Out-Law.com has an article about the UK Court of Appeal decision this week that confirmed a lower court ruling that the authors of the Da Vinci Code did not breach the copyright of a book called The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail.
The court has in essence confirmed that there is no copyright in ideas. While the earlier book was used as a research source, the authors used only “generalised propositions, at too high a level of abstraction to qualify for copyright protection“.
The publisher has been quoted as saying: “We believe that the case should never have come to court in the first place, and regret that even more time and money was spent trying to appeal the original judgment,’” said Gail Rebuck, chief executive of Random House. “Misguided claims like the one that we have faced, and the appeal, are not good for authors, and not good for publishers.”
From what I have read about the case, I agree with that view.
Read the Out-law.com article
That’s the title of an article in the latest McLean Report, a regular newsletter of the Info-Tech Research Group. I suspect most law firms will upgrade to Vista at the time of their next hardware refresh – not before.
Personally, I think the recently announced Microsoft Office Communications Suite that provides unified messaging has the potential to have a greater impact on law office productivity than Vista.
The McLean Report is only available by paid subscription, but the article is reproduced here with their permission.
Read the Info-Tech article
Go to the Info-Tech web site
Read a ZDNet article on Microsoft Office Communications Suite
You can now register for the London TechAlliance IT Week events taking place on the week of April 23. There is something for everyone in the London area – whether you are an IT business, interested in knowing more about Web 2.0 (aka Internet innovation), are interested in a career in IT, want to know more about world class IT businesses in London, or just want to celebrate at a mixer event.
Details are on the TechAlliance web site
Michael Geist comments on the widely viewed Apple/Clinton mash-up ad, and what the copyright position would be if that happened in Canada.
He concludes that, unlike in the US, this would probably violate Canadian copyright laws, stating that: This form of political speech should surely enjoy protection, yet Canada’s policy makers have been so focused on unnecessary DRM provisions, that we’ve neglected the reforms that really matter.
Touche.
Read Michael’s post
That’s the title of an article in ITBusiness.ca. While it is aimed at tech workers, the list has things that apply to almost anyone. For example, staying on top of new developments in your field, taking responsibility for what you have done – including problems, say what you think – not what you think they want to hear (with tact, of course), and be known for getting the job done.
Read the article
eWeek.com reports that Florida police have arrested 6 and are looking for 4 more people who allegedly used stolen TJX customer info for what they are calling “an $8 million gift card scheme”. This apparently happened before TJX was aware of the data breach.
The article says it is likely that these people did not steal the data themselves – but may lead them to the actual thieves.
The eWeek article has more details, including how the stolen numbers were quickly used to buy gift cards before the credit cards could be cancelled.
Read the eWeek article
According to Fierce Wireless, AT&T has sued Nascar as Nascar refuses to allow AT&T to put its branding on a car that is sponsored by Cingular. Since AT&T bouught Cingular, and is slowly changing its brand to AT&T – seems logical that they should be able to re-brand the car they sponsor.
The wrinkle is that Sprint Nextel is apparently a lead Nascar sponsor, with an agreement for exclusivity among telcos. Cingular was allowed to sponsor because it was grandfathered under that agreement – but only under the Cingular name.
Goes to show how tricky/dangerous exclusivity clauses can be for the party granting the exclusivity.
Read the FierceWireless post
David Fraser points to the Privacy Commissioner’s press release that says it has settled its court case with Equifax. The issue in the case was whether the Commissioner had grounds to investigate Equifax’s online identification and authentication process.
It will be interesting to see the ultimate outcome of the investigation. Its not easy in practice to balance the need for entities holding personal info to be sure they are releasing that info only to appropriate people – with the appropriate level of proof.
Read David’s post
Look at Privacy commissioner guidelines for Identification and Authentication
ITBusiness.ca has a good article entitled Fire your outsourcer! that talks about how important it is to negotiate and draft outsourcing agreements that contemplate ending the deal from the outset.
This is true for any arrangement where one contracts out a function, or hires a third party service provider, even if it is not technically outsourcing.
There are any number of reasons why one might want to end such an arrangement. The point is that it is far easier if the arrangement contains transition provisions, and if the service was set up in a way that is transition friendly. Even if one does not change, it gives more bargaining power if the service provider understands that the transition barriers are low. A modern version of not wanting to owe one’s soul to the company store.
For more detail, read the ITBusiness.ca article
The Canadian government is considering draft legislation that will increase trade-mark protection for the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympics. This is not the first time countries have done this.
Detractors say there is no reason why the Olympics deserve special status. Others believe that the Olympics pose a unique situation that requires such protection.
For more details about the controversy, take a look at Howard Knopf’s Excess Copyright blog, including the comment to his post and the link to a CTV article.
