Tech Bytes

By Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca. When the Conservative government attempted to introduce Bill C-61 last year, one of the chief complaints of the bill was the anti-circumvention provision, which essentially made it illegal to break digital locks placed on software or digital data such as music or movie files. A new interpretation shows that provision actually favoured copyright violators.

Continue reading "Would Bill C-61 have protected copyright violators?" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 01:49 PM | Comments (1)

By Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca. Much of the debate around issues like net neutrality and wireless competition in this country often ends up at the doorstep of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which today issued a report on the state of the communications industry.

Continue reading "Where's the competition?" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 03:46 PM | Comments (2)

By Emily Chung, CBCNews.ca
The Business News Network faced some harsh accusations this week from Canadian copyright reform activists after it ordered some of its copyrighted videos to be removed from Youtube.

Continue reading "BNN cracks down on Youtube" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 11:30 AM | Comments (4)

By Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca. The trial in Italy of four Google executives accused of defamation and violating privacy scheduled to begin Tuesday has been postponed until September because an interpreter was ill and unable to attend. As a result, content providers around the world may have to spend another three months fretting over the implications about a successful prosecution.

Continue reading "Google privacy trial delayed" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 02:32 PM | Comments (1)

By Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca. Last week Marc Garneau, the federal Liberal party critic for Industry, Science and Technology, spoke in Parliament and for the first time declared his party's support for the principle of net neutrality.

Continue reading "Liberals support Net Neutrality. Now what?" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 04:11 PM | Comments (3)

By Paul Jay, CBC News.ca.

New Democrat digital affairs critic Charlie Angus has tabled another bill designed to enshrine the principle of net neutrality, his second attempt to bring the issue to the House of Commons through a private member's bill.

Bill C-398 will “ensure the future development of the internet is not impeded by unfair throttling or interference by telecom giants” the NDP said in a release Friday.

Continue reading "Net neutrality again before the House" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 06:36 PM | Comments (5)

By Paul Jay, CBC News.ca.

The Pirate Bay trial has always had an aura of the absurd to it, mostly because the administrators of the file-sharing site have treated the collected threats against them with a mixture of contempt and humour. But now the legal proceedings are themselves turning farcical.

Continue reading "Can Sweden find an unbiased judge?" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 01:51 PM | Comments (2)

By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist:

The Obama administration has placed Canada on the United States’ copyright blacklist. Under Bush, we were on their “Watch List”. Now we’re on the “Priority Watch List”. Scary!

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Obama the copyright cyberbully" »

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By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist:

This summer, the CRTC will finally rule on whether traffic shaping by ISPs is legal. To do so, they’ll hold hearings, and in those hearings, opinions will be heard. Yours can be among them. Yesterday the CRTC opened an online public consultation on net neutrality.

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Your chance to weigh in on Net Neutrality" »

Posted by at 12:45 PM | Comments (2)

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca. While a number of artist groups and broadcasters have called on the CRTC to impose a levy on internet service providers, a couple of new polls suggests Canadians aren't crazy about the idea.
On Thursday, Angus Reid Strategies published two online polls, both of which suggested Canadians aren't enamored with ISP levies.

Continue reading "Are Canadians against levies on ISPs?" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 04:15 PM | Comments (3)

By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist:

Chalk one up for the copyfight.

An atrocious amendment to New Zealand’s copyright law was slated to go into effect this week: it would have required ISPs to kick users and sites off of the Net based on unproven allegations of copyright infringement. Under the now infamous Section 92A of the New Zealand Copyright Act, major media companies would have had the ability to ban citizens from the Net entirely, leaving users no recourse.

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Worldwide copyfight heats up down under " »

Posted by at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)

By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist.

Each year Macolytes around the globe breathlessly await the introduction of cool new technology at the Macworld expo. But this year, the coolest news was not the addition of great new tech, but the subtraction of bad old tech. DRM will soon be gone from iTunes, and that’s cause for excitement, whether you use Apple’s music store or not.

Here’s what it means:

Continue reading "Dropping DRM: What the Macworld proclamation means to you" »

Posted by at 01:40 PM | Comments (7)

By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist.

Canadian radio and television must contain a certain percentage of content made in Canada, by Canadians, and about Canadians. So sayeth the CRTC. But so far, the CRTC has kept its hands off of the Internet.

That may soon change.

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Does CanCon have a digital future?" »

Posted by at 01:08 PM | Comments (5)

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

With the Conservative government engaged in a power struggle with the Liberals and NDP, the furthest thing from anyone's mind on Parliament Hill these days is copyright reform. The issue, which has clearly been the biggest political hot potato of the year when it comes to technology, isn't likely to get much attention until the government drama is settled, whenever that may happen.

