Michael comments that the real fight in these hearings will come down to 3 issues – the isp levy, the new media regulatory exemption, and net neutrality.  

This will get interesting, as views range from complete hands off except to keep it neutral and open, to highly regulated Canadian content proposals.  It is worth watching as the outcome may affect how Canadians use the internet.

Background detail is here and here.

For the London Free Press – December 8, 2008

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With an aging baby boomer population, succession planning is quickly becoming one of the biggest issues facing business owners. Lawyers are beginning to see the negative effects of the failure to plan ahead.

Though succession planning has received significant attention in recent years, many businesses have yet to put plans in place. Those who have thought about it may not have thought it through or put a plan in place.

For many business owners and entrepreneurs, the prospect of turning over to a successor the business they have put so much of their lives into building is too emotional to deal with. A properly prepared and executed succession plan can alleviate concerns over the future of their business, help ensure that their business thrives long after they exit and maximize their profit on leaving.

We have already seen situations in which a business owner is thinking of retiring in a few years and selling their business to a chosen individual who may already work there.

The owner discusses the idea with the individual, and strikes a loose, imprecise arrangement by which the individual will assume more responsibilities or service more of the business owner’s long-term customers over time. Sometimes it goes along with altered compensation packages where compensation is based not on a salary but on some kind of commission or fee structure.

But that plan goes awry along the way, leaving both parties frustrated and killing the arrangement. Why? Because the arrangement is loose, either not or poorly documented, and each party has a different view as to how and when the transition is to occur.

The owner may decide he wants to work longer, concerned about a reduced income in the transition years and in retirement, or just can’t seem to give up those customers or part of his control over the business.

The buyer gets frustrated because he or she is not getting the control they anticipated, and the transition is taking far longer than expected.

In the meantime, because of the slow transition, their compensation may actually drop, not rise. Each party is left feeling the other is not living up to their end of the bargain.

At a minimum, the relationship is soured and neither party is happy. And the buyer may just get fed up and walk away from the business and the deal.

So how can this mutual destruction and frustration be avoided?

Having a clear, mutual understanding in both parties’ minds is key to reducing the risk. While the owner may find it difficult, they should have frank discussions with the proposed successor with a view to entering a clear, mutually acceptable, clearly drafted written succession plan or purchase agreement.

And if the parties can’t reach a deal, at least they find out sooner rather than later. That lets both weigh their options before they become limited.

The Privacy Act governs privacy issues regarding the Canadian federal government.

Take a look at David Fraser’s post on it.  I may have more to say later after I’ve had a chance to peruse it.

For more information on the unique new .tel TLD that I recently wrote about, take a look at this CircleID post.

I’m not sure where this is headed.  If its use becomes widely accepted, having the right .tel address might become very valuable.  If not, it might become useless.

That’s the title of my Slaw post from this am.  It reads as follows:

Speaking of “Shouldn’t it just work“, I have been thinking that a sole practitioner or small firm actually is now at an advantage over larger firms regarding technology.

Software required to run law firms – such as accounting and document management – has typically been created specifically for law firms. That means it is not cheap, and is rarely cutting edge.

But tools are now available that give essentially the same functionality (or at least the 80% that one actually needs) that are low cost and easy to use. Online accounting services for example, or OneNote and search tools to locate documents.

If one has a few people in an office, that usually means setting up a server – which is simple for an IT person, but a daunting task for a lawyer.

One option is to set up a Windows Home Server. It essentially works like a normal server (WHS is actually a front end bolted onto Windows Server 2003), and allows up to 10 users. I can attest to how easy it is to set up and use WHS, as I just bought a new PC at home, and converted the 5 year old PC I replaced into a WHS.

Most people would just buy the Hewlett Packard WHS product and plug it in (which I would suggest for any office use) – but I saved a lot of $ by just buying a couple of hard drives and a few other bits. ( startech.com - a company based here in London – makes all kinds of parts to connect things together).

The WHS will automatically back up PC’s, or better still can be used as a true server to hold the files, and can be accessed remotely. Data can be duplicated accross multiple drives to give redundancy in case of hard drive failure. Capacity is measured in terabytes – which not too long ago was considered supercomputer territory.

And from a user perspective – it is extremely simple to set up and use.

Slaw has made the American Bar Association list of “the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal.” 

For those who don’t follow Slaw, it is a cooperative blog featuring posts by several contributors from various aspects of the legal profession.  (And made the list despite the fact that I am one of the many contributors - by a post each Wednesday.)

Be sure to go to the ABA site and vote for Slaw as your favourite blog in the technology category.

I’ve written before about how the notion that “there ought to be a law against that” can lead to ineffective laws with unintended consequences.  The same can happen in the courts when it is perceived that someone has done something wrong – but it doesn’t fit neatly into the charges.

That appears to be what happened in the Lori Drew conviction.  That’s the tragic case where a teenage girl committed suicide after an online ”friend” turned on her.  But the “friend” was really an adult perpetrating a hoax.

Drew was convicted of criminal charges for her actions, but it has been pointed out that she was essentially convicted because her actions were inconsistent with the terms of use of her mySpace account, ie she did not use here real name.

While I understand the desire to do something here – the conviction makes a bad precedent.  Its not unusual for people to use aliases online.  And making it a criminal offense to violate terms of service is scary.

Techdirt has some good postings on the topic - follow through the Techdirt links for more detail.  The latest post points to a post pointing out that the law as interpreted by the conviction would allow any site owner to make anyone they wanted be a criminal merely by the way the terms of use are drafted – such as saying you can’t use the site if your middle name is Ralph.

for the London Free Press – Dec 1, 2008

Read this on Canoe

A recent decision by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for global co-ordination of the Internet’s addressing system, will permit companies and individuals to turn their names into Web addresses: www.david.canton, for example.

The wrinkle? The fee to obtain .canton as a TLD, or top level domain, is about $200,000.

This year, ICANN relaxed the strict rules on TLDs, paving the way for alternatives to .com and the 21 generic TLDs serving the Net. There are also country-level TLDs such as .ca for Canada.

Now ICANN is about to allow new generic top level domains (gTLDs) that anyone can create, opening the door for companies to register their brands as gTLDs, such as “.coke”.

“The Internet has produced great openness and innovation that has led to changes few of us imagined,” said Paul Twomey, ICANN’s president and chief executive. “The effect of opening up the top-level of the domain system will enable more innovation and entrepreneurial applications.”

ICANN also plans to introduce domain names in various languages and scripts, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian. This proposal would permit Internet addresses to be created in completely non-English characters for the first time, opening the Internet to millions more people worldwide.

Currently, the addressing system only supports 37 Roman characters. ICANN’s chairperson, Peter Dengate Thrush, has said this move “is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, eastern Europe and Russia.”

ICANN’s proposal is not without its critics, however. Opponents argue that it will be costly, difficult to administer and could lead to bidding wars over more generic names.

In addition, trademarks will not be automatically reserved. Owners will have to resort to an objection-based mechanism to make arguments for the protection of their trademarks.

ICANN assures critics that these concerns have been “listened to and taken into account.”

The organization released a draft of the applicant guidebook on Oct. 23, 2004, for those interested in applying for a new gTLD. On Oct. 24, 2008, ICANN began the first of two 45-day public comment periods.

ICANN warns, however, that “potential applicants for new gTLDs should not rely on any of the proposed details of the draft guidebook, which remains subject to further consultation and revision.”

With the final applicant guidebook slated for release early next year, ICANN expects to accept bids for new gTLDs as early as the second quarter of 2009.

During the application period, which is expected to be limited, “any established entity from anywhere in the world can submit an application that will go through an evaluation process.”

New gTLDs could be in use as early as the last half of 2009.

ICANN expects additional application periods will follow soon after the initial process ends.