Pirating Our Property Ontario ombudsman charges the city of Oshawa Ontario with Piracy!
[Nutshell: City of Oshawa, Ontario, caught with its pants down conducting secret private meetings with companies (not legal) that they call a "closed education and training session. Ontario Ombudsman files pre-liminary report. city ignores it plays games. Ombudsman charges that the city "pirated" their Preliminary Report for not returning it (among other things). Then the ombudsman releases a final public report reveling some of the happenings. See: http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/en/media/press-releases/2009/ontario-ombudsman-censures-oshawa-for-pirating-report.aspx and http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/media/45846/oshawa2-finalen-2.pdf Then it goes on to note; if the city of Oshawa wants some paid-off l3rd-party "toothless watch dog" (paraphrased) it should do so and create one via their bylaws because the Ontario Ombudsman won't back down. Lots more in that Gov report. I wonder if the city will lose their internet for piracy? ]

Jail can`t silence Chinese activist The Star
Looking thinner but still resilient after 3 1/2 weeks in jail, China`s leading public interest lawyer reopened his office here yesterday, keen to resume his role as an advocate for the poor and vulnerable in Chinese society Last month, Chinese authorities shut down his office and arrested Xu, charging him with tax evasion. Supporters say the charges were trumped up and aimed solely at closing down an operation that provides inexpensive legal services to thousands of citizens who otherwise couldn`t afford them. In recent months, for example, more than 50 human rights lawyers who have dared to take on cases the government considers politically sensitive, have either had their licences suspended or revoked.

[Kids and Kartels] Teens inhabit `digital marketing ecosystem,` research suggests Montreal Gazette
Today`s teens inhabit a digital marketing ecosystem where their identities and interactions are virtually inseparable from the logos stamped all over them, new research suggests The brain doesn`t reach full maturity until the early 20s and one of the puzzle pieces missing in adolescence is impulse control — a fact that will come as no surprise to any parent of a teen, she says. That`s another characteristic that makes teens a digital marketer`s dream, Montgomery says, and they exploit it to maximum effect with such promotions as a video game that pops open a website for real-life pizza delivery whenever a player types `pizza` within the game.

Montreal sells itself as advertising `lab` Canoe
Montreal`s advertising industry is poised to launch an international effort that could shape how consumers are courted. A consortium of advertisers will set out to encourage U.S. companies to use the city as a multilingual, multiethnic petri dish for firms seeking a cheap way to test their international campaigns. Advertising agencies are grappling with revolutions in technology and new platforms such as social media, which have prompted drastic changes in the business. Consumers are in control so, basically, we need to learn how to talk to those consumers in the way they want now, Faure said. [Comment: Consumers are in control? This seems to contradict the article above.]

Target Employee Free Choice Act anti-union memos Aug 2009 WikiLeaks
Summary – This file contains two internal Target Corporation memos sent to all levels of management at Target stores. The memos relate to the Employee Free Choice Act currently before Congress. They show that Target is showing anti-union DVDs to all stores employees attempting to persuade them not to form unions or participate in the Employee Free Choice Act`s card check process to form a union. This file is important for two reasons. The first being that many Americans are under the impression Target Corporation is a union friendly company when these memos demonstrate it is not. The second reason being these memos prove that Target is partcipating in anti-union training activity at its stores . Our source wishes to show the public that one of the largest retailers in the United States (one that many Americans feel is union-friendly) is in fact taking direct action to prevent its employees from forming unions, and is working against the method employees would have to form unions if the Employee Free Choice Act passes Congress. For more on the Free Choice Act, see anti-union call between Bank of America, Bernie Marcus, et al. and Rick Berman, 17 Oct 2008.

FairPoint accused of faking tests Biz Journals
FairPoint Communications Inc.`s New England struggles have taken a new turn as regulators investigate anonymous accusations that FairPoint faked tests that demonstrated it could effectively operate local phones there. The accusations come as regulators are already questioning FairPoint`s handling of the three-state phone system it bought last year from Verizon Communications Inc. for $2.4 billion. Vermont regulators have given FairPoint until Aug. 31 to respond to the allegations contained in an anonymous e-mail But the various consumer advocates intend to concentrate on seeing that the commissions hire a consultant to help them get to the bottom of the problems with FairPoint`s service.

Use Twitter Anonymously. This Will Not End Well. TechCrunch
… a new service (which is really two new services) wants to make anonymous tweeting easy: Tweet From Above and Tweet From Below. As their names imply, one of these services is meant to be used for good, while the other is meant for evil.

[FaceBook] Exam Cheating Case TechCrunch
Two Belgian college students have been flunked for cheating on their written exams, getting zero points for two courses because they had reportedly been caught exchanging responses during the tests. Notably, the determining evidence used in the case came straight from Facebook conversations held by the two students and some of their friends.

