Australian Technology and IP Business

Ten intriguing US Internet cases of 2005

Evan Brown lists his top 10 intriguing (not necessarily the most important) US internet cases of 2005. (Via Kevin Heller).

Grokster is missing but Brown did say his list did not necessarily include the most important cases.

My Australian archive can be found here.

When fast is too fast: typing errors that cost money

There is always a tension between speed and accuracy in business.

But in some areas accuracy is non-negotiable, pareticularly when the action is implemented instantaneously and may not be able to be reversed.

The Times Online has a story about clumsy typing which cost a Japanese bank at least £128 million and staff their Christmas bonuses, after a trader mistakenly sold 600,000 more shares than he should have.

The story links to previous stories of financial losses caused by trader errors.

The "best of" technology for 2005

At this time of the year, every publication runs a "best of" feature.

Jeff Beard has collected links to six "best of technology" articles and added in hints for online shopping.

If you're looking for product information, as a starting point for product reviews (after Google) try epinions.com.

Unfortunately not every US product makes it to Australia so for online shopping for products that have Australian pricing and should work with our telcos and electricity system try:

• Yahoo Australian shopping and price comparison
• Shopbot price comparison
• City Software (for business hardware and software)
• Games Warehouse (for games)
• Buy Quick (for most consumer electronics)
• Mr Gadget (for all sorts of tech gadgets)

UPDATE: Try Ausprices.com for price comparisons

Copyright Amendment (Film Directors’ Rights) Act 2005

TheCopyright Amendment (Film Directors' Rights) Act 2005 came into force by proclamation on 19 December 2005. The Act amends the Copyright Act 1968 to give, for the first time, film directors a copyright in the films they direct. The Act provides rights to directors to share, as copyright owners, in remuneration for the retransmission of films included in free-to-air broadcasts. A fact sheet on the Act is available from the Attorney-General’s Department’s website .

Is signing up for web services too complex?

When I recently discussed End User Licence Agreement (EULA) analysis services, I touched on one of the issues involved in obtaining most web services: the registration process.

Michael Parekh has now written a humorous but accurate article detailing the sometimes painful sign up process used by web service companies.

Tom Evslin asks why there can't be a standard EULA? " I’m sick of signing up for each service separately and really would like to be able to build  interesting combinations of services without asking people to register separately for each component service."

SEC issues identity theft guide for online investors

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a guide to help investors protect their online brokerage accounts from unlawful use by identity thieves.

According to the SEC, regulators believe that identity thieves have been targeting online brokerage accounts. The thieves use software programs to attack susceptible computers, recording key strokes and monitoring computer activity. This enables the thieves to obtain personal information such as usernames and passwords and can result in investors' money being transferred, without consent, to outside accounts.

The guide helps investors to protect themselves online. In particular, the guide urges investors to install firewalls, use security software and a security token and ignore emails requesting confidential information.

Australian Spam Act review announced

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, has called for public submissions as part of a review of the Spam Act 2003.

Feedback received will contribute to a report to be tabled in Parliament in 2006.

Industry and members of the public are invited to make submissions to the Spam Act 2003 review by Wednesday 1 February 2006.

An issues paper is available

End user licence agreements (EULA)

When you install new software on your computer (whether from a disc or downloading from the internet) how often do you actually read the end user licence agreement (EULA) before clicking "I accept"?

Rather than arguing about legalities later if a problem occurs (eg is there a binding agreement?), can you find out whether someone has already read the agreement for the software you are installing and identified any problems? Even if you had the time to read it you may not understand it.

EULAscan is a site where you may comment on End User License Agreements, or read comments left by others.

And if EULAscan can't help, run the agreement through Eulalyzer.

via Rob Hyndman and Dennis Kennedy.

Kazaa music sharing case update

News.com reports that :

Sharman Networks has cut off Australians' access to the Web site from which the file-swapping software Kazaa can be downloaded.

The shutdown, undertaken to comply with orders from Australia's Federal Court, took effect late Monday in Australia. While people with an Australian IP address who have already downloaded Kazaa can continue to use it, Sharman is warning them not to do so...

The Kazaa Web site is expected to remain off-limits to Australians at least until a decision is made in the appeal from Sharman and associated parties. The appeal is due to be heard in February.

UPDATE 8 December: The Australian reports that  the music industry says that Sharman is in breach of the court order to include keyword filters in its file sharing software.