Posts by Giovanni Coia

Dutch court convicts teens for stealing pixels

@ P. J. Isserlis

@ P. J. Isserlis

Your definition is almost spot on - except the property taken must be COPOREAL moveable property. This is why cases regarding the theft of virtual goods in the UK (to my knowledge one hasn't been reported yet) will be very interesting.

Courts in England and in Scotland have previously held that stealing customer data on a floppy disk (case is starting to date!) did not satisfy the corporeal element of the crime of theft, thus the only crime committed was the theft of the physical floppy, not of the data on the disk. Of course you could sue for damages, but the theft of the data is only theft in the moral sense, not the legal one.

Apple iPhone 3G

Fatally flawed as a Blackberry replacement

The iPhone 3G is still seriously flawed as a business users device and although I swear by Apple devices I cannot recommend an iPhone as a Blackberry replacement with it's current software.

1. You can't search your emails. Anyone who relies on email in their job will find this frustrating beyond belief. For me this is an even bigger issue than issue number 2.

2. Still no cut and paste.

3. If you use exchange for your calendars and contacts the phone deletes all your private data and replaces it with the data on the exchange server. Any contacts and calendar events you add will be synced with the server, you cannot have private contacts and calendar events on the phone. Do you really want to give your employers all the details, events and contacts from your private life? Apple seriously need to add the ability to have local contacts and calendars which are not synced. Again I think this will send many users scurrying back to their Blackberrys.

However as a personal phone the device is currently without equal. Business users should stay away for now.