E-TIPS

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ("CRTC") has issued a call for comment on Internet retransmission of over-the-air television and radio signals by third parties inviting the public to address such issues as the potential impact of Internet retransmission on:

EBay is quickly becoming an important source for legal evidence by lawyers in major litigation proceedings, such as class action suits. The Internet based auction acts like a time capsule, offering history for sale. One can easily find historic corporate documents, manuals, and product catalogues on the site. In cases of illnesses that do not develop for years after initial exposure, such as asbestos exposure and lung cancer, historic documents may be the only way to prove how the exposure occurred and point out the responsible party.

On July 11, 2002, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the theft of trade secrets worth more than $50,000 could trigger a state statute requiring a minimum jail sentence as a condition of probation. The decision stemmed from the case of People v Farrell. Farrell had pleaded no contest to the theft of confidential information valued at over $2.5 million. A lower court had held that The Economic Crime Law of 1992 only applied to the theft of "monetary property".

This is an online dictionary for IT and Internet related terms and jargon. What sets it apart from other similar sites is that it is easy to use and it has an up-to-date and comprehensive database.

Regulation of Natural Health Products in Canada* (PDF Format) By Gordon S. Jepson * With permission from FDLI

A Danish court recently ordered an Internet news service to stop its practice of "deep linking" to other sites. A "deep link" is a direct link to a specific web page within a web site, thereby bypassing the main page of the web site. "Deep links" are very common throughout the Internet. For example, the results provided by search engines are often lists of "deep links". The case before the Danish court stemmed out of a complaint against Newsbooster.com by the Danish Newspaper Publishers' Association (DNPA).

The Department of Canadian Heritage announced on July 10th, 2002 that Amazon.ca did not break Canadian foreign investment rules by setting up shop in Canada. As previously reported in E-TIPS, the Department of Canadian Heritage had launched an investigation to determine whether Amazon.ca fell under the jurisdiction of the Investment Canada Act, which requires booksellers to be majority-owned by Canadians. In coming to its decis

In an attempt to force face-to-face communications in the workplace, Liverpool's city council has banned the use of internal emails by its staff – but only on Wednesdays. Before the ban, email accounted for 95% of internal communications between staff. The Liverpool council's chief executive implemented the one-day a week ban on email as an experiment to determine if email is really the most efficient way to communicate.

As reportedin the last issue of E-TIPS, the National Arbitration Forum ("NAF") recently ordered that the domain name Canadian.biz be transferred to Molson Canada, owners of the trademark "Canadian".

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently examined the validity of 3 patents relating to information access from a remote database in a patent infringement suit in the case of Netscape Communications v. Konrad. The patentee claimed that the information systems of several large corporate defendants fell within the patents.

On June 25, 2002, a panel at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) ordered that the domain name popularmachanics.com be transferred from "notorious typosquatter" John Zuccarini to Hearst Communications, Inc., owner of U.S. trademarks for Popular Mechanics and the domain name popularmechanics.com.

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.