The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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VeriSign Argues for Stronger Internet Backbone
VeriSign said many major Web sites were temporarily blocked by a mysterious flood of bogus messages in January and February, raising questions about the Internet’s defenses against one potent form of attack. Though the attacks have abated, VeriSign said it may need to sharply increase spending on additional computing and communications capacity to keep operating… Read more →
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Canadian Man Jailed for Cyberstalking; Australia Proposes New Cyberstalking Offences
A man in Alberta who used the internet to turn his ex-girlfriend’s life upside down was convicted on Thursday of criminal harassment and sentenced to a year in jail. The man used internet keyloggers and fake e-mail addresses to harass the ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, the Australian federal government will ramp up its efforts to catch sexual… Read more →
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Canadian Military to Probe Sale of Gear on eBay
The Canadian military has launched an investigation after some of its military clothing and equipment turned up for sale on the Internet. Several pieces of the military’s specialized camouflage gear were, until recently, up for sale on eBay, igniting concerns about the security of Canadian troops. A Canadian court has also fined a Quebec company… Read more →
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RIM Urges Patent Reform
In full-page advertisements in eight United States newspapers, Research in Motion (‘RIM’) yesterday called for urgent patent reforms. RIM, hitherto beleaguered by a long-running patent dispute with arch rival NTP Inc, recently settled the dispute for the princely sum of $612.5m. Chief Executive Officers Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stated that RIM was pleased to… Read more →
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Validity of the Creative Commons Licence Upheld
In what is sure to be big news for supporters of the Creative Commons licensing regimes, a Dutch court has recently upheld the validity of the Creative Commons Public Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 2.0 licence. From what I can make of the judgment (in Dutch), the action was brought by an Adam Curry, who was understandably… Read more →
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Google Ordered to Hand over Data
Well, Google is certainly making the headlines at the moment. This time, a federal United States judge stated that he intends to order Google to divulge user search and email records to the United States Justice Department. Fortunately for Google (and its users), the judge appears to have accepted Google’s request to confine the terms… Read more →
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Blake Upheld: Google Cache Still Does Not Infringe Copyright
Another United States cache-copyright case. This time, Judge Surrick of the federal circuit dealt with cached copies of Usenet materials. The complaint alleged that Google had infringed the plaintiff’s copyright by archiving posts which the company’s own director, Mr Roy, originally made to Usenet which contained parts of his publications. Roy also argued that caching… Read more →
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Blake v Google Inc: Google Cache Does Not Infringe Copyright
A judge of the United States District Court has just handed down a verdict rejecting claims that the operation of Google’s ‘cache’ feature infringes copyright. (A cache is a temporary copy of a webpage stored in memory to preserve its state at a given point in time. Most usefully, it allows users to see what… Read more →
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Workplace Cybersnooping Law in Need of Reform, Say Analysts
Cybersnooping legislation regulates when it will be permissible for employers to monitor the electronic activities — such as email, web surfing and outbound data transmissions — of their employees. Currently, however, the regimes adopted among the states differ widely, making it all but impossible for national employers to confidently establish a uniform monitoring protocol: ‘NSW… Read more →
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Attorney–General Announces National Privacy Review
The Australian Federal Government has announced a review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the Australian Law Reform Commission will look at existing laws and practices across the country and consider changes in technology since the Act was introduced in 1988. Given that technological developments pose the single greatest threat to… Read more →