This shouldn't really come as a surprise but Niklas Zennstrom has pulled out of his VON Canada keynote that was scheduled for next week.(hat tip to Jim Courtney). He'll be replaced by Stefan Oberg (who?), Skype's v.p. of product development. Zennstrom's disappearing act comes days after Skype, Janis Friis and Zennstrom were sued under RICO laws by Streamcast. Given the sensitivities of a lawsuit, the idea of Zennstrom giving a keynote must have benn quickly killed by eBay's P.R. folks and its lawyers. This is yet another big blow for VON Canada, which saw Vonage decide not to participate because its Canadian P.R. firm apparently doesn't think VON has enough of a consumer angle. Needless to say, the VON folks are not pleased given VON founder Jeff Pulver was one of Vonage's co-founders. It's also curious to see Pulver isn't kicking off VON Canada. Instead, sidekick Carl Ford will give the opening remarks.

Update: Speaking of Vonage, CNN/Money has a story suggesting Vonage is shopping itself, which may explain why its IPO has been filed for two months. The potential buyers, according to CNN/Money, are Sprint, Verizon and Qwest. Om Malik hits the nail on the head when he asks if there's little interest in the IPO, why would there be any interest in an acquisition. Meanwhile, Alec Saunders weighs in with a blunt post - "Worst IPO Candidate of This Year?" - looking at the bad economics of the VoIP markets - lots of competition, lower prices. Saunders concludes it would represent the "ultimate triumph of greed and stupidity over common sense" for anyone who buys into the IPO or acquires Vonage. That's harsh, Alec, but oh so true!

After months of speculation - well, at least a couple blog posts and bunch of click-throughs - the Slingbox is being sold in Canada. So rush down to your local Future Shop, Best Buy or London Drugs store and slap down C$299. I had big plans to install my Slingbox last weekend but had to put things on hold after realizing it would take some time - and involve the brainpower and patience of my younger, tech-savvy brother.

So Google is raising another $2-billion to meet demand as it prepares to join the S&P 500. Why? The company already has a $8-billion war chest so it's not like it needs the money. And if index-focused investors have obligated to buy stock for their portfolios does it mean Google has to play nice and accommodate them? So what's Google thinking? The last time the company tapped the markets for cash, it used $1-billion to buy a 20% 5% a stake in AOL. Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk thinks Google could be looking to enhance its presence in Asia through a strategic investment or acquisition. Another possibility, she said, is a "massive investment" in storage for Web developers along the lines what Amazon is doing with its S3 Storage Service. Then, there's Wi-Fi and the rumours Google is looking to launch an advertising-support, nation-wide network. In any event, Google now has $10-billion of cash on the balance sheet so something has to be going on. Given how close Larry and Sergey hold their strategic cards to the vest, we'll likely only find out when the a deal is unveiled.

Update: BuyGoogle has an intriguing - and detailed post - on whether Google might use its cash hoard to acquire Amazon.com.

While the RIAA has been on a legal jihad in recent years, a growing number of consumers have been using allofMP3.com. The Russian-based service sells albums for $1 to $2.50 - depending on their popularity and the bitrate quality selected. Apparently, the company has been allowed to operate because of Russian copyright legislation, which lets "phonograms be performed publicly without the authorization of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable transmission". If the music industry was pissed off with allofMP3 before, they'll be even more agitated with the release of alltunes - a desktop and mobile interface that makes it even easier to find and download music. TechCrunch has an overview on the new application.
  While allofMP3 can argue it's protected by Russian copyright rules, I wonder whether they protect consumers in North America? How do U.S. copyright rules, for example, apply to music downloaded from another country? In Canada - despite the claims of the music industry - downloading is still quasi-legal until the copyright rules over overhauled or clarified. A contentious issue in Canada is the levy regime, which slaps a "tax" on products used to record digital content such as hard drives, CD-Rs and audio cassette tapes. These fees, in theory, are supposed to compensate the music industry for loss sales but it doesn't work because music downloading is still wildly popular in the Great White North. For more on the controversial levy regime, IT Business ran a story on it earlier this month. You can also find a treasure trove of information on the issue on Michael Geist's blog.