IMPACT®

Beware geeks bearing gifts

The Times reports that technology is available which lets mobile phone operators monitor our calls and texts, and pass the information gleaned to advertisers.

This is apparently being trailed as a benefit to those being monitored.  The idea seems to be that your service provider can, say, lift from your shoulders the burden of looking for food when you're hungry.  If you are rash enough to let slip something like "meetng wnt Ok, but ovrran - starvng",  your service provider can have some interested third party beam you an ad suggesting you "eat at Joe's - just 100 yards NNE from your present location". 

We are to take comfort from the likelihood that any such facility will be an "opt-in".

Having described this eavesdropping and tele-spamming facility in terms of a service, a spokesman for Motorola offers a masterpiece of understatement - worth a read. 

The Information Commissioner is said to have "concerns". No - really ?

Second Life Patent & Trade Mark Office opens

The Virtually Blind blog reports that the Second Life Patent & Trade mark Office (SLPTO) has opened within the virtual world.

SLPTO states on its website that its goal is "to provide the tools to allow you to protect your intellectual property, without expensive attorney's fees or long, drawn out processes". No relation to real-world IP offices, then. Also unlike real-world IP offices, SLPTO is not a government-appointed office and so has no 'official role' as far as the outside world is concerned. Whether or not it succeeds in establishing itself therefore comes down to the popularity of what it offers to Second Life residents.

Virtually Blind reports that the SLPTO "plans to eventually offer a full suite of intellectual property protection tools, including individual item registration, automated DMCA notices and copyright applications, limited edition numbering, and private, time-stamped storage of evidence of creation."

It is not known whether any public figures or celebrities (real or otherwise, whether A-list or X-list) were there for the grand opening.

Nottingham City Council gets lessons in record management from the ICO

Nottingham City Council has received a records management Practice Recommendation (PR)} from the Information Commissioner's Office. The PR follows a review of the Council's record management practices by National Archives, which found that the Council did not comply with any of the key provisions of the Code of Practice on the Management of Records. The Code is one of two codes issued by the ICO under powers given to it by sections 45 and 46 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Of the three PRs issued by the ICO so far, Nottingham City Council is the target of two. The other City Council to receive a PR is Liverpool.

Shake up of DPA and FOI announced.

The Prime Minister has today announced a shake up of the Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation in a review of the UK's secrecy and data protection laws. Proposals put forward by the Prime Minister will potentially see FOI extended to private firms. The 30 year rule on releasing government secrets is also to be reviewed.

The Justice Secretary Jack Straw had earlier indicated that the review to be undertaken by the Information Commissioner on "the way we share and protect personal information" will be wide ranging.

The Prime Minister's announcements came within a speech about liberty in modern Britain. As British citizens we are subject to a greater degree of surveillance than any other nation on earth. There is now a vast amount of information available about individuals and such information is sometimes misused. A review of what information can be legally collected, how it is processed and who has access to that information is long overdue. Watch this space for further developments.

There be cut-price land in these virtual hills: the latest legal action to threaten Linden Labs

A Second Life resident who inadvertently sold acres of virtual land to a "landbot", is threatening to sue Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life for failing to do anything about it. According to the Reuters Second Life news blog, Jeannie Shields, the resident in question, is planning on suing Linden Labs. She is aided by Marc Bragg, the lawyer who recently settled his own dispute with Linden Labs over any land-purchase issue.

On the information known so far, it's difficult to identify the legal basis of any legal action. We'll keep an eye on developments.

Online office applications & the clash with corporate IT

Steve Rubel over at the MicroPersuasion blog has written an excellent piece that neatly summarises some of the main issues with businesses making use of the new wave of online office applications. Whilst these issues may stop businesses from using the online office suites currently available for sensitive work, not all activity within businesses (even law firms) is sensitive. In particular, collaborations between professionals, particularly on things like generic articles, are particularly well suited to being done using online office applications.

The mobile web: another reason for accessible websites

The number of internet-ready mobile phones being offered by the mobile networks on their basic contract packages is steadily increasing, and there are more and more affordable internet packages available for mobile phones. This increase will presumably lead to increasing popularity of the mobile internet. From personal experience, a number of non-geeky friends already use the mobile internet to read the news, check the sports results (best not to mention the rugby!), even their emails. PocketPicks reported in July that there were 18 million mobile internet users in Europe alone.

Of course, anyone who has used the internet on a mobile will tell you that it's by no means perfect. In the Guardian today, Victor Keegan discusses some of the issues in a review of the Opera mobile browser. Reading the article lead me to question, firstly, does a "mobile internet" really exist and, if it does, should it?

