Law, Technology and strict constructionism...

This is quite interesting... I was reading an article about what is known as the Tariff 22 case, I read this:

The Court [Federal Court of Appeal] held that, although ISPs may rely upon the “intermediary exception” in most situations because they only provide the means of telecommunication, with respect to caching to enhance transmission speed, the exemption was not available, as the ISPs were doing more than is necessary just to communicate.

When I, as a programmer, think about caching, I see technology, speed improvements, a lower use of bandwith, a better internet for everyone, etc.

The supreme court seems to agree:

The Court [Supreme Court of Canada] found that this activity fell within the scope of the intermediary exemption because caching was employed by ISPs to deliver faster and more economic service and is also content-neutral. As such, protection of this activity promoted the public interest in encouraging the development and expansion of entities that make telecommunications possible.

Still, while I think caching does seem to make life better (see note below), this for me spells two of the current buzzwords: "Strict Constructionism" and "Judicial Activism".

Note: Caching doesn't always make life better for a programmer, because you sometimes get confused about why the output of a website isn't what it is supposed to look like. The culprit in these cases can be caching, and it's not very fun!

Filed under COPYRIGHT