Archive
Category: Weblog
Random assortments, selected for semantic content.
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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. Google’s archiving of Usenet posts does not constitute copyright infringement, even if the posts themselves contain infringing material. The case revolved around excerpts from ‘The Seduction Library’, a series of guides from Snodgrass Publishing on… 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 →
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Security Danger for Voice over Internet Protocol Users, Says Study
‘An Australian survey of 200 medium to large businesses and government organisations revealed that 97 per cent of respondents lacked sufficient security on their VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol] systems. The survey, conducted in late 2005, found that nearly 60 per cent of organisations reported frequent breaches to the security of their data networks, more… Read more →
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On French Internet, Copyright and DRM Policies
Two recent news stories highlight the development of French internet policy. France is traditionally billed as the ‘safe haven’ of P2P users — portrayed as having a liberal, permissive copyright regime and consumer-friendly anti-circumvention laws. The first story certainly confirms this view. The French Parliament is considering legislation that would mandate Apple to open its… Read more →