NDP Bashes Banks to Win Easy Votes

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few days about the ATM fees charged by Canada’s major banks; and as the federal parliament reconvenes, NDP leader Jack Layton is jumping on this issue as a new way to misinform the public and boost his party’s lethargic position in the polls.

Although this cause is a pretty safe bet for winning public support, it reeks of unwanted government intervention in the economy, not to mention the fact that it lacks all logical purpose.

If you ban ATM service fees, the banks will either be forced to stop providing after-hours automated service, or levy another fee (or two) somewhere else. And much as we like to bitch and bicker about ATM service charges, at least they can be avoided, which might not be the case for whatever would take their place.

Personally, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve paid an ATM user fee, since I always plan ahead and make use of my own bank’s facilities. I also choose to keep the minimum balance on hand so as to avoid monthly account charges. In fact, aside from the cost of printing cheques, I can’t remember the last time CIBC got a dime of my money.

If you want the convenience of visiting any bank machine in town, that’s fine. Just remember that the banks can and will ask you to pay for it, and there’s no reason why politicians should be expecting anything else.

Canadian Economy is Over-Equalized, Says Report

Canada’s much-hyped culture of regional and institutional equality is a flawed concept, and is seriously undermining our country’s competitive clout in the global marketplace., according to a recent Conference Board report on the Canadian economy.

“We’ve called (it) the peanut butter approach,” explained Glen Hodgson, economist and co-author of the report’s 144-page first installment. “You kind of spread it smoothly across the land, even though you could get greater benefits if you found a way to concentrate in particular areas.”

As a country, Canada needs to invest its resources more efficiently, the report argues, especially in relation to the education and training of highly skilled workers.

The report also discusses regional distribution of resources, criticizing the current system of equalization payments and funding for cities, which it says penalizes growth.

Equality “might be part of the culture, but look at the practice,” Hodgson said.

“Here, as elsewhere, Canada will have to abandon a cherished myth of equal treatment for all its institutions,” social scientist Janice Gross Stein reminds us in the forward to the Conference Board report.

What these people seem to be saying is that, although the principle of “equality” looks good in theory, there are some situations where it simply doesn’t work, and shouldn’t get in the way of practicality, efficiency, and fairness. This type of objective reasoning can be applied economically on a great number of levels, and shouldn’t be dismissed too easily in any genuine capitalist society.

Apple Attacks Bloggers over iPhone Copyright Issue

Apple Inc. is launching an all-out legal battle against the distribution of several “skins” designed to mimic the look and feel of its recently unveiled iPhone device on competing smartphones.

Developed by savvy coders, the skins don’t add any actual iPhone or iTunes features to existing devices, but simply incorporate icons from the iPhone device into a Windows Mobile or Palm OS-based mobile operating system. This has angered the computer giant immensely, causing it to lash out at everyone involved, however indirectly.

The company has reportedly been sending intimidating letters to bloggers and online journalists for simply reporting the existence of the iPhone skins and posting pictures of them on the web.

“It has come to our attention that you have posted a screenshot of Apple’s new iPhone and links that facilitate the installation of that screenshot on a Pocket PC device,” wrote law firm, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, to one webmaster on Apple’s behalf. “While we appreciate your interest in the iPhone, the icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple.”

“Apple therefore demands that you remove this screenshot from your website and refrain from facilitating the further dissemination of Apple’s copyrighted material by removing the link to http://forum.xda-developers.com, where the icons and screenshot are being distributed,” the letter went on to say.

Although it’s not hard to see why Apple is upset with those who are creating and distributing this material, they should try not to make “demands” that are impossible to back up or act on. (They do have a history of this sort of thing after all.)

In terms of legal and practical reality, Apple has absolutely no control over who links to who on the web, or how people distribute graphics that they themselves released to the public less than a week ago. If the company wants to go after those who deliberately misuse its intellectual property, that’s all well and good, but there’s no excuse to attack freedom of the press in doing so.

Originally published at TeleClick.ca.

Wikipedia Founder Plans to Debut User-Edited Search Engine

Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, has announced plans to launch his own user-edited search engine, under the name Wikisari.

In a recent interview with The Times of London, Wales said that the search service would use the same user-based technology as Wikipedia, and could ultimately rival established players like Google and Yahoo. The project is being funded by Amazon.com and a group of Silicon Valley financiers.

Since its launch in 2003, the free online reference encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has grown into one of the most popular websites on the internet. It utilizes a network of thousands of volunteer contributors around the world, who use a free open-source editing interface to expand and organize the now-massive database of information.

Wales hopes to utilize the same concept in creating his search engine, working under the theory that human editors will do a better job of determining relevancy than the mathematical algorithms employed by Google and Yahoo.

A major problem with this approach, of course, is that it will be difficult to stop spammers from “volunteering” their editing services and boosting their own sites to the top Wikisari’s SERPs.

If the service ever becomes anywhere near as popular as Google, it will end up playing host to a continuous editing battle, pitting self-righteous open source aficionados against a sleazy and relentless army of internet spammers.

Although the fluid and ever-changing nature of such a service would make it a formidable competitor in the online search market, I find it difficult to believe that Wikia Inc. will be able to recruit enough manpower to keep the whole thing going in a solely user-edited format.

A better approach, in my opinion, would be to base SERPs upon a traditional algorithm, but incorporate a system of voting (much as Digg.com does), allowing users to express opinions on any given site without giving any one person the power to “edit” search results. That way, spammy results would be buried by a democratic process, with corruption and pointless editing wars kept to a minimum.

