Legal Issues

Help stop whaling

You can sign an anti whaling petition, as well as play a fun anti whaling game at Whales Revenge. Very cool, please sign the petition at least, it will only take you 20 seconds.



New Microsoft Anti Piracy Measure

Users of counterfeit Windows will soon be getting a notification on their computer telling them so; Microsoft are rolling out an update to Windows that lets users of illegal copies know about it, and offers a simple way to buy a licence . I recently read a short piece by a local would be journalist [...]



Beware of the “Not” iPod

One of our clients was fooled into buying this ripoff of an Apple iPod. The real thing is much better quality, and I suspect getting repairs on these knock offs will be next to impossible.



Pearl Jam release “free” music video

In whats believed to be a world first, Pearl Jam have released their latest video under the create commons licence, which means anyone can copy and distribute the video without paying royalties, as long as its non commercial.



Why phishing works

Phishing is the act of fooling someone into giving out their passwords by pretending to be the website the password is for. Many of our clients know about the fake internet banking emails that ask you to log in. Harvard and Berkeley have released a paper detailing why these scams work. It seems the main [...]



Concerns over iPod volume

John Patterson of Louisana has launched legal action against Apple, claiming their iPod allows a volume high enough to cause permanent hearing loss. Apple have released an update to allow parents to lock the volume so their kids can’t do themselves an injury. Personally, I think my old favourite, personal responsibility, comes into play here. [...]



Anti Spam Law

A Government body many of us have never heard of, the ACMA, have put into effect an industry code of practice relating to SPAM. Apparently it requires ISP’s to offer anti spam solutions to their customers. Personally, I don’t see why we need more regulation and more legislation. Spam filtering costs money. If an ISP [...]



Labor plans to censor the internet.

In what can only be described as a communist style censorship plan, the ALP has announced that if elected it would force all internet service providers to block ‘prohibited’ content. I suspect the Labor party hasn’t bothered to do any research into this type of policy, because if it had, it would realise the following; [...]



Can’t write about a game?

Blizzard, makers of the acclaimed World of Warcraft (WoW) computer game, have apparently decided that its wrong even to write a book about their game. C-Net are reporting that Blizzard are suing Brian Kropp for writing a how to guide for playing WoW.