On Thursday, December 11, as part of the IP Osgoode Speaks series, Jason J. Kee, the Director of Policy & Legal Affairs for the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) gave a talk on intellectual property issues in the computer and video gaming industry. The event, held downtown Toronto at Ogilvy Renault’s office, provided lawyers […]
The recent turmoil in Parliament has led to a buzz among many ordinary Canadians. But out of the push for a new coalition government, largely unprecedented in Canadian history, has immediately come more of the same: political bickering and inaction. One week ago, upon request from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Governor General Michaëlle Jean prorogued […]
Adrian Scotchmer is the Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Hall Review of Law and Policy. The latest issue of the Osgoode Hall Review of Law and Policy, released November 24, 2008, may be of interest to readers of IP Osgoode as it contains three papers regarding copyright law. Recent debate with respect to copyright law has assumed […]
In George Nathanael’s post titled “Protecting Graffiti Artists”, he proposed that withholding copyright protection for graffiti is the best response to the question of whether creators of graffiti should be protected the same way as other artists who create murals on their own property. The dilemma of rewarding someone who created a work of art in […]
On Wednesday November 18, 2008 the Right Honourable Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean delivered the Government’s Speech from the Throne, and so dawned Canada’s 40th session of Parliament. The speech outlined the Conservative government’s goals for its term in power under the shadow of the current economic storm looming over the world. Though much […]
With Americans electing a new president last week, change is the topic du jour. This is only compounded by the recent financial crisis, which led the chairman of the Federal Reserve to proclaim, “there are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises“. Shortly thereafter, a bi-partisan coalition passed a bailout bill that […]
Bill C-61 gives with one hand and takes away with the other: Granting time shifting rights but excluding library building Bell’s personal video recorder (PVR) featuring an external hard drive for archiving recorded television programs premiered when Bill C-61 was debated in Parliament. However, under Bill C-61, archiving recorded programs is illegal. Time shifting is the […]
In a judgment pronounced in early August, which will encourage the open-source movement (Jacobsen v. Katzer, available at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-1001.pdf), a US Court of Appeals (Federal Circuit) held that a copyright holder can control the future distribution and modification of her work (through, for instance, means such as open-source licenses) even if she has dedicated the […]
Bill C-61 has been met with much criticism from IP experts and users alike. Though C-61 died on account of the federal election, debating its merits is not redundant as we may see its return. As I see it, much of what is wrong with the Bill can be seen in the following example of […]
When Steven Harper called a federal election on September 7th he effectively killed all bills progressing through parliament. Bill C-61, containing controversial changes to the Copyright Act, was amongst the casualties. While there is widespread support for remodeling the Copyright Act the direction taken by the Conservatives was not so popular. The government’s heavy emphasis […]