David Canton – for the London Free Press – July 29, 2006

Read this on Canoe

Many think the value of a written agreement is to defend your position if a business relationship goes bad and ends up in litigation.

The real value of a written contract goes far beyond that. A well-drafted and negotiated agreement can prevent litigation because of the clarity it brings. It also can help the parties understand the arrangement along the way if the individuals who initially made the agreement are no longer involved. Think of it as corporate memory.

Entering into a written agreement does, however, have a much more fundamental purpose — making sure the parties are actually in agreement in the first place.

Every business lawyer can tell stories where clients say they have reached an arrangement with another party and they merely need the arrangement to be documented. Your client says there are no contentious issues.

The lawyer drafts an agreement that fits the client’s description of the arrangement. The first reaction from the other party is: “That’s not how we figured the deal.”

It’s not that either of the parties have done anything wrong or tried to take advantage of the other. It’s simply that until an agreement clearly sets out each party’s obligations, both parties may have different views of the arrangement.

It’s much better to have that happen up front than after the services or arrangement is underway. It allows the parties to sort out the issues and come to a true meeting of minds. If all else fails, the parties can part ways before they get started.

When drafting and negotiating agreements, the best long-term result is not where each party tries to beat the other into submission or extract every last concession or dollar. The best long-term result is the most mutually beneficial arrangement.

Another common contract faux pas is where the parties blindly use a precedent to document a deal without considering what the new deal is or without getting legal advice.

A precedent document can be a valuable starting point or checklist for contract issues, but we should not be slaves to them. The entire precedent should be reviewed to determine how applicable it is to the situation at hand. The best legal drafters will remove, shorten or amend to fit.

A good test to see if one is on the right track is to have someone read it who is not familiar with the arrangement. Anyone knowledgeable about the subject should be able to understand the arrangement easily. Even someone not familiar with the subject should understand the gist of the arrangement.

These principles apply to any type of business dealings, whether it is for the supply of goods or services, a joint venture, a technology licence or other arrangement.

Techdirt comments that One of the more interesting stories to look for in the tech world is the unintended consequences of new technology that can often change the way you view something else.

They cite as an example how YouTube has gone beyond the VCR and DVR (and TV shows on DVD for that matter) to obliterate the fleeting nature of TV. In other words, if one ‘misses” something on TV, its often now easy to find later.

Couple that with the burgeoning place-shifting phenomenon from devices like Slingbox, which allow one to watch TV sourced from your home tuner or DVR from any device with an Internet connection. That could be anywhere from a laptop on your patio (one has to question how often one needs to watch TV on your patio – but that’s another issue), to on a smartphone during your commute or while waiting for a meeting.

That leads to new ways to consume content, and new challenges for the broadcast and advertising industries.

Read the Techdirt post on YouTube

Read an arstechnica article about placeshifting challenges and concerns of the media

Thanks to Rob Hyndman for pointing out Denise Howell’s alternative to a business card.

My version would be “Google my last name – I’m not the city”

Read Rob’s post

Do you read the phrase “no user servicable parts inside” as a challenge, not a warning?

Then you should read the Washington Post article entitled Six Rules for Rescuing Dead Gadgets Don’t toss that broken gizmo just yet–you may still be able to save it.

It refers to several websites, including the 2 linked below.

Read the Washington Post article

Go to Consumer Electronics FAQ

Go to fixya.com, a repair-oriented social networking site

A CNet article asks: Can collaborative wiki software evolve from a geeky plaything into a solid business tool?

Take a look at their post for a series of articles on the subject.

Blogs were at first dismissed by the business world – how things have changed in a short time.

While collaborative software already exists in the business world that has some of the same funtionality as a wiki, I expect business wiki use to increase. At a session at the Mesh conference a few months ago, it was clear to me that some of the early Wiki adopter/promoters did not really understand some of the business needs/issues around the use of wikis. That’s not a critisism, but the reality of how such things develop.

It takes a while for those that understand both business needs and new tools such as blogs or wikis to figure out how to use them to business advantage.

A wiki would be a great tool, for example, for a small business to use as a FAQ site or support tool for its products. Or for a member based organization to allow its members to communicate.

Read the CNet post

RFID by itself is not a privacy problem. Its how its implemented that counts. There have been a number of comments on RFID and privacy recenty by various privacy commissioners and others. What needs to happen is for attention to be paid to privacy issues when designing RFID systems, and not as an afterthought.

Take a look at a post by David Fraser in his Canadian Privacy Law Blog. He refers to a recent Globe article and says: (and I agree) I find these articles to be interesting, but often overstate the threat that RFID poses in Canada. Most of the concern is that item-level tagging of purchased items will lead to the ability to track individuals once they have left the store. While this might theoretically be possible, the advent of a new technology does not mean that Canadian laws go out the window.

Read David’s post

There has been a lot of speculation recently about the upcoming Microsoft Zune – which Microsoft has confirmed is real. It will compete with the iPod and other MP3 players.

There are many reasons why it may or may not be successful. Wired says the Zune may be doomed as it speculates that its DRM (digital rights management) will be too complex and unwieldy.

But frankly, that’s a problem with iTunes as well. As successful as Apple’s iTunes is, many people avoid it because of its DRM.

I’m not a fan of DRM. In addition to the legal issues surrounding copyright and vendor control, it can make devices and music difficult to deal with, incompatable, and of limited use.

It will be interesting to see how Zune fares.

Read the Wired article

Read an engadget article with Zune details

The U.S. continues to try to stop online gambling, while at the same time the WTO (World Trade Organization) has set up a panel to investigate whether U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling comply with international trade rules. The WTO action results from complaints by Antigua and Barbuda.

The Globe and Mail has a story on the WTO action, and the reasons behind the complaints by Antigua and Barbuda.

Techdirt has a post about the “ridiculous levels” the US government’s battle against online gambling has reached. That includes doing whatever they can to find a choke point to stop it indirectly, such as ISP’s and advertisers. Ironic that government run lotteries can be online.

Read the Globe article about the WTO

Read the Techdirt post about new US initiatives

The recent Bell Sympatico user agreement change that says they can monitor communications and pass on to the government continues to attract attention. It has focused attention on upcoming “lawful access” legislation that is expected to increase government spying powers on the Internet.

Both Michael Geist and David Fraser point to a You Tube video called “Emily of the State” that has a parody of an avatar following your every move. Its worth a look.

Add to that stories about a Hong Kong government initiative to enlist Boy Scouts to troll the Net for copyright violations and report it to the government. Truly strange.

Look at the video

Read a NY Times article about the Hong Kong issue

See Michael’s post

See David’s post

CNet has a post that refers to a Weirdtechnewshub article entitled Top 10 Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made It Big Time.

It’s worth a look to see what kind of things have been successful that might not sound like a good idea.

To be a successful business a lot of things have to come together, including a product or service someone actually wants, the business acumen to develop and market it, financing, etc. Its never obvious (at least not to most of us) which ideas will work, and which won’t. And lots of good ideas never go anywhere for various reasons.

Read the CNet post

Read the Weirdtechnewshub article