Welcome to Gahtan’s Technology and Internet Law Blog

Recently, a client who came to Canada from the US in order to assist in the negotiation of an outsourcing contract had his laptop examined by Canada customs agents while clearing customs at the border. While nothing incriminating was found and he was quickly on his way, the incident highlights the increased risk of international travelers having their laptops searched or detained by Canadian and/or US border agents.

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With the support of the Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a new grass-roots organization, Online Rights Canada, was launched last Friday in order to give Canadians a new voice in critical technology and information policy issues.

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Engadget is reporting that IO Data Device Corporation announced that certain models in their “HDP-U” line of portable hard drives were shipped with the “W32/Tompai-A” trojan. Engadget took issue with how IO Data Device handled the problem - they didn’t release the serial numbers of infected drives until some 14 hours after the announcement of the infection.

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The Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School has launched an effort to build a collaboratively-created, public-access law dictionary and encyclopedia - WEX. WEX will be the successor to, and will incorporate much of the material originally developed for, the LII’s “Law about…” pages.

The Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) has issued an update of its blogging legal guide.

Included are links to FAQs on legal liability issues including an overview of liability issues, intellectual property, defamation, privacy and related issues. There are also a number of subject specific FAQs on issues such as student blogging, blogging in the workplace and the publishing of adult-oriented materials.