In the recent decision The Hebrew University of Jerusalem v. General Motors LLC, the US District Court of the Central District of California ruled that Albert Einstein’s publicity rights now belong to the public domain given that more than 50 years have passed since his death in 1955.
In Abraham Moon & Sons Ltd v. Thornber and others, the Patents County Court (“PCC”) in London held that a firm called “Art of the Loom” and its partners (“defendants”) had infringed Abraham Moon’s (“claimant”) copyright in “Skye Sage”. This decision is noteworthy because it serves as an example of how copyright law relates to the […]
The American Bar Association (ABA) recently urged the Supreme Court of the United States to affirm the decision of the Court of Appeal, 2nd Circuit, in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Kirtsaeng.
Won’t somebody think of the children!? A New York federal court judge will. A copyright infringement lawsuit by multiple authors’ groups – including two Canadian ones – against Google and several universities for their HathiTrust Digital Library book scanning and digital distribution has been dismissed.
DC Comics v Pacific Pictures Corp et al, the recent decision of a Central District of California court to deny termination rights to the heirs of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, may be legally based in American copyright law. However, the case has its roots, loosely speaking, in Canada.
Turns out the internet isn’t all about porn. Just kidding, it mostly is. But underneath the debate sparked by the .XXX domain question at last week’s international website regulatory conference are a series of fundamental issues about internet freedom of expression, the process for determining what new URLs will be on offer, the tension between […]
While “going viral” is a phrase more likely to be used in reference to musicians such as PSY (of “Gangnam Style” fame), a painting has received world-wide notoriety due to a bungled restoration job at the hands of a senior citizen.
The institution of a controversial new Cybercrime Prevention Act in the Philippines may leave plagiarists subject to criminal sanctions. The penalty for the plagiarism depends on the number of prior offences, but first-time infringers can expect up to one to three years in prison.
In a brief decision released September 19, the Copyright Board of Canada held that the Category 4 copies at issue in Alberta (Education) v Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) [Access Copyright] constituted fair dealing for the purposes of research and private study.
Intellectual property rights are territorial by nature. Copyright holders cannot yet obtain unitary protection throughout the world. Instead, they obtain rights in Australia, Brazil, China, France, South Africa, and the United States. What type of rights they obtain, how strong these rights will be, and whether the rights will be effectively enforced depend largely on […]