Whilst there are an increasing number of websites being designed for use on mobile phones, they are a small proportion of the websites out there. If there is a "mobile internet", it's a very select club and any advanced (or even just curious) internet user is likely to find themselves rapidly finding themselves surfing "normal" websites on their mobile.

On to the second question, should there be a "mobile internet"? My personal view is that there should not; for website owners, having to maintain two versions of their websites is quite an undertaking, and for users, being shoved on to a more basic version of a website simply because of the device they are using isn't great either. Instead, mobile web browsers need to up their game and allow more easy viewing of "normal" sites (as the mobile Opera browsers claims to do). It takes two to tango of course, and to capture the maximum number of users/customers, website owners need to design their websites to be usable on a range of devices.

This brings us, in a slightly stream-of-consciousness manner, on to the subject of website accessibility. Ratger than create mobile specific versions of their websites, my view is that website owners should be putting their efforts into making their website accessible to all. In doing this, they will open their doors not only to the mobile phone audience; they will also go a long way to making themselves generally accessible. This alone should offer a good commercial incentive for websites improving their accessibility.

If the bottom line isn't enough, there is of course the issue that website accessibility is a matter of law in many countries (see our guide to UK web accessibility law). And if web accessibility being the law isn't enough, US class actions such as that which appears to be on the horizon following the Target ruling should send the message home that web accessibility is important. Forget the mobile web, let's create the accessible web.

NODUS meeting - 22 November 2007

Details have been announced for the latest meeting of IP professionals in the East Midlands. From the NODUS blog:

The next NODUS meeting will be on Thursday 22 November 2007 at 4pm. It will be held at the offices of Eric Potter Clarkson LLP, Park View House, 58 The Ropewalk, Nottingham NG 1 5DD.

At the meeting, Helen Johnstone will give a presentation on the processes and costs involved in obtaining patent protection, and the factors that can usefully be taken into account in deciding where and when to apply for patents. Although most patents are filed by patent attorneys, IP lawyers take a lot of initial queries about patents. Understanding the patent processes, the costs involved, and the key issues means that the IP lawyer is better able to advise his/her clients in these matters.

If you are an IP & IT professional based in the East Midlands and would like to attend, please confirm attendance by emailing Marion Daw or Nicola Bamford in the Business Development Department at Eric Potter Clarkson LLP (mdaw@eric-potter.com)

Please confirm your attendance by Thursday 15 November 2007

Any queries to:-

Marion Daw or Nicola Bamford
Eric Potter Clarkson LLP
Park View House
58 The Ropewalk
Nottingham NG1 5DD
Tel: 0115 955 2211

Cyber crime - real problem is too much "honour among thieves"

A piece on the Information Week site reports on how we might best undermine cyber crime.

A group of US academics have been studying the "underground market" in illicit data and cyber crime expertise, and they have reached some fascinating conclusions on how best to attack it.

Paradoxically, the market (which deals in stolen data, the latest malware, spamming capacity and expertise - in fact all things dark in cyber space) relies on trust and integrity - vendors and buyers do not meet, and have to rely on each other to deliver the goods or to pay for them.  The business only thrives because deals are actually honoured, to the mutual advantage of those involved.

The study highlights this as a possible achilles heel, and suggests the good guys get into this market - offering goods and services, and placing orders - but that they should then fail to deliver, or pay as the case may be.   The result would it is hoped be an erosion of trust and confidence among rogue traders and their clientele.

Nice thought - but before stiffing the Russian mafia, it might be wise to ensure :

(1)  that your own net / identity security is up to the mark; and

(2)  someone in law enforcement knows what you're up to - in case anyone monitoring the marketplace mistakes you for one of the bad guys.

TV-Links: the weakest link in IP infringement cases?

The Open Rights Group blog reports that the man behind TV-Links a website providing links to unlawful copies of TV shows has been arrested for "the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet" and unlawful use of trade marks (section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994).

On the facts that we know so far, it is difficult to see how the providing of links to infringing copies of TV shows gives rise to a civil or criminal liability under UK law. This is a view supported both by the Open Rights Group blog and Out-law.com. The latter suggests that providing such links might constitute an offence under other parts of copyright law (distributing infringing copies or communicating copies to the public in the course of business), but it is again difficult to see how the facts meet these offences.

As we saw in my guide to the law on hyperlinking, in some countries links to unlawful materials have themselves been ruled to be unlawful. However, such rulings are based upon specific laws in those countries. This doesn't appear to be the case with TV-Links.