Still, that isn't stopping some of the most vocal opponents to the Conservatives' approach from pressing the battle. University of Ottawa internet law professor Michael Geist, the most outspoken proponent of a need for copyright reform that balances both holders' and consumers' rights, has put together a nifty 47-minute documentary on the subject.

Continue reading "Copyright documentary illuminates the issue" »

Posted by Peter Nowak at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

Australia’s biggest Internet Service Provider, iiNet, has agreed to take part in a “ridiculous” trial of a government web filter just to “prove how stupid it is.”

The above quotations come from iiNet executive Michael Malone, in response to the Labor Government’s plans to block all “illegal” content at the ISP level, which would make Australia the world’s only first-world Western democracy to do so.

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Iran, China and Australia? Oz moves closer to world-class Net censorship " »

Posted by at 02:24 PM | Comments (2)

By Jesse Brown, CBC technology columnist.

It’s broken.

Or jammed, or crashed, or otherwise unable to sign up anymore phone numbers belonging to Canadians who would prefer not to be bothered by telemarketers. The National Do Not Call List website crashed too, but seems to be back up now.

This due to a stampede of sign-ups in the first 12 hours of the list’s existence. Anyhow, it’s taken the CRTC three years to get this thing online, and hiccups aside, everyone who wants in on the off list will soon get it.

Or will they?

Continue reading "Jesse Brown: Do not call the do-not-call list" »

Posted by at 11:20 AM | Comments (5)

By Peter Nowak, CBCnews.ca

OTTAWA - After an inauspicious start to the day, the net neutrality rally turned out to be a success in the eyes of organizers and protestors. About 300 showed up (only about 30 were employees of rally organizer Teksavvy) despite some organizational problems, which included the event being rescheduled three times.

Continue reading "Net neutrality rally organizers hint at more action" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

By Peter Nowak, CBCnews.ca

OTTAWA -- The crowd of about 300 at today's rally on Parliament Hill in support of "net neutrality" was well behaved, but placards clearly indicated their feelings on the issue.

Continue reading "Signs at the net neutrality protest" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

By Peter Nowak, CBCnews.ca

OTTAWA -- Today's rally in support of "net neutrality" drew a crowd of about 300 to Parliament Hill to hear speeches from supporters and politicians.

Continue reading "NDP to introduce net neutrality bill" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 12:17 PM | Comments (1)

By Peter Nowak, CBCnews.ca

ON THE BUS TO OTTAWA: Today's rally in support of "net neutrality" hasn't exactly started spectacularly - or the Toronto leg of it, anyway. There are only 15 people on the bus, which left Yorkdale Mall at 4:30 a.m.

Continue reading "Low turnout on Toronto 'net neutrality' protest bus" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 05:56 AM | Comments (2)

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

Yesterday I mentioned Scrabble is now an application on Facebook, though not for Canadian users. It got me thinking about that most famous of 'not in Canada' products, the iPhone.

A couple of weeks back a couple of blogs – Electronista and iPhoneworld – were atwitter over the latest updates at the Canadian Trademark Database of the ongoing dispute between Apple and Toronto VoIP company Comwave.

Unfortunately, the trademark database is not exactly built with consumers in mind, and so reads in a language that is mostly impenetrable. In other words, the trademark application status changes are easy to misinterpret.

Continue reading "iPhone trademark dispute drags on " »

Posted by Paul Jay at 02:45 PM | Comments (3)

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

When the government deregulated the local phone market last spring it did so on the premise that consumers would benefit. With Rogers raising phone rates in the country's largest market - Toronto - as of March 1, for example, there doesn't seem to be much evidence that then Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier's promise is having a positive effect on consumers. Moreover, there are a number of things about the price increases by Rogers -- which is powering ahead in every financial measure -- that are sure to rankle customers.

Continue reading "Wherefore art thou, lower phone rates?" »

Posted by Peter Nowak at 03:21 PM | Comments (10)

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

The anger over the government's proposed copyright reform bill is palpable and it is astounding that it's something normally staid Canadians are getting worked up about. Just take a look at the growth of a Facebook protest group (I'd link to it but you need to log in) started just over a week ago - when I checked this morning, it had just under 15,000 members. As of this writing, it's up past 16,000. In fact, 50 people have joined in the 15 minutes it took me to write this post. That's incredible and, if the group keeps growing at this pace, it's going to be very difficult for the government to introduce the bill it had planned.

