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Tiffany has initiated a lawsuit against online auction giant eBay alleging that eBay “facilitates counterfeiting”. According to Tiffany, out of hundreds of purchases made in 2004 by its representatives of “Tiffany” products, less than 25% of the purchases turned out to involve genuine merchandise. eBay claims that it should not incur any liability because does not take title or possession of the goods but rather only operates an online marketplace.

Although I have not researched the issue lately, my recollection is that there were a number of cases involving flea market operators that found that such operators were liable for infringing sales made by their vendors in certain circumstances. So I doubt that Tiffany’s claims are without merit. If Tiffany is successful then other lawsuits could quickly follow from copyright or trademark owners.

I noticed that there were news items back from June 2004 also mentioning a possible lawsuit by Tiffany against eBay.

A group of leading security software vendors (McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, ICSA Labs, and Thompson Cyber Security Labs) have announced an industry initiative to establish standards for identifying spyware and testing methodologies. Testing against common evaluation criteria is expected by such vendors to help them combate competition from other vendors whose products they claim are not as effective at detecting and removing spyware.

There is currently some debate about what constitutes spyware as some vendors of “adware” and employee-monitoring software have raised objections about having their products classified as spyware and being removed by anti-spyware systems.

I recently came across information about an interesting hardware-based VPN firewall. Its made by a company called Phantom Technologies and is called the iPhantom. The device connects to the ethernet port of a computer or router (so that it can be used to protect multiple computers at a remote location or for use in a small office). It then sets up a highly encrypted VPN tunnel to Phantom Technologies data center so that all traffic is routed back and forth to that data center. This can be useful to help protect a remote computer being used at a public location (such as a hotel) or in a foreign country where the information may be susceptible to interception. Unfortunately, its not very useful for laptops being used at wi-fi hotspots. It can also help protect against viruses and adware because all data being accessed from the Internet is scanned at the Phantom Technologies data center.

Note that the data is still susceptible to interception by anyone monitoring traffic moving into or out of Phantom Technologies data center. Also, an ongoing subscription is required in order to use the device.

RedFerret had a link to this do-it-yourself RFID Zapper. It can be used to deactivate (a better word is probably “destory”) RFID tags found in commonly purchased consumer products. This is done by subjecting the RFID tag to a strong electromagnetic field in order to “fry” its internal electronic components. The plans on the site are based on building the zapper using a disposable camera case. My view is that privacy advocates who wish to deactivate RFID tags on items they’ve purchased should construct a device they can use at home. Not a disguised portable device that might be better suited to assisting shoplifters.

From EFF…

A district court in Nevada has ruled (pdf) that the Google cache is fair use.

AuraOne Systems has a neat new product, AuraGrid, that can be used to rebroadcast wi-fi signals using existing cable tv (but not satellite) cabling. The solution is supposed to work with both 802.11b and 802.11/g signals. It comes with a 4-way duplexer/splitter that connects to the cable line where it enters the home. The wi-fi signal can be injected from, and is then sent to, any of up to 3 antenna units that can be connected to any room with cable access. I suspect that any low cost one-way amplifiers that may be present in the house may need to be upgraded to two-way broadband type amplifiers (of the type used with digital cable signals) or that the use of any amplifier may interfere with the operation of such a system. Also, one hopes that the 4-way duplexer/splitter has a filter built in so that any wi-fi signals are not sent back down the line.

From what I can tell, many libraries in the US and even other Canadian cities have been implementing wireless Internet access for their patrons to use in the library. However, the Toronto area libraries (Toronto Public Library, Richmond Hill Public Library, Vaughan Public Library) seem to be moving slowly. From what I can tell, wireless Internet access is only available at a single VPL branch (The Pierre Berton branch in Woodbridge). I’m not sure why this is the case. Most branches offer public access computers that are connected to the Internet. Why not make it easier for students and other patrons that wish to use their own laptop while studying or doing research at the library.

While lacking a few interesting features of announced but yet unavailable wi-fi voip handsets (such as the video conferencing of the Philips VP5500, Skype-compatibility of the Accton VM1185T SkyFone or the built-in browser of the Linksys WIP 300), in my view the best voip wi-fi currently available is the Q-WiFi-Fone-XUV from Airvenue.com.

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