legislation would plug the “analog hole” by requiring specific DRM technology to be built into all consumer video products. It would allow content producers to control what consumers do with certain material that consumers choose to deal with in analog instead of digital form.

Arstechnica calls this legislation “frightening”, and for good reason …it’s not about piracy. It’s about squeezing every last dollar out of our pockets if we want to do anything other than watch a live broadcast.

This is just another misguided attempt to control content. So why is this a bad thing? Off the top of my head:

- Tramples users rights (eg allows one to time shift only for 90 minutes – no more recording and watching it the next day)

- Allows creators to decide what “fair use” should be, not the law

- Stiffles technological advancement by dictating technology

- Poses extraterritorial effects when equipment manufacturers are forced to change product designs

- Prevents honest consumers from enjoying content in reasonable ways, but has no practical effect on commercial piracy

- Increases the cost of consumer equipment

- DRM/TPM often has unanticipated negative effects (Eg rootkit)

- Most DRM/TPM ends up being broken or worked around anyway, so is rarely effective in the long term

- Requiring specific tecnnology by law is never a good idea as technology changes faster than laws can

Read the arstechnica article

Read a CNet article

For anyone still unsure what Web 2.0 is all about, take a look at ZDNet’s list.

Read the ZDNet list

Read an earlier article of mine on Web 2.0

Regular readers will know that I am not a fan of DRM (Digital Rights Management), TPM’s (Technological Protection Measures), or legislative efforts to support it. (Search “DRM” on my blog for earlier comments.) For the most part, the protection is illusory, and the harm done far outweighs the good.

I saw 2 different posts this morning that support that.

Prof. Michael Geist has been commenting on copyright reform in the context of the Federal election. He has a post worth reading on MP comments, and the fact that they don’t understand that the artists are rebelling against the very protections the politicians think they want.

Techdirt has a post worth reading talking about how copy protection might stall technological innovation.

Once again, repeat after me, “DRM is evil”

Read Michael Geist’s post

Read the Techdirt post

Digg points to an article by an MIT professor who talks about 8 video game myths, including the notion that they lead to violence.

Defense lawyers and parents sometimes try to blame video games for youth violence. This article says that is not true.

While the article is interesting on its own, some Digg comments complained that this article (it is not dated) has apparently been around for a while.

That illustrates a couple of points.

First, the power of sites like Digg and Slashdot to bring attention to material.

Second, we are getting so used to getting immediate info that the perceived stale date for material is getting shorter.

Read the Digg post

Read the 8 Myths article

There has been some concern raised recently that various broadband service providers may use, or may want to use, traffic shaping to prioritize their own services at the expense of services provided by others.

Traffic shaping is about prioritizing certain traffic over the Internet. It can be used for QOS (Quality of Service), or to impair certain traffic.

For example, a broadband provider might use it to make their own VoIP service work well, but degrade the performance of 3rd party VoIP providers. Or they might use it in an attempt to control what they view as bandwidth hogs or illegal activity ( eg. file downloading).

A Globe and Mail article looks at the Canadian perspective.

A techdirt post talks about attempts by US providers to gain the right to prioritze their own services. They suggest the best solution is to simply increase bandwidth.

There is no simple answer to this – but to me one thing is certain.

We are headed to a world where we will pay for the data pipe coming into our homes as a service on its own. Whatever data we consume or create over that pipe (including voice and video), may or may not come from the same provider. Broadband providers should compete for those data services on their own merits – not by tinkering with the pipe.

Read the Globe article

Read the Techdirt post

Read the wikipedia definition of “traffic shaping”

Slashdot and others are carrying a story about someone who has posted instructions on how to make a macro lens from a Pringles can.

It is well known that Pringles cans make good WiFi antennas, and a quick Google search shows uses such as solar ovens, pinhole cameras, and hydrogen rockets.

Perhaps Procter & Gamble (the manufacturer of Pringles) should have a promotional contest – the “P prize” – where they give a cash prize to whomever makes the most useful item out of a Pringles can within a specified time. Not quite as lofty (pun intended) a goal as the X prize, but at the least entertaining.

Note to Procter & Gamble – since this is just an idea, and there is no copyright in ideas, and I don’t have a patent on it (patent and copyright 101) – I won’t sue if you use this idea. Some mutual product placement would be nice though.

Read the Slashdot post about the lens

Read a Techdirt post about writer and actor backlash against product placement