Continue reading "Copyright reform stokes the fires" »

Posted by Peter Nowak at 04:21 PM | Comments (52)

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

The first U.S. lawsuit over a violation of a public license that governs open-source software appears to be heading towards a quick out-of-court settlement, according to the latest reports.

Continue reading "GPL lawsuit to settle?" »

Posted by Paul Jay at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

It's been a tough week for telecommunications companies on both sides of the border, but a good one for class-action lawsuits. First, a Saskatchewan court gave the thumbs up to a class-action lawsuit by lawyer Tony Merchant against Canada's cellphone companies. Merchant is seeking the return of up to $20 billion that he says has been unfairly charged by the providers through their monthly system access fee. The providers have been falsely identifying the fee as a government-mandated charge, he says. The providers plan to appeal the ruling.

Down in the United States, antitrust lawyer Maxwell M. Blecher has filed a lawsuit against television providers for forcing customers to take packages of channels that include individual channels they neither watch or want. Blecher says forcing consumers to take channels they don't want inflates their monthly bill, so he wants television providers to offer them "a la carte." Consumers should be able to pick and choose they channels they want, he says.

Continue reading "Market forces being tuned out" »

Posted by Peter Nowak at 02:54 PM | Comments (5)

by Jesse Brown, CBC Radio

In an interview with CBC Radio One program Search Engine, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day suggested Thursday that the controversial wording in the “lawful access” document, which was leaked to the media last week, had originated with the Liberal Party.

Continue reading "Stockwell Day blames lawful access document on Liberals " »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

by Jennifer Wilson, CBCNews.ca

Online sources are reporting that Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman, who runs the adult-content company Eros LLC, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday against Second Life resident Volkov Catteneo. The case has already sparked debate on high-profile blogs about the potential legal fallout for the virtual world.

Continue reading "Second Life business sues for copyright infringement" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 04:57 PM | Comments (1)

by Shirley Connor, CBC News online

This week brought us reports of the French government banning BlackBerrys for government employees amid concerns about the possibility of outsiders snooping confidential data. Research in Motion followed up by telling CBC News that no one – not even RIM – can crack the code and take a peek.

Click on the link below to read more of this post.

Continue reading "Can you keep a secret?" »

Posted by Ian Johnson at 05:53 PM | Comments (1)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Have you ever wondered whether you should click on or download some new piece of software you or your friends have found on the internet? It's probably worth paying attention to that nagging voice in the back of your head.

Click through the link below to find out why.

Continue reading "Beware of malware, lawyers and elves" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 08:10 PM | Comments (3)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

The internet's current state, future, and impact on all spheres of our lives, Mesh ("Canada's web conference"), Palm's new Foleo smartphone companion and video games were among the things holding our attention this week. Here's the list:

• No charges in chatroom suicide, U.K. authorities say
• Nudity delays Halo 2 for PC
• Challenge Shadowrun developers at their own game
• Thoughts from Mesh
• Will Dark Green PC grow on people?
• YouTube parody a federal offence?
• PR is dead, long live PR
• High-tech security at Palm
• Pipe down, Sun

Continue reading "Tech blog roundup" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 06:51 PM | Comments (0)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Microsoft Corp. is delaying shipping science fiction action game Halo 2 for WindowsVista PCs after nudity was found in part of the software.

Shoot through the link below to reveal all.

Continue reading "Nudity delays Halo 2 for PC" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 01:32 PM | Comments (3)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Video entertainment, surveillance and games along with a lot of follow-up stories and humour held our attention this week. Here's the proof:

• Win a wild Wii redux
• Joost TV commercial drops
• April Fools' Day gag roundup
• Joost spot official, not for TV
• Would you believe an electronic shoe?
• Google follows up on gag
• Big Brother is watching you ... litter

Continue reading "Tech blog roundup" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

England's network of surveillance cameras may have just jumped the shark. Authorities there are planning to spend about $1.13 million (500,000 pounds) to enable the devices to talk, apparently in a bid to cut down on littering.

Get a glimpse of swift justice, 1984-style, through the link below.

Continue reading "Big Brother is watching you ... litter" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

A post on Michael Geist's blog alerted us to a conference on music and copyright [68 kb PDF file] hosted at McGill University in Montreal last week. During the course of the conference, one of the speakers, Bruce Lehman – the architect of the often criticized and much-maligned U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and WIPO Internet Treaties – effectively admitted that his approach had been wrong.

More on the fight for music through the link below.

Continue reading "Music online: U.S. copyright law author concedes failure" »

Posted by Saleem Khan at 04:08 PM | Comments (2)