The largest performers union in Canada is attempting to place a tax on iPods.

A quick search of the TechDirt database reveals that one organization or another has been attempting to achieve this for awhile now.

So this is nothing new, but still worth revisiting.

This isn’t at all Google’s week when it comes to international regulations and the company’s collection of sensitive WiFi data.  First came the news it might be fined $3.3 million in Spain.  Now there’s been an official declaration that Google broke Canadian privacy laws.

You would think it would have been a good week for Netflix, given that the company began its first expansion into another country. Netflix launched its Canadian streaming-only service earlier this week. 

Facebook’s privacy team can breathe a small sigh of relief; the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is not going to trouble them further at this time.  Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has completed a review and determined that Facebook’s in many ways cleaned up its act since last year.

In July, Netflix said it would expand into Canada this fall, and the company made good on that promise as it made the announcement today. This marks the first international expansion of the company. 

Canadians with an interest in real estate should now get more use out of the Yahoo homepage.  Yahoo Canada has partnered with a company called Zoocasa to launch a new application that’s located right by eBay- and Facebook-related apps.

Zoocasa is supposed to be Canada’s fastest-growing real estate site, and a statement issued by Yahoo explained, "Now the more than 17 million Canadians who visit Yahoo! every month will be able to search for a new home, research local neighbourhoods and receive updates about properties that fit their personal profile . . ."

Booyah announced today that it is taking MyTown international.

 The company has launched support for MyTown (for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) across Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company says this makes MyTown the first to support global check-ins utilizing the recently launched Places Web Service via the Google Maps API.

Netflix said today it will expand into Canada this fall offering streamed movies and TV episodes to users there.

The launch is the first for Netflix outside of the United States, but it will not include the company’s DVD mailing service. Netflix says it’s the first time it has offered a streaming-only service.

Anyone who considered LinkedIn’s physical expansion into Canada an odd or ill-thought-out move may want to think again.  LinkedIn has been able to secure Jonathan Lister, the former country manager of Google Canada, as its own country manager in Canada.

The majority (80%) of Canadians, or 21.7 million people, used the Internet for personal reasons in 2009, up from 73 percent in 2007, according to a new survey by Statistics Canada.

Rates of Internet use increased in every province during this two-year period. The largest relative increase in Internet users occurred in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador (+15% each over 2007). Rates were highest at 85% in both British Columbia and Alberta, followed by 81% in Ontario.

For the first time ever weekly Internet usage of online Canadians has surpassed the number of hours spent watching television, according to a new report by Ipsos Reid.

Over all online Canadians are now spending more than 18 hours a week online, compared to 16.9 hours watching television. Internet usage is up from 14.9 hours last year. The number of hours watching television also increased in the last year, rising from 15.8 hours.

Last year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigated Facebook as a result of several complaints.  Then the Privacy Commissioner made some recommendations, Facebook followed them, and all in all, both sides remained quite friendly.  Only now another probe’s been launched, and the privacy advocate sounds less patient this time.

Yahoo has announced the launch of a new homepage for its Canadian users (an effort the company says will bring together the "best of the web with the best of Yahoo”). The home page lets users add apps, much like the current US version.

We’ll admit it: so far, most conversations concerning the Microsoft-Yahoo deal and antitrust issues have related to the U.S. and Europe.  Still, two potential roadblocks were eliminated yesterday when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau signaled their intent not to oppose the partnership.

A new batch of Google Street View imagery has been released, and it’s a significant one.  Rather than hit a few more American towns, Street View’s documented sights in two countries – Canada and the Czech Republic – for the first time.

Let’s start with the Czech Republic, where coverage is a bit more limited in terms of total footage captured.  Indeed, most of the imagery is focused on Prague and a handful of nearby, smaller towns.  Then, perhaps one or two Street View drivers headed southeast and spent a little time driving around Brno.

Google wants Canada to get with the program – the AdWords program, that is.  An exec has expressed some concern – or at least bafflement – over the idea that online advertising hasn’t caught on in Canada to the degree that it has in other countries.

Canada has a healthy economy, after all (several different groups rank it eleventh in the world according to GDP), and Internet penetration in the nation is pretty high (think 70 percent or more, although estimates differ).

Facebook is gearing up to face off with the government again—this time over privacy concerns in two different venues: the California courts and a Canadian commission.

The FBI has announced the indictment of a Canadian man for his role in processing more than $350 million for Internet gambling companies.

According to the indictment, Douglas Rennick, 34, opened bank accounts in the U.S. from 2007 to June 2009, under a variety of corporate names and "falsely represented that the accounts would be used for such purposes as issuing rebate checks, refund checks, sponsorship checks, and affiliate checks and minor payroll processing."

Police departments may not start issuing cops Facebook accounts along with their handcuffs and guns, but at least one officer feels that the social network is a valuable tool.  Constable Scott Mills shared his thoughts on the Facebook Blog this afternoon.

It wouldn’t be a day in business any more if the main focus wasn’t government intervention, would it? It appears that all of the freedom that the Internet was supposed to offer is maybe a little too much for the folks to our north. The Canadian government has issued a report that tells Facebook that many areas concerning privacy for the social networking site don’t meet the standards of Canadian privacy law.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada isn’t campaigning against Facebook; representatives have actually said some very nice things about the company and social networks in general.  Just the same, following an investigation, they believe Facebook isn’t meeting certain standards.