E-TIPS

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report regarding high speed cable modem service providers in the U.S. (ACLU Report).

According to a new survey by the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA), the percentage of Canadians who bank primarily through the Internet has doubled in the past two years. Amongst other things, the survey shows Canadians use a variety of banking services to meet their needs and that they find these services beneficial.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has issued a preliminary injunction against Gator Corporation to stop displaying pop-up advertising over Web publishers' pages without the latter'spermission. The order was issued in a lawsuit filed against Gator recently by a number of major U.S.

On June 21, 2002, amendments to the Competition Act came into force. The amendments include allowing private parties to apply directly to the Competition Tribunal to address matters regardingrefusal to deal, tied selling, exclusive dealing and market restrictions. In addition, the amendments include a new provision that deals with the sending of a deceptive notice of winning a prize (S. 53).

A survey performed by Personnel Today and Internet filter company Websense Inc. shows that almost one in four U.K. companies have fired employees for Internet misuse. Without an Internet use policy, companies may face unfair dismissal charges by a terminatedemployee or discrimination and constructive dismissal charges by offended co-workers.

Cisco Systems is installing Aironet wireless LANs into 19 airport lounges across Europe. This service is aimed at business travelers with laptops or PDAs containing wireless cards.

The recent entry of online retailer Amazon.com into the Canadian e-tailing scene through the start of the Amazon.ca website has caused some controversy. The Canadian Booksellers Association claims that the company is violating Canadian laws that restrict foreign ownership of booksellers.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has certified two independent service providers under its Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (CDRP) to address disputes arising of .ca domain names. The British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre (BCICAC) and Resolution Canada Inc., the service providers, will resolve disputes in accordance with the CDRP and the Rules.

Market research commissioned by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority reveals that 45% of Canadian businesses have a web presence, with 48% using dot-com extensions and 38% using dot-ca.

After an 11-month investigation, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared that search engine companies must clearly disclose to consumers the presence of paid placements displayed within search results. A number of search engine companies have been selling the top spots on search result lists. In many cases, it was not clear whether these paid placements were part of the actual results of the search. The FTC began its investigation after a complaint was received from the U.S.

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner released his findings on the complaint by an individual that a company was not using appropriate security safeguards to protect information collected from participants in online contests. The Commissioner found the company in breach of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

ICANN, the organization that oversees the Internet's domain name system, may soon have a very different face. During the ICANN annual meeting in Bucharest, the ICANN Chief Executive, Stuart Lynn, proposed limiting board members to representatives of business and government, which basically ends the appointment of members of technical and citizen groups. Adoption of this proposal would leave the ICANN board with no representation by Internet users.

Companies operating in the U.S. may soon find it difficult to operate without cyber security insurance.

The Ontario Government is considering drafting new legislation to address the issue of the applicability of the Ontario Retail Sales Tax to software and related services. At present, the government is going through a consultation process with industry organizations such as the Information Technology Association of Canada for Ontario. A copy of the draft legislation will be posted on the Website of the Ministry of Finance.

The California Court of Appeal recently issued a decision on the issue of what constitutes an "offer" in an online auction. The dispute centered around the domain name Golf.tv, which was being offered in an auction by the defendant, dotTV Corporation (TVC). TVC registers .tv domain names for a fee.

A recent decision of the National Arbitration Forum ("Forum") has concluded that only Molson Canada is entitled to use the domain "canadian.biz". Molson Canada is the registered owner of the trademark "Canadian" in Canada.

In a recent decision, the British Columbia Securities Commission has ruled that B.C. resident Jesse J. Hogan contravened that province's Securities Act by intentionally distributing false information on five NASDAQ companies using email, chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards.

The Supreme Court of Canada in the recent decision of Lavigne v. Canada (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages) confirmed that exceptions to the general duty of federal institutions to disclose personal information must be interpreted narrowly.

A number of major U.S. media companies, including the parent companies of The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have filed a lawsuit against Gator Corporation, a leading provider of adware, in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Adware is software that triggers pop-up ads when web surfers visit a particular website. The media companies claim that Gator is selling ads on their Websites without authorization and profiting from the media companies' investment in their own web sites.

On June 18th, the Canadian House of Commons passed legislation (Bill C-48) that would require Internet retransmitters to obtain a licence when retransmitting copyrighted material over the Internet.