Sunday, September 04, 2011


This looks complicated. Might make a good case study.
More on the lawsuit against Netfirms.com
September 3, 2011 by Dissent
Yesterday I linked to a news story about a lawsuit against Canadian ISP Netfirms.com. The suit alleges that the firm broke U.S. laws by providing an American citizen’s user’s information to the Thai government.
Simon Roughneen had some additional coverage of the case on PBS, including a link to the complaint. Interestingly, it appears that Netfirms.com is a Delaware (U.S.) corporation although its principal place of business in Ontario, Canada.
Matthew Lasar of Ars Technica also had coverage of the lawsuit.
Reading the complaint, I think this lawsuit is huge in its potential implications, even though the amount being sought is not particularly huge by today’s standards ($75,000.00). If the allegations are proven, a U.S. citizen was detained and harmed by a repressive government because a U.S. business turned over identifying information without any warrant or opportunity for the user to fight the release of information.
Read the complaint and keep watching this case.


Perhaps they should have hired lawyers who actually graduated from law school?
"Back in 2006, e360Insight and David Linhardt obtained an $11.7M judgment against Spamhaus, an international anti-spam organization. The judgment was subsequently appealed and reduced to $27,002. That judgment was appealed yet again, and the appeals court has now vacated the earlier number and entered a judgment against Spamhaus in the amount of $3. (Yes, three dollars.) As you may recall, e360's oral arguments for the latest appeal were not well received by the court."
The ruling itself is a fairly entertaining diatribe about how e360 shot itself in the foot repeatedly and with enthusiasm throughout the case, and contains gems like this: "By failing to comply with its basic discovery obligations, a party can snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory."


Looks like the Copyright lobbyists have more influence than I thought.
"Copyright, U.S. lobbying, and the stunning backroom Canadian response gets front page news treatment today in Canada as the Toronto Star covers new revelations on copyright by Michael Geist (who offers a longer post with links to the cables) from the U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks. The cables reveal that former Industry Minister Maxime Bernier raised the possibility of leaking the copyright bill to U.S. officials before it was to be tabled in the House of Commons, former Industry Minister Tony Clement's director of policy Zoe Addington encouraged the U.S. to pressure Canada by elevating it on a piracy watch list, Privy Council Office official Ailish Johnson disclosed the content of ministerial mandate letters, and former RCMP national coordinator for intellectual property crime Andris Zarins advised the U.S. that the government was working on a separate intellectual property enforcement bill."


Might be a handy reminder...
USBAlert: Notifies You If You Leave Your USB Drive Behind [Windows]
USB Alert is a Windows only software that alerts you if you try to lock or shutdown your computer without removing your USB drive.
… The software works on Windows XP, Vista and 7, and even displays the capacity and usage of the device you have connected to your computer. It is a great tool to save you from losing your drive, data and sleep.

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