The Legal Issues Surrounding Free and Open Source Software: Challenges and Solutions for the Government of Québec

The Government of Québec is slowly but surely turning its attention to the issue of free and open source software in response to the interest shown by Québec’s software industry and the attention paid to the phenomenon by governments around the world. This openness is easy to understand given an environment in which online service provision to citizens must be enhanced while minimizing expenditures on technology, curtailing service providers’ control over the administration, and promoting the development of the information society in Québec. Nonetheless, as we see in the news, adoption of this new attitude toward to software development is not always immune to legal challenges. Consequently, the manner in which Québec law interacts with free and open source software, as well as the associated risks, assume a particular significance. The analysis we present here reveals that the law, as it currently stands in Québec, appears adequate to effectively address the various legal issues inherent in the use of free and open source software. First of all, no legal rule seems to be incompatible with the validity of free and open source licences, despite that fact that few of them were designed with the Québec legal system in mind. Moreover, both federal copyright rules and Québec regulations affecting contractual liability allow the authors and users of free and open source software to effectively preserve the freedom of computer code, which is typically the purpose of free and open source licences. Nonetheless, it remains the case that some legal risks are associated with free and open source software. These risks may arise from the formalism requirements included in the Copyright Act, prior violations of intellectual property rights by third parties, or simply from the broader contractual protection afforded to licensors. Consequently, integrating free and open source software into the technology strategy of the Government of Québec requires setting up some initiatives to allow these risks to be mitigated as much as possible and to enable the management of those risks that cannot be completely eliminated.

Crashed Software: Assessing Product Liability for Software Defects in Automated Vehicles

Automated vehicles will not only redefine the role of drivers, but also present new challenges in assessing product liability. In light of the increased risks of software defects in automated vehicles, this Note will review the current legal and regulatory framework related to product liability and assess the challenges in addressing on-board software defects and cybersecurity breaches from both the consumer and manufacturer perspective. While manufacturers are expected to assume more responsibility for accidents as vehicles become fully automated, it can be difficult to determine the scope of liability regarding unexpected software defects. On the other hand, consumers face new challenges in bringing product liability claims against manufacturers and developers

Managing intellectual capital : individual rights and the public interest

Managing intellectual capital and intellectual property is a challenging task, especially for knowledge-based organisations vested with a public interest. Scientific ethics and freedom of information may clash with copyright law or with other intellectual property enactments, thereby engendering conflicts of interest. International law and treaties make for a complex regulatory framework. World-wide advocacy of the open access principle has led to some statutory changes, but its proponents mostly assume that copyright owners will act voluntarily. The implications for knowledge management are elucidated

The Enigma of Digitized Property A Tribute to John Perry Barlow

Compressive Sensing has attracted a lot of attention over the last decade within the areas of applied mathematics, computer science and electrical engineering because of it suggesting that we can sample a signal under the limit that traditional sampling theory provides. By then using dierent recovery algorithms we are able to, theoretically, recover the complete original signal even though we have taken very few samples to begin with. It has been proven that these recovery algorithms work best on signals that are highly compressible, meaning that the signals can have a sparse representation where the majority of the signal elements are close to zero. In this thesis we implement some of these recovery algorithms and investigate how these perform practically on a real video signal consisting of 300 sequential image frames. The video signal will be under sampled, using compressive sensing, and then recovered using two types of strategies, - One where no time correlation between successive frames is assumed, using the classical greedy algorithm Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) and a more robust, modied OMP called Predictive Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (PrOMP). - One newly developed algorithm, Dynamic Iterative Pursuit (DIP), which assumes and utilizes time correlation between successive frames. We then performance evaluate and compare these two strategies using the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) as a metric. We also provide visual results. Based on investigation of the data in the video signal, using a simple model for the time correlation and transition probabilities between dierent signal coecients in time, the DIP algorithm showed good recovery performance. The main results showed that DIP performed better and better over time and outperformed the PrOMP up to a maximum of 6 dB gain at half of the original sampling rate but performed slightly below the PrOMP in a smaller part of the video sequence where the correlation in time between successive frames in the original video sequence suddenly became weaker.Compressive sensing har blivit mer och mer uppmarksammat under det senaste decenniet inom forskningsomraden sasom tillampad matematik, datavetenskap och elektroteknik. En stor anledning till detta ar att dess teori innebar att det blir mojligt att sampla en signal under gransen som traditionell samplingsteori innebar. Genom att sen anvanda olika aterskapningsalgoritmer ar det anda teoretiskt mojligt att aterskapa den ursprungliga signalen. Det har visats sig att dessaaterskapningsalgoritmer funkar bast pa signaler som ar mycket kompressiva, vilket innebar att dessa signaler kan representeras glest i nagon doman dar merparten av signalens koecienter ar nara 0 i varde. I denna uppsats implementeras vissa av dessaaterskapningsalgoritmer och vi undersoker sedan hur dessa presterar i praktiken pa en riktig videosignal bestaende av 300 sekventiella bilder. Videosignalen kommer att undersamplas med compressive sensing och sen aterskapas genom att anvanda 2 typer av strategier, - En dar ingen tidskorrelation mellan successiva bilder i videosignalen antas genom att anvanda klassiska algoritmer sasom Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) och en mer robust, modierad OMP : Predictive Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (PrOMP). - En nyligen utvecklad algoritm, Dynamic Iterative Pursuit (DIP), som antar och nyttjar en tidskorrelation mellan successiva bilder i videosignalen. Vi utvarderar och jamfor prestandan i dessa tva olika typer av strategier genom att anvanda Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) som jamforelseparameter. Vi ger ocksa visuella resultat fran videosekvensen. Baserat pa undersokning av data i videosignalen visade det sig, genom att anvanda enkla modeller, bade for tidskorrelationen och sannolikhetsfunktioner for vilka koecienter som ar aktiva vid varje tidpunkt, att DIP algoritmen visade battre prestanda an de tva andra tidsoberoende algoritmerna under visa tidsekvenser. Framforallt de sekvenser dar videosignalen inneholl starkare korrelation i tid. Som mest presterade DIP upp till 6 dB battre an OMP och PrOMP

Electronic security - risk mitigation in financial transactions : public policy issues

This paper builds on a previous series of papers (see Claessens, Glaessner, and Klingebiel, 2001, 2002) that identified electronic security as a key component to the delivery of electronic finance benefits. This paper and its technical annexes (available separately at http://www1.worldbank.org/finance/) identify and discuss seven key pillars necessary to fostering a secure electronic environment. Hence, it is intended for those formulating broad policies in the area of electronic security and those working with financial services providers (for example, executives and management). The detailed annexes of this paper are especially relevant for chief information and security officers responsible for establishing layered security. First, this paper provides definitions of electronic finance and electronic security and explains why these issues deserve attention. Next, it presents a picture of the burgeoning global electronic security industry. Then it develops a risk-management framework for understanding the risks and tradeoffs inherent in the electronic security infrastructure. It also provides examples of tradeoffs that may arise with respect to technological innovation, privacy, quality of service, and security in designing an electronic security policy framework. Finally, it outlines issues in seven interrelated areas that often need attention in building an adequate electronic security infrastructure. These are: 1) The legal framework and enforcement. 2) Electronic security of payment systems. 3) Supervision and prevention challenges. 4) The role of private insurance as an essential monitoring mechanism. 5) Certification, standards, and the role of the public and private sectors. 6) Improving the accuracy of information on electronic security incidents and creating better arrangements for sharing this information. 7) Improving overall education on these issues as a key to enhancing prevention.Knowledge Economy,Labor Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy,Banks&Banking Reform,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Governance Indicators