Rogers relents on suspending phones after hack attack Montreal Gazette
Rogers backed away Tuesday from its threat to suspend the telephone services of dozens of businesses as part of a billing dispute over fraudulent long-distance charges . The dispute dates back to January, when fraudsters were able to burn through more than $80,000 in charges over a weekend after hacking into the phone system at an Ottawa travel agency.

Unconstitutional aspects of ACTA
The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement exceeds the European Union competence. National Constitutional Courts may invalidate aspects of ACTA. The recent German Federal Constitutional Court ruling on the Treaty of Lisbon suggests the German Court may deem parts of ACTA unconstitutional.

Ferne Downey: Performers seek made-in-Canada consensus solution to copyright Straight
We`re a union of professional performers. Studios and producers are our employers—employers we took a strike against in 2007 in order to get fair compensation for our work in digital media . The fact is audio-visual artists—including actors like myself—have next to no rights in Canadian copyright law.

Another Good Section 230 Ruling: Forum Owner Not Liable For Posts TechDirt
It`s good to see judges getting things right — and more often than not, they`re being both quick and smart when it comes to misguided lawsuits from plaintiffs against sites that host content, but don`t publish it. The latest involves the owners of a bodybuilding forum website, bodybuilding.com, who were sued by a nutritional supplement maker, claiming that competitors had posted negative reviews on the site. But the judge tossed out the lawsuit against the forum operator using section 230 .

Taxi Owner Copies Innovative Business Model Of Free Shuttles He Just Forced To Shut Down TechDirt
One of the guys who pushed the city council the hardest [to get rid of free taxi's] has now suddenly set up his own free shuttle offering in place of the competition that was run out of town. He makes no qualms about the fact that he`s copying the idea of the shuttles he just knocked out of business, saying they had a good idea — he just didn`t like the fact that they didn`t have to buy a taxi license.

Obama’s FCC to enforce ‘net neutrality’ The Hill
The Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web traffic and slow downloads. Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman, told The Hill that his agency will support ‘net neutrality’ and go after anyone who violates its tenets. ‘One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles,’ Genachowski said when asked what he could do in his position to keep the Internet fair, free and open to all Americans. The statement by Genachowski comes as the commission remains locked in litigation with Comcast. The cable provider is appealing a court decision by challenging the FCC’s authority to penalize the company for limiting Web traffic to its consumers. [Comment: In Canada, the CRTC rewards those who violate "net neutrailty"]

No escape from identity scheme for Medicare Australian IT
Australians may not be able to opt out of the planned national healthcare identity scheme despite assurances that those who do will still have access to treatment under Medicare. Federal Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis says “it is not clear how an individual will be able to exercise that option” under proposals on the national health ministers’ agenda. “We understand that any (authorised) healthcare provider or organisation will be able to obtain an individual’s identifier from the (Medicare-operated) service without the consent of the person concerned,” she said. “Potentially this could occur after treatment, when the person is no longer present.” Ms Curtis has questioned plans for a legal quick-fix that would allow the start of the Medicare-based identifier regime next year, saying the proposed service “is of sufficient scale and sensitivity to warrant specific new legislation to ensure consistency of protections and penalties nationwide”. The health ministers want to remove legal obstacles that prevent the use of Medicare data for non-billing purposes, such as their $98million Unique Healthcare Identifier program that will underpin a shift to electronic health record systems.

Microsoft Poland Photoshops Black Guy To White One SlashDot
If you look at Microsoft`s Poland business solutions Web site, you will probably not notice anything odd about the main picture. However, when you compare it with the original English version, you can see that someone decided that showing black people in Poland is probably not going to be convincing to business. They just Photoshopped the head of a white guy in for the black one, in an amateurish way, leaving his hand unchanged.

Germany`s version of LastFM files for insolvency TechCrunch
German free music streaming service Roccatune has officially filed for insolvency.

Free Software Foundation knocks Windows 7 The Inquirer
Open sourcerers at the Free Software Foundation are staging a demo in Boston in a bid to encourage businesses to throw away Microsoft Windows in favour of free alternatives The foundation is sending letters to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, warning that Windows is a threat to business privacy, security and freedom.

Music and film industries to decide who gets broadband The Inquirer
What is particularly scary about this is that the big media conglomerates will rely on IP addresses to catch filesharers, so those who share an Internet connection will be punished along with those who are victims of IP spoofing. To make matters worse, the ISPs will have to pay half the cost to find out which of their customers are alleged `pirates`. [Comment: ah ISP cops. The cartels asked for this a few years ago. They got it now]

Apple in hot water over `exploding iPhones` News AU
Half a dozen new cases of exploding iPhones have emerged in France, as Apple faces an official inquiry and calls to come clean over possible risks linked to its wildly popular smartphone . Apple is accused of trying to hush up 15 cases of iPod music players heating up and bursting into flames in the United States, and one similar British case, all apparently due to overheated lithium ion batteries.

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Marc – p2pnet

August, 2009

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