Despite the fact the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the United States fashion design industry, relative to other innovative sectors such as computing, music, television and film, may seem non-existent, fashion accounts for $200 billion in sales annually in the U.S. Two prominent legal scholars, Kal Raustiala and Christopher Springman, have written a series […]
Fashion is everywhere you look. In the US, the fashion industry’s annual sales are higher than those of books, movies and music combined. Everyone wears clothes, whether for necessity, the desire to follow current trends, or for any reason in between. Fashion can be an indication of an individual’s social status, and also reflects cultural […]
Over this past week, the Members of the European Parliament have been deliberating over a new proposal for a pan-European copyright licensing system for digital content. Proposed on Tuesday in Strasbourg by Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Meglena Kuneva, Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, the new plan would pave the way for […]
Pascale Chapdelaine is a Ph.D. candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and a member of IP Osgoode. Pascale’s thesis focuses on the interaction between consumer law and copyright law. What is the consumer entitled to do with musical recordings for her own personal use? Asking this question may appear to some, including consumers, as looking […]
A common joke amongst Canadian copyright lawyers goes something like this: What do copyright reform and hot dogs have in common? You don’t want to see how either of them are made. Despite this light-hearted warning, last Thursday IP Osgoode hosted Glen Bloom from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, who delivered a guest lecture entitled […]
Sheldon Inkol is a first year law student at Osgoode Hall and is taking the Legal Values: Challenges in Intellectual Property course. According to Julie E. Cohen, the public domain is nowhere. And all around us at the same time. In her article “Copyright, Commodification, and Culture: Locating the Public Domain” (in Guibault, L. & […]
Next Monday, the EU Parliament will vote on a directive that would retroactively extend copyright in performer’s performances and sound recordings (as they are called here in Canada) from 50 to 95 years. The proposal has been met with strong opposition from the European academic community, including an impressive, 100 strong, list of academics against […]
Amanda Cohen is a first year law student at Osgoode Hall and is taking the Legal Values: Challenges in Intellectual Property course Song Samplers Beware: Your future is uncertain. Friday, March 13th marks the Canadian release date of RIP: A Remix Manifesto, Montreal filmmaker Brett Gaylor’s look into mash-up culture and sampling. This film and its […]
Over an eleven day period ending last Wednesday, three lay judges and one professional judge presided over the most closely followed and polarized trials in recent Swedish history. In their hands lies the fate of the Pirate Bay – the ever-popular BitTorrent website. With the court’s judgment due in April, file-sharers and copyright holders all […]
Daniel Pearlman is a first year law student at Osgoode Hall and is taking the Legal Values: Challenges in Intellectual Property course Movie piracy is a widely debated IP issue. While many would agree that movie piracy is a problem, much controversy surrounds both the extent of movie piracy, and how it ought to be […]