Fighting spam : how tough is the Canadian legal arsenal ? An analysis in the light of the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act

Following several countries, Canada recently passed Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), in an attempt to tackle spam. The law aims to ‘‘protect Canadians while ensuring that businesses can continue to compete in the global marketplace”. For this purpose, CASL prohibits not only the sending of commercial electronic messages without consent, but also any alteration of transmission data in the course of a commercial activity. Moreover, the Act disallows the installation of a computer program on another person’s computer system and the sending of commercial electronic messages following the installation. These three activities are prohibited unless the author or initiator has obtained the recipient’s prior consent, either express or implied. This opt-in approach contrasts with the U.S. CAN- SPAM Acts opt-out regime, in force since 2004, which is known to offer to senders the chance to initiate contact and to recipients the option to unsubscribe or reject any subsequent commercial electronic message. Our paper intends to demonstrate that, notwithstanding the apparent difference in their respective approach, CASL and U.S. CAN-SPAM Act remain fundamentally similar in practical effect. This resemblance is good news, considering the profile and proximity of Canadian and American e-commerce economies. Thus, in spite of its detail and complexity, CASL may not be the most stringent anti-spam act as claimed, certainly not with the challenges related to its implementation and enforcement

The Finite Spectrum of Sturm-Liouville Operator With δ-Interactions

The goal of this paper is to study the finite spectrum of Sturm-Liouville operator with δ- interactions. Such an equation gives us a Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem which has n transmission conditions. We show that for any positive numbers mj (j = 0; 1; :::; n) that are related to number of partition of the intervals between two successive interaction points, we can construct a Sturm-Liouville equations with δ-interactions, which have exactly d eigenvalues. Where d is the sum of mj’s

La formalisation du devoir d’information dans les contrats de cyberconsommation : analyse de la solution québécoise

Le 9 novembre 2006, l’Assemblée nationale du Québec a introduit le Projet de loi no 48, Loi modifiant la Loi sur la protection du consommateur et la Loi sur le recouvrement de certaines créances, en vue de moderniser certaines dispositions législatives en matière de consommation. La loi consécutive, sanctionnée le 14 décembre 2006 et dont l’entrée en vigueur progressive a été complétée le 15 décembre 2007, fixe un régime de protection particulier à l’égard des contrats conclus à distance. Le législateur vise notamment les contrats de cyberconsommation et établit un formalisme impératif pour réguler les étapes précontractuelle, contractuelle et post-contractuelle de la relation entre le cybercommerçant et le consommateur. Le présent article analyse plus particulièrement la portée matérielle de l’obligation d’information issue de l’étape précontractuelle. Il évalue son aptitude à dissiper les incertitudes et à garantir une sécurité technico-juridique adéquate dans les relations contractuelles de cyberconsommation, compte tenu de l’impact du média utilisé dans la divulgation de l’information. En se basant sur une étude comparée du droit français et des régimes législatifs en vigueur ailleurs au Canada, les auteurs concluent que la réforme québécoise impose au cybercommerçant une obligation d’information quantitativement trop lourde et mal adaptée à la réalité technologique du cyberespace. Selon eux, le consommateur serait mieux protégé si la loi insistait plutôt sur la transmission efficace des informations jugées essentielles à la formation du contrat.On 9 November 2006, the National Assembly of Québec introduced Bill 48, An Act to amend the Consumer Protection Act and the Act respecting the collection of certain debts, in order to modernize certain legislative provisions relating to consumer law. The resulting law, which received Royal Sanction on 14 December 2006 and completed its progressive entry into force on 15 December 2007, established a consumer protection regime for distance contracts. The legislator specifically targets online consumer contracts, and establishes an obligatory formalism that regulates the pre-contractual, contractual, and postcontractual steps of the relationship between the online merchant and the consumer. This article provides a detailed analysis of the practical scope of the duty to disclose during the pre-contractual step. It evaluates the potential of this duty to resolve uncertainty and guarantee adequate technological and legal security in the contractual relations of the parties to an online consumer contract, in light of the medium used in the disclosure of information. Drawing on a comparative study of French law and the legislative regimes in place elsewhere in Canada, the authors conclude that Quebec’s reform imposes a duty to inform on the online merchant that is quantitatively too heavy, and that is ill-suited to the technological reality of the internet. In their view, the consumer would be better protected if the law insisted on the efficient transmission of information considered essential to the formation of the contract

Formation du contrat électronique : l’acceptation entre mutations et orthodoxie

La doctrine a souvent débattu sur la nature du droit du cyberespace, c’est-à-dire le type de règles qui doivent encadrer les transactions électroniques. La formation du contrat électronique B2B et B2C permet d’aborder ce débat sous un angle pratique, qui met le législateur devant deux options connues : l’une, qui encourage l’élaboration de règles typiques, compte tenu d’une spécificité présumée de ces contrats ; l’autre, tendant à privilégier le droit existant, éventuellement adapté. Le formalisme issu des récentes productions législatives, notamment en droit de la cyberconsommation, réaffirme le rôle essentiel du consentement dans la formation du contrat, avec la reconduction automatique des opérations traditionnelles de l’offre et de l’acceptation. Mais dans le cyberespace, la manière d’exprimer ces deux opérations bénéficie de balises pratiques plus ou moins précises, peut-être pour éviter que des règles impératives en la matière ne vieillissent trop rapidement à cause du contexte technologique en perpétuelle transformation. Or, cette hésitation, peut-être ce choix, a fait émerger plusieurs modalités d’expression de l’acceptation dont la validité n’est pas acquise de façon mécanique, mais demeure fréquemment suspendue à l’appréciation des juges. Mais en examinant les motifs progressivement développés par les tribunaux en common law et en droit civil, de même qu’en doctrine, les auteurs décelent une constante, un critère invariable dans l’appréciation du rituel de l’acceptation en ligne. Cette analyse dépasse ainsi ces techniques apparues des usages, c’est-à-dire le « Box-Top », « Shrink-Wrap », « Browse-Wrap », « Click- Wrap », « Hybrid Click-Wrap », « Hyperwrap », et tente de définir et de circonscrire cette valeur, ce critère qui ins pire un retour aux fondements traditionnels du droit des contrats. Nous proposons, enfin, de recourir à des pictogrammes pour réaliser la mise en oeuvre de ce critère

Prieurianin Causes Weight Loss in Diet-Induced Obese Mice and Inhibits Adipogenesis in Cultured Preadipocytes

The global increase in the incidence of obesity has emerged as one of the most serious public health risks in recent years. Despite the enormity of the obesity pandemic, there are currently only two FDA-approved therapies for its treatment and these drugs exhibit modest effi cacy and have limiting side effects. Prieurianin is a plant limonoid product that deters feeding in insect larvae. We investigated in this study the effects of prieurianin on weight loss and adipogenesis. Our results showed that prieurianin causes weight loss by reducing energy intake in obese mice on highcalorie diet. We also found that prieurianin is anti-adipogenic in cultured preadipocytes and adipocytes by inhibiting proliferation and differentiation of preadipocytes into adipocytes, and induces either dedifferentiation or delipidation of mature adipocytes. Whether prieurianin can potentially be used for obesity treatment in human warrants further investigation

Recommandations specifiques d'engrais: Calibration et validation du module phosphore du modele NuMaSS

Fertiliser recommendations in Mali as well as in many other countries of West Africa were made according to Chaminade's method. For socio-economic reasons, correcting deficiency rates of major nutrients were vulgarized. These blanket recommendation, when applied, lead to a continuous soil nutrient mining. The objective of this research was to calibrate and validate the P module of NuMass. Laboratory incubations were conducted to calibrate the P buffering coefficients used by the P module. Rates of N, P and lime predicted by NuMass model, considered as specific recommendations, were compared to the blanket recommendations in the field in order to validate them. The buffer coefficients were inversely proportional to the clay content. The buffering coefficient of sandy soils of Cinzana/Mali (0.73) and Kollo/Niger P3 (0.63) were higher compared to the clayey soils of Longorola-bf (0.22) and Kollo/Niger (0.21). Generally, buffering coefficients obtained by laboratory incubation (0.60) tended to be lower than the estimated coefficient by the P module NuMass (0.67). The range of the used soil texture (1.5-54.6 % clay) showed that the buffering coefficients estimated by the P module of NuMass were correct for flooded soils. Grain yield of different trials and tests do not indicate the expected higher performance of specific recommendations of fertilisers from NuMass model compared to the used blanket recommendation (1624 and 1582 kg ha-1 of maize; respectively

The integration of social concerns into electricity power planning : a combined delphi and AHP approach

The increasing acceptance of the principle of sustainable development has been a major driving force towards new approaches to energy planning. This is a complex process involving multiple and conflicting objectives, in which many agents were able to influence decisions. The integration of environmental, social and economic issues in decision making, although fundamental, is not an easy task, and tradeoffsmust be made. The increasing importance of social aspects adds additional complexity to the traditional models that must now deal with variables recognizably difficult to measure in a quantitative scale. This study explores the issue of the social impact, as a fundamental aspect of the electricity planning process, aiming to give a measurable interpretation of the expected social impact of future electricity scenarios. A structured methodology, based on a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Delphi process, is proposed. The methodology is applied for the social evaluation of future electricity scenarios in Portugal, resulting in the elicitation and assignment of average social impact values for these scenarios. The proposed tool offers guidance to decision makers and presents a clear path to explicitl

Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps

Temperament and personality research in humans and nonhuman animals measures behavioral variation in individual, population, or species-specific traits with implications for survival and fitness, such as social status, foraging and mating success [1–5]. Curiosity and risk-taking tendencies have been studied extensively across taxa by measuring boldness and exploration responses to experimental novelty exposure [3,4,6–15]. Here, we conduct a natural field experiment using wildlife monitoring technology to test variation in the reaction of wild great apes (43 groups of naïve chimpanzees, bonobos and western gorillas, across 14 field sites in Africa) to a novel object, the camera-trap. Bonobo and gorilla groups demonstrated a stronger looking impulse towards the camera-trap device compared to chimpanzees, suggesting higher visual attention and curiosity. Bonobos were also more likely to show alarm and other fearful behaviors, although such neophobic (and conversely, neophilic) responses were generally rare. Among all three species, individuals looked at cameras longer when they were young, were associating with fewer individuals, and did not live near a long-term research site. Overall, these findings partially validate results from great ape novelty paradigms in captivity [7,8]. We further suggest that species-typical leadership styles [16] and social and environmental effects, including familiarity with humans, best explain novelty responses of wild great apes. In sum, this study illustrates the feasibility of large-scale field experiments and the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping animal curiosity