New Laptop

Just a quick note to say that after much delay, I’ve finally purchased a new laptop computer (my old Pentium II was getting pretty creaky to say the least).

This one’s an Acer 5050-5554, with a dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB), which I got for C$799 at Future Shop. Stores like that become a real zoo on Boxing Day, but I’ve seen comparable notebooks selling for around $1000 when they’re not on sale, so I guess the lineups were worth it.

Having a new computer should make for a much less frustrating work experience, not to mention a nice tax write-off for my small business.

Research In Motion Gets Trademark-Paranoid

The future of Samsung’s BlackJack smartphone may be in jeopardy due to a new lawsuit from Research In Motion, claiming that the “BlackJack” brand name is too close to that of its own popular BlackBerry device.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the suit alleges that the new phone’s name “constitutes false designation of origin, unfair competition and trademark dilution.” RIM is using this to seek an injunction against the sale of BlackJack devices in the United States.

It is true that the RIM and Samsung devices are targeting nearly identical markets, with both the BlackJack and BlackBerry Pearl featuring wireless email capability and built-in QWERTY keyboards. Both are offered exclusively by Cingular Wireless in the United States.

Despite the striking similarities, however, it’s very difficult to see how any one company’s trademark can extend to cover the word “black.” Both of the devices are primarily black in color after all, and I can honestly say that I didn’t draw any connections to the BlackBerry brand name upon hearing about the BlackJack’s release.

All things considered, I can’t see how RIM really expects to win this lawsuit. It seems more like an attempt to establish their brand superiority complex, and assert a “we were here first” kind of message than to pose a serious legal threat to Samsung.

Don’t get me wrong; BlackBerry is perhaps one of the most iconic brands in the world, and represents a great family of products, but there comes a time to draw the line between brand protection and immature paranoia.

Originally published at TeleClick.ca.

Internet Advertising Revenues Set to Surpass Those of Radio

Revenues from the internet advertising industry will likely reach $16 billion this year, according to projections by eMarketer, and is set for more growth in the years to come.

As a whole, web advertising currently accounts of about 6% of all media spending, and is expected to reach 8% sometime in 2008, overtaking radio promotion.

“It’s one thing for Internet ad spending to surpass relatively minor media such as outdoor or Yellow Pages, but it’s quite another thing to blow past radio, one of the big four traditional media,” commented eMarketer analyst David Hallerman on the current trend.

Web-based advertising has continued growing despite a number of tough challenges, including clickfraud, and seems destined to become the next great nexus of media spending.

Bloggers Can’t be Sued for Quoting Others, California Court Rules

Bloggers in California have gained protection from misdirected libel lawsuits, after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that a newsgroup owner could not be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.

This confirms a federal law granting internet service and content providers immunity from libel suits, and is a victory for online publishers and free speech advocates.

“People who contend they were defamed on the Internet can seek recovery only from the original source of the statement, not from those who re-post it,” the court stated, noting that “subjecting internet service providers and users to defamation liability would tend to chill online speech.”

The unanimous ruling is a victory for online publishers and internet free speech advocates, and further entrenches the principle of “don’t shoot the messenger” into U.S. common law.

Upgraded to Firefox 2.0 and Windows Live Mail

Just a quick note to say that I’ve finally gotten around to downloading the latest version of Firefox. (Quite disgusting that it took me over two weeks, but I’ve been sort of busy lately. )

Anyway, aside from the fact that it disabled a couple of my of my older plugins, the browser itself seems to work great. It also lets me use the full version of “Windows Live Mail” which is actually a surprising improvement over Hotmail.

Although its not exactly original, (it really takes after GMail and copies a few Yahoo features for good measure), and lacks a few of the features I like in GMail, Windows Live Mail is a lot more slick and versatile than its predecessors.

All in all, it’s been a successful hour of upgrading.

Now excuse me while I go and look for new Firefox plugins.

Federal Government Screws Income Trust Investors

If you follow the Canadian stock market you likely know all too well that the federal government sprung a dramatic decision on investors earlier this week, which will see “income trusts” taxed at about the same rate as any registered corporation.

Trusts have long been exempt from normal corporate tax laws, allowing them to pay out larger dividends to investors than other publicly traded companies. In short, they are… sorry, were… a good option for the mid-risk income-oriented investor looking for a steady flow of cash from their investment holdings.

Although one could argue that the tax benefits of income trusts have been, on occasion, abused by big corporations, the fact remains that these investment vehicles have become an important component in the Canadian investment economy, upon which many people rely for regular income.

That’s why I was a little taken aback when Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, made the sudden decision to impose heavy taxes on trusts, effectively rendering them obsolete for tax purposes. In the closely fought election battle earlier this year, the Conservatives promised quite clearly that they would not be taking this move, and that investors had nothing to worry about.

By doing a complete 180 on this issue, however, (and gaining the all-to-eager support of some minority parties in parliament), the federal government has betrayed the trust of Canadian investors, after wooing them into a false sense of security.

The government claims that income trusts are “damaging” the Canadian economy. If this is the case, however, why did Harper promise to protect such a dangerous and frightening type of investment in the first place?

Personally, I came very close to purchasing an income trust just a few days ago, but ended up opting for a (safe) mutual fund instead. Had I gone the trust route, I would have lost a significant percentage of my portfolio, as many Canadians did.

Although this issue isn’t quite enough to make me want to vote Liberal, it does cause me to seriously question the Conservative government’s economic policies. Overall, this was a very scummy and underhanded course of action that voters won’t be forgetting about anytime soon.