Bill C-32: Clarifying the Roles and Responsibilities of Internet Service Providers and Search Engines

Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On June 2, 2010 the Federal Government of Canada introduced the Copyright Modernization Act (or Bill C-32) that proposes to amend the Copyright Act to better address the “challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age”. The Bill comes about two years after its […]

Bill C-32: Copyright and Education in the Digital Age

Robert Dewald is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Technology plays an important role in today’s educational institutions by providing easy access to and distribution of music, art, literature and other information that forms the foundation of a person’s education.   Yet the innovation and technological advances that have created powerful teaching tools, such […]

Canadian lawyers launch class action lawsuit against Thomson Reuters for copyright infringement

Nathan Fan is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. It has been just over six years since the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in CCH Canadian v. LSUC, the seminal