The “Deliverance” of C-61 Begins

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Here we go… [UPDATED: Links added]

It’s been a week since the Minister of Information Industry, Jim Prentice, dropped a piano Bill C-61 on us. Thanks to Prof. Michael Geist, we had some warning: This bill would not be a brave surge forward into the 21st century for Canada, embracing the Information Age and showing the world that we lead in promoting innovation and civil liberties, that we have the wisdom to strike balance where others are stricken with fear, and that we anticipate rather than kowtow.

This bill is instead sycophantic obsequiousness to groups that should be politically and legally notwithstood according to any definition of Canadian sovereignty or democracy.

Our public interest groups (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic – CIPPIC), private interest groups (Canadian Music Creators Coalition – CMCC), and even corporate lobbyists (the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright – BCBC) have spoken, but it was to the U.S. Ambassador, the RIAA, the MPAA, and the other foreign interests that elected Members of Parliament Jim Prentice and Josee Verner listened.

If not for the environmental catastrophe that would be precipitated by tons of polycarbonate in open water, I would advocate dumping boatloads of blank CD-Rs and flas memory cards in Boston Harbour. Why should our laws be dictated by a government not elected by us? I think I’ve heard that before.

Anyway, I’m going to spend the next while continuing to sink my teeth into the meat of C-61 and will try to get specific in critiquing its shortcomings.

I’ll give you a taste of some detailed analysis, however: Continue reading →

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Servamus – Fearing the Image of the Vancouver Police

Posted on June 9, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Servamus.

It is often said that in an armed law enforcement agency – be it military, paramilitary, or police – that exists within a democracy, the highest rank is civilian. That democratic hierarchy of rank is evident in the motto of the Vancouver Police Department:

Servamus.

We serve.Diving Bird - (c) 2008 Jeremy Costin

There is little genuine argument against the public benefits conveyed by the enforcement of traffic safety (excluding those arguments about police resource allocation and specific traffic laws, but those do not deal with the validity of traffice policing itself).

“The [Vancouver] police force has up to eight replica cops that initially will be deployed on Knight Street to try to reduce speeding and traffic fatalities,” wrote Neal Hall in Friday’s Vancouver Sun.

Servamus.

In the fictional book, “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism,” a creation within George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Big Brother rules through fear. The fear of the phantom is more powerful than any real Big Brother could be as a tool to elicit obedience.

Obedience and fear? Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Liberties, Humanities, Legal Explorations | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Where are you, Bobby Kennedy? The Mindless Menace Continues

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

I was listening to CBC Radio 2 tonight on my way home, and they played Senator Robert Kennedy’s speech, “On the Mindless Menace of Violence,” about the plague of violence that was making the United States sick, in his view. I heard RFK’s speech, and was moved.  The need to respond rose so acutely that I pulled over, and wrote this:

In one decade, visionary humanitarian John Kennedy became president, his brother Bobby Kennedy ran for president on a similar platform of the brotherhood of man, and Martin Luther King told the United States that colour and religion should not be criteria for segregation, but for diversity.

In that decade, all three men were shot dead, crucified in a sense, for their vision.

We in Canada have smugly watched from our cottony soft mantle north of the 49th parallel, our now native ironic detachment from our primary source of cultural product insulating us from a sense that we need to participate in the same social activism. It is true that we are not as violent, that racism and other forms of bigotry, while not necessarily less pervasive, are not manifested by the same bloodshed in Canada. But our complacency is a mistake.

Bobby Kennedy’s speech spoke volumes about our world, today, in Canada equally, four decades later. Guns and swagger are becoming the measure of the man, and not his ability to defuse and resolve conflict, his ability to pacify combatants.

Who will rise above the pettiness of party politics in November and lead the world once again, as the United States did under Roosevelt, Kennedy, and maybe even Clinton? Can Barack Obama’s posturing yield a Kennedy or a King? Can John McCain’s individualism and claimed oath of personal sacrifice place the noble pedestal (and not the tyrannical mace) of the Executive above the Legislature?

Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, Legal Explorations | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

RIAA and MPAA hijack the border (or someone like them)

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Cyberion, at Tazzu, posted a link to the Vancouver Province story on the threatened border checks (ACTA) on the legitimacy of electronic media. (Cyberion’s post)

I had some rather strong feelings, and ranted the following:

This is one of the nastiest and most frivolous pieces of legislation I’ve heard about in a long time. If it were used to gather evidence against commercial pirates or others who make their living off contraband, I could maybe (and I say that stretching my “maybe” like a yoga pose) see it as legit, but really it feels like another latex gloved finger of the RIAA/MPAA coalition. Where are the civil libertarians? ACLU, EFF, etc.? I know Prof. Geist is opposed, but is his the only loud voice? This could do to U.S. tourism what a strong $CDN has done to ours; it gives people a reason to stay home. What will be the criteria for detention? A predominance of unlicensed material, or just any possibility of an inadequate license (e.g. a shareware version of CuteFTP downloaded in the Win9x days before the trial license had an expiration built in)? Will people have to carry student cards and proof of enrolment to demonstrate the likelihood of academic use of academically licensed software? Are we to trust the border guards’ intimate knowledge of the arcane variations on licensing, the differences between fair use (U.S.A.) and fair dealing (Canada), and judgments such as BMG v John Doe? What about watching time-shifted video downloaded from a PVR to a video iPod, legal under Sony v Universal Studios?

And for all of the talk about enforcement of the DMCA, are we expecting the border guards, for whom I generally have had pretty good respect due to my many pleasant – even funny sometimes (yes, U.S. border guards crack jokes sometimes) – trips across the border, to go to law school boot camp to learn the intricacies of the DMCA exceptions (17 U.S.C. 1201(f), among others)?

I’m going to go take pictures of the Yukon and have some beers and pretend this isn’t happening.

This rant is bearing in mind that all of the music on the microSD card in my phone, with which I travel and to which I listen as an mp3 player, was put there legitimately – under the U.S. Copyright Act’s exception for interoperability (s.1201(f))and the First Sale Doctrine and the Canadian Copyright Act’s personal copying exemption (s.80) – as it was all ripped from CDs I own. So I’m not the guy they’re looking for. But how long would I have to wait at the border while explaining the legitimacy of my music to someone who has neither read the acts, nor studied them in academia and in practice, nor read the relevant cases?

Time to start carrying my records around with my record player, amp, speakers, and a small nuclear power station to give me the necessary AC current. I can get those through the border, right?

Posted in Civil Liberties, Information Technology, Intellectual Property | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Selling your Everything II: More on non-competition clauses, IP assignments/waivers, and employment contracts

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post on the subject of over-reaching employment contracts.

Click here for it.My Novel (c) 2008 Jeremy Robert Costin

Anyway, I promised that I would have the next part up within days and well, it’s been kind of crazy. Between work, articling applications, and being not so well, I haven’t had the time I’ve wanted to blog properly. Resuming now. Apologies offered all around, especially since I’ve been hearing that there are people out there actually reading this! [Comment, please! It doesn't have to be a complete essay, Derek, although I do expect a witty title from you... Also, Diggs are greatly appreciated.]

In the first post, I talked about someone whose employer demands assignment of previous or future competitive IP products of the employee to the employer. Broad time span, but limited applicability.

Let’s look at another scenario:

Employers often extend the IP/non-comp in breadth. In other words, they remove the related/similar/competitive qualifier. Consider this example:

The employee waives or the employer acquires rights to all intellectual property created or developed by the employee during working hours.

Continue reading →

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Keeping it all Going

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Nimda Sys

I have three posts on the go.  One is a follow-up to the Tazzu Word Camp.  I archived all of the speakers (except Jeff Kee – sorry Jeff, I was still setting up at the time) and will embed links here to watch the flash videos of their presentations.  In the meantime, keep up with it at the Tazzu Blog.

Incidentally, the Tazzu Word Camp was an overwhelming success.  The room was full beyond capacity, and some great presentations, questions, and answers were heard.  I am looking forward to watching it all again when I post it!

One line of questioning, however, made me think that we need a Law Camp for IT professionals.  There were Q&A about copyright, licensing, distribution, et cetera – basically the commercial and non-commercial use of media and matter published on the web.  Does publication on free sites – the making available of something copyrightable for free public consumption – equal release into the public domain?  The questions were not phrased like that.  And those of us with pronounced study or practice in copyright know that the two are not equivalent.  But the questions and uncertain answers led me to believe that those working in IT would benefit greatly from an evening of IT Law.  I have some people in mind whom I would invite to speak at such an event.  What issues would you like to see?  I am thinking of IP and Licensing, Privacy, Corporate and Proprietorship Liability, Third-party and Product Liability, and Contract.

Another post is that long-promised next post on employment contracts.  I haven’t found much on IP waiver/assignment clauses per se, but I have some great info on the enforceability of non-comps in Canada.  Coming soon…

Finally, I just have to flesh out and write my list of activities for my version of a massive technology show.

Incidentally, there is now a contact page on the weblawg.  Though I prefer comments when possible.  And Diggs too!

Posted in Notices from Nimda | 1 Comment

Tazzu WordPress Camp feed

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Password is tazzu-test. If it doesn’t work, go to www.justin.tv/jeremycostin
Watch live video from Tazzu WordPress Camp on Justin.tv

Posted in Business Law, Communications, Information Technology | 1 Comment

How to make the Massive Tech Show into a massive tech show

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

I’ve been critical of the Vancouver Massive Tech Show both here and on Tazzu. I’ve branded it as boring, uninspired, a waste of an afternoon, and anything but either massive or a show.

I’ve been challenged to propose something better, so here I go:

People don’t go to Massive to get names of web designers. They don’t take off their afternoons to compile lists of Internet service providers. And most don’t see Massive as a show of potential clients to whom they can hand their business cards.

People go to shows like this to see what’s new and exciting about the information technology industry. They go to see – and maybe even to try – information society’s potential. They go in the hopes of seeing some ghost of the “wow” of the dot-com-boom era; they go hoping to see that “Web 2.0″ and all the other buzzwords are more than buzzwords.

I’ve compiled a list of 12 concepts and issues that could deliver the wow. I’ve also started thinking fo activities that would engage the guests while presenting some of those concepts and issues – better than could be done by this year’s mechanical bull, Dance Dance Revolution, and Guitar Hero III.

1. Content Management Systems

Forget SEO. Think CMS. SEO is a publicity strategy. CMS is a paradigm. CMS is the idea of separating design and content for a website. It then incorporates the easy maintenance of the content and the modification of the design into the administrative tool. It is modular, scalable, and very flexible. Examples of CMS are Joomla! and Drupal.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business Law, Communications, Information Technology, Privacy, Video Games, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Of Mortar and Wine: A Passover Lesson in Law

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the emergence of the Jewish People as a free nation under Mosaic Law, is now upon us. The tradition of the Passover seder, the traditional feast and storytelling during the first two nights of the holiday, has much in common with scholarly law: discussion and debate, often over fine points of scripture and their interpretation. The Passover seder includes the telling, year after year, of the story of the Exodus. It also includes many short narratives of rabbinic discussions during the millennia since. While these short narratives themselves offer bits of wisdom, it could be surmised that their inclusion is in order to inspire similar discussion, and, one hopes, discovery.

matzah-and-law.jpgDiscovery comes in the form of novel applications of symbols from the rituals. Another way of looking at it is this: We have a static document – passed through both written and oral traditions – that is the set of rituals and stories. But we have a tradition that is a living document. The tradition is our mutual connection within the global Jewish community, and our shared connection to our history.

It is no secret that many Jews are attracted to the practice of law. It is also no stunning revelation that it is the similarity between our rabbinic tradition of debate and the interpretation and application of law in our modern world that attracts us.

The seders this year had some debate over interpretation, application, etc. These discussions, while not actively joined by everyone, were at least open to everyone. What I want to share was not, as it occurred to me during the preparation.

Continue reading →

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Microsoft’s Ironic Poker Game: But are they bluffing this time?

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Jeremy Costin

Back in February, Network World ran a story that Linus Torvalds, inventor of the Linux operating system and guru of the Linux kernel, believes that Microsoft is bluffing in its threat to sue for patent infringement. NW quotes Torvals as saying, “They have been sued for patents by other people, but I don’t think they’ve — not that I’ve gone through any huge amount of law cases — but I don’t think they’ve generally used patents as a weapon.”MS and Linux play poker. (c) 2008 Jeremy Costin

Linus hasn’t investigated the link between Microsoft and Patent in court. We all know that Microsoft gets sued for various forms of infringement or questionable business practices about as often as a would-be-model/ survivor/ singer/ dancer/ geek/ bachelor/ b-list-celebrity gets kicked off the island. But do they ever sue? They certainly have a nasty reputation – one perhaps even worse than those of Sony, the RIAA, and SOCAN. But is it deserved?

Although Linus has, generally, far more wealth, celebrity, and tech-savviness than I do, I have access to Lexis and Quicklaw (with international content). It’s one of the perks of being a trainer for LexisNexis Canada. So I spent an evening on Quicklaw and on Lexis, looking for cases dealing with patent infringement where Microsoft was the plaintiff.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business Law, Information Technology, Intellectual Property | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment