Author Archive

A domain name is property

- September 19th, 2011

Whether a domain name (such as www.harrisonpensa.com) is property that one owns — or just “a bundle of rights” — has been the subject of legal debate. The Ontario Court of Appeal recently said it is property. Read more…

Don’t count Microsoft out of the tablet war

- September 14th, 2011

At this moment, Apple’s iPad is without question the tablet that is defining the category and vastly outselling any competition. But it is too soon to write off competition from Android tablets. And Microsoft just yesterday officially unveiled its new Windows 8 operating system at a build developers conference.

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Symantec releases 2011 Norton Cybercrime Report

- September 7th, 2011

Norton Cybercrime Report 2011

Symantec, the makers of Norton antivirus and anti-spyware software, released a report today containing a plethora of statistics on cybercrime.

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Writing on wall for traditional signatures

- August 22nd, 2011

The signature of Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, is seen at the end of his message written in a book of condolence at the Japanese embassy, in London March 22, 2011. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

The increasing use of e-signatures raises several questions about their suitability for legal documents.

Adobe recently announced the acquisition of EchoSign, a web-based provider of electronic signatures and signature automation. If ink was used to finalize the deal, it had not even dried yet when RPost, a self-proclaimed pioneer of e-signatures, launched a lawsuit against Adobe and EchoSign for patent infringement.

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Let’s just shut ‘er down

- August 11th, 2011

REUTERS/Toby Melville

Apparently some of the British rioters have been communicating using Blackberrys. Which resulted in a suggestion that Blackberry should suspend its instant messaging service until things quiet down.

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ICANN leaves the door wide open

- August 9th, 2011

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently approved a new program for registering generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). The door has opened to allow for almost anything.

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Laws requiring data retention ill-advised

- August 4th, 2011

Shutterstock.com

I’m not a fan of laws that require entities such as ISP’s to retain data about its customers so law enforcement can get to it.  To me, that flies in the face of privacy principles that say one should only retain personal information (both quantity and duration) to the extent it is required to fulfil the purpose of the services being offered.

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XXX protection racket?

- July 21st, 2011

Shutterstock.com

The .XXX top level domain application period is underway. This has been a very controversial topic. The XXX domain is available for users in the “sponsored community”, being the “adult entertainment industry”.

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Three Strikes Law won’t deter piracy

- July 7th, 2011

DARREN MAKOWICHUK/CALGARY SUN QMI AGENCY

survey by British ISP BE Broadband shows that if the three strikes proposal in the UK Digital Economy Act becomes law, it won’t significantly deter behaviour. Only 5% of those surveyed said they would reduce or stop using filesharing software. 47% said they would simply take steps to conceal their IP address.

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Canada Post lockout sends thousands online

- June 30th, 2011

REUTERS/Andy Clark

A few weeks ago when the postal strike was looming I wondered if a strike might be a tipping point that leads to even less mail being sent.

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