CircleID has a post entitled Survey: Cloud Computing ‘No Hype’, But Fear of Security and Control Slowing Adoption which talks about a survey of IT executives on cloud computing.   The survey found that they feel the concept has advantages, but they are not keen to adopt it in the short term because they are concerned about the lack of control and security issues.

Not really a big surprise.   The post is a good summary of the business advantages and issues arisong from cloud computing.

The Authors Guild is upset with the new Kindle, claiming that its text to speech feature violates copyright.  Several comments have been made about the dubiousness of the claim. 

See the New York Times op-ed by the president of the Authors Guild called The Kindle Swindle.

See reaction to it by Boing Boing, Techdirt, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

That’s the title of my Slaw post for today.

It reads as follows:

Connie wrote a couple of days ago about the submission deadline for the upcoming CRTC network neutrality / network management / traffic shaping hearings. Since then, some submissions have been made public that illustrate how important this hearing will be, and how it will affect Canadian consumers and content providers.

The federal Privacy Commissioner has filed an well written submission that discusses the privacy aspects. The Commissioner’s blog post on the topic starts with:

What would you think if you wrote a letter and it could be opened up by a postal or a courier service before it reaches its destination? What would you think if that happened to your online communication? It’s not necessarily a hypothetical question.

Michael has a post that talks about the submission of the parent company of the Weather Network, quoting from their submission:

…the Commission should adopt a more expansive definition of net neutrality and traffic management that would encompass the commercial practices of both wire-line and wireless network operators. In our view, the Commission needs to take steps to ensure that, with respect to both wire-line and wireless network operators, traffic management practices are applied equitably and treat like-traffic in the same or comparable manner. Any management practices that treat certain types of content, particularly content produced or provided by the ISP or network operator, in a preferential or advantageous manner should not be permitted.

And they back that up with examples of actual wireless network neutrality violations they have encountered.

For the London Free Press – February 23, 2009 

Read this on Canoe

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently handed down what is being hailed as a landmark decision in terms of openness and transparency in electronic records.

A complaint by James Rankin, a journalist at the Toronto Star newspaper, led to an adjudicator’s decision, an appeal to the Divisional Court and a further appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal. It has significantly broadened rights to view electronic records of governmental agencies.

Rankin had written a series of articles in the Star in which he hypothesized that the Toronto police engaged in racial profiling — an allegation vehemently denied by the police.

In an effort to substantiate his claims, Rankin applied under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) for disclosure of certain police records. Specifically, Rankin wished to know whether individuals with police records had been arrested only once or on multiple occasions.

The journalist acknowledged the information he sought would contain personally indentifying information that would violate privacy laws if disclosed. However, Rankin felt the indentifying information could be replaced by a system of coded numbers, essentially assigning a specific number to each individual. This system would allow him to access the information he needed without compromising the right to privacy of those individuals with police records.

His request was denied by the Toronto Police Services Board, which stated that processing Rankin’s request would force them to design a new computer program to rid the data of the identifying information. The police did not deny they could create such a program, but instead denied the request on the grounds the information did not constitute a record as set out in the MFIPPA.

Upon the refusal of his request, Rankin filed an appeal with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. The adjudicator held that the information being requested by Rankin was a record under the MFIPPA and ordered the police services board to disclose the records with the understanding that Rankin was to pay the board’s cost in obtaining the requested information.

The Toronto Police Services Board appealed the adjudicator’s decision to the Divisional Court. The court accepted the board’s arguments and ruled the information being requested by Rankin was not a record pursuant to the definition set out in the MFIPPA.

The Divisional Court’s decision was then appealed by Rankin to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which overturned the lower court’s ruling and reinstated the adjudicator’s decision.

In a statement released just after the Court of Appeal decision, Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said: “This case represents a victory for openness and transparency in the context of electronic records. Welcome to the 21st Century.”

The annual event in Barcelona where the cell phone manufacturers and carriers announce their new offerings is underway.  More details can be found on the tech press, such as CNET.  Android based phones have been announced for Europe.  Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 system has been previewed.

Android and Windows Mobile are to some extent playing catch-up to the iPhone.   It always seems to take huge amounts of time for updated sytems and phones to make it to the marketplace, especially to Canada.  

The CRTC started its new media hearing yesterday.  It will consider whether the CRTC should regulate the Internet in some way – the thought being that it is just another form of broadcasting.

Its an important issue that will no doubt garner a lot of press.  Michael Geist will provide detailed ongoing coverage.  From his post yesterday:

Throughout the hearings, I’ll be teaming up with Carleton professor Ira Wagman to offer up a full summary of the day’s events as we’ll have students carefully taking notes on all the presentations and discussions.

Unix and other systems count time by using a 32 bit field to count the seconds starting from January 1, 1970 (known as the Unix epoch).  So at 6:31 Eastern time today Unix time will be 1234567890.  There are actually a few events planned around this milestone.

Another noteworthy Unix time event will occur in 2038, when the time can go no higher using 32 bits.  Fortunately, 64 bit systems should be widely in use by then, staving off the next upper limit for another 290 billion years.

Check out the events, and a countdown clock to today’s milestone.

There are rumours in the press about possible bankruptcy/restructuring for Sirius-XM satellite radio.  It seems that one of the problems is their rather pricey deals with content providers.

Another problem, in my view, is that the service simply costs too much for consumers.   I have Sirius in my car, and like the service, but am undecided whether I will renew it when it comes up soon.   My reason?  - the monthly fees are too high.  And their fees are based on a per radio basis.  So if I have a car, and my spouse has a car, we have to pay for it twice (except for a minor discount).  And if we decide to have another receiver to listen to in the house or on the patio, we have to pay yet again.   One could always get around that by streaming it over the Net – but apparently they are now going to charge extra for that too!

Surely satellite radio is one of those things where their marginal cost of a new customer is minor, and where lowering their price significantly would increase their customer base enough to more than make up the difference. 

That’s the title of my Slaw post for today.  It reads as follows:

I just got back from giving a presentation on IP law to a group of accountants, in which I gave a high level view of various forms of intellectual property. I have been asked to give this presentation several times over the years, so thought it might be worthwhile to share the slides.
ip-slides

The British House of Lords just released a report that expressed concern over the UK’s extensive CCTV surveillance network (4 million cameras) and its growing DNA database containing information even on innocent people.

Read a Guardian article about the report.