Archive for November, 2007

Private Email Not Always Hush Hush

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, The Tyee version, Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) begins by recounting that this past September, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency launched "Operation Raw Deal", an initiative that targeted people purchasing raw steroid materials through the Internet from China and repackaging the steroids as drugs for domestic sale.  Tyler Strumbo, a 23-year old California resident, was among the 124 people arrested. The Strumbo case is of particular interest because of an important Canadian connection. The foundation of the DEA's case rested on hundreds of encrypted emails stored on the computer servers of Hush Communications, a company based in Vancouver.  A British Columbia court ordered the company to decrypt the emails and to send them to the U.S. law enforcement officials.  Faced with a valid court order, the company complied, shipping 12 CDs filled with unencrypted personal email to investigators in California.

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November 27, 2007 6 comments Columns

Canada’s Copyright law is Stronger and Better than U.S.’s

Howard Knopf has two must-read posts: a copy of his exceptional Hill Times op-ed enumerating why Canadian copyright law is stronger than that found in the U.S. and a nice rebuttal to the 12 copyright lobbyists – he labels them the dire dozen – who penned a response to my […]

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November 27, 2007 1 comment News

Universal Music CEO on Technology

Doug Morris: "There's no one in the record industry that's a technologist. That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his […]

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November 27, 2007 3 comments News

SOCAN Releases Tariff 22 Rates

SOCAN has published its requested Tariff 22 rates dating back to 1996.  There are several judicial review notices that have already been filed over the recent Copyright Board of Canada decision, so this tariff is still a long way from completion.

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November 27, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

TiVo To Enter the Canadian Market

One week after my column asking for a legal TiVo in Canada, I got half my wish as TiVo's will soon be sold by several Canadian retailers.  I suspect I'll have to wait much longer for a time shifting provision in Canadian copyright law.

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November 27, 2007 2 comments News