Welcome to Gahtan’s Technology and Internet Law Blog

The September 2006 issue of LawPRO Magazine contains a good collection of articles about Electronic Discovery.

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Players of Blizzard Entertainment’s multi-player online videogame World of Warcraft may be getting more than they bargained for. Spyware. A hidden program called “Warden” scans gamers’ computers. The purpose of the warden is to verify compliance with the EULA and TOS., and to prevent cheating. However, many users may find it very objectionable to have a third program spying on their other processes. Blizzard Entertainment does give notice of what it is doing but how many people really read online agreements top to bottom. Also, the scope of what Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to do is very broad.

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Yesterday, Research in Motion lost a motion to obtain a stay while it appeals its patent infringement case with NTP Inc. to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a consequence, a an injunction could be issued to prohibit US sales of its Blackberry devices.

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The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has released a case summary regarding a number of complaints it had received after CIBC notified its VISA cardholders that it utilizes a service provider located in the United States and that there is therefore the possibility that U.S. law enforcement or regulatory agencies might be able to obtain access to Canadian cardholders’ personal information under U.S. law.

While the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has gone on record stating that the privacy implications of anti-terrorism legislation and outsourcing need to be the focus of continued public debate, the Assistant Privacy Commissioner stated that the central issue of these complaints was whether the bank acted in accordance with its obligations under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the Act) - the finding of the Assistant Privacy Commissioner was that CIBC was in fact meeting its obligations under PIPEDA.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today released updated guidance on the risks and risk management controls necessary to authenticate the identity of customers accessing Internet-based financial services.

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A dispute between two large Internet backbone providers created a massive disruption on October 6th after Level 3 Communications Inc. stopped accepting Internet traffic from Cogent Communications Group Inc. The result was that many users were unable to reach large portions of the Internet. E-mail traffic, Instant Messaging and Web traffic were all shut down unless the servers were connected through redundant links that were directly or indirectly connected to each one of the two rival networks.

Like other large ISPs, Level 3 and Cogent exchanged traffic through a no-cost Peering Arrangement. However, Level 3 alleged that it was handling far more traffic from Cogent than it was sending to Cogent. Cogent countered that the real motivation was that Level 3 was trying to force Cogent to raise its rates, which are generally below market.

The two quickly made nice with each other and the problem is solved, at least temporarily. However, it highlighted the power that the large backbone ISPs have and will likely prompt the Europeans to add another grievance to their concern regarding concentration of control in the US of the Internet.

IBM Thinkpad Lenovo Z60t

Very cool laptop

thin (1.1″) and light (4.5 pounds)
Intel® Pentium® M processor or Celeron M Processors
black or titanium
14″ screen
optional built-in EVDO (provides download speeds of 500 kilobits per second or more)
fingerprint reader
one-button backup system to restore system files and settings
bluetooth and Wifi (depending on model)
SD, MMC and XD memory card slots
PC card slot
three USB 2.0 ports
Ethernet and modem port
Firewire IEEE 1394 port
S-videoport
batterly life - approximately 4 hours
CD-RW and DVD drive
Hard Drive Password support
Computrace Complete (by Absolute Software Inc) BIOS-based agent
Active Protection System helps protect the hard drive against damage if the PC is dropped