A petition calling on Amazon to remove all DRM from the Kindle has swiftly obtained over a thousand signatures.
Archive for August, 2009
Bell Redirecting Failed DNS Lookups
For the past week, many people have written to me about Bell's new policy of redirecting failed DNS lookups to a company-sponsored click-ad page. Slashdot now covers the issue. Unhappy users can switch to OpenDNS to avoid the policy.
Openness and Crowdsourcing Combine To Change Government
The August long weekend goes by many names in Canada – Simcoe Day in Toronto, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, and British Columbia Day in B.C. – but the most common is simply Civic Day. On the week Canadians enjoyed Civic Day, my weekly technology column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes how our civic institutions are rapidly being transformed by open government mandates that leverage the power of the Internet to foster greater transparency and public engagement.
The City of Vancouver has led the way with the adoption of a resolution in May that endorsed open and accessible data, open standards, and open source software. The open data component states, "the City of Vancouver will freely share with citizens, businesses and other jurisdictions the greatest amount of data possible while respecting privacy and security concerns."
Openness and Crowdsourcing Changing Government
Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 3, 2009 as 'Crowdsourcing' Puts Many Extra Hands to Work The August long weekend goes by many names in Canada – Simcoe Day in Toronto, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, and British Columbia Day in B.C. – but the most common is simply […]
Parody and Copyright: In the Government’s Own Words
David Akin has unearthed a revealing memorandum from last spring that states the government's view on the protection of parody and satire under Canadian copyright law as well as highlighting one of the issues raised at the highest levels of the government before the introduction of Bill C-61. On the […]
Recent Posts
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act 
Tweets Are Not Enough: Why Combatting Relentless Antisemitism in Canada Requires Real Leadership and Action
