One of the things I never took much time to consider was the legality off all this. My opinion has been (and hopefully always will be) that if I purchased something I should be able to do whatever I want with it. If I own DVD and want to use it as a decoration on my Christmas tree I feel I have that right. Again, I am not a lawyer and this is just a summation of my research on the topic so do your own research for your own area. DVD Backups The first debate is if you can backup or...

Talking with other developers and clients it amazes me how many people store credit card numbers in their systems. There is usually no need to store a full credit card number in your own database. It should be forwarded on to the processing gateway and then the information should be purged from your system the instant the transaction is complete. The Credit Card Companies Stances Contrary to popular believe you are allowed to store credit card information. The companies do have standards that you need to follow if you are storing this information. More information on this standard...

Now this is not really a development talk but there is a lot of concern about the legalities of downloading music in Canada and I thought I would set the record straight on it. Part of Canadian copyright grants a fair use for copying things for personal enjoyment as long as it is not shared or sold publically.We actually pay a levy on all media (i.e. blank cassette tapes, blank cds and dvds). This levy is a tax to compensate artists for revenue lost to the copying of their works. So technically we already pay to make copies of music. Unfortunately from what I have read is that...

Copyright BasicsCopyright is the right granted to an individual to protect a peice of work he/she has created. This applies to literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works.Copyright is automatic. Meaning that once you have created a work it is already protected by copyright and you have rights to defend that work from being copied.Copyright protection does not extent to ideas, facts, or information. Meaning that if I came up with an idea for an invention and even wrote it down. It does not prevent someone else from creating that idea. The only thing they can not do is copy what I wrote down. Patents can be used to protect...

I have a mild interest in law and how it affects me. I have been working with technology for most of my life and there is still not much I can find about how the law relates to what we do in everyday cases. In a series of posts I am going to make I will talk about some of them.DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer and the following guides are for information only. They should not be treated as legal advice. Contact a lawyer for any legal questions you might have. Don't play with fire. It is hot. You might get burned. Yada yada yada.Accessability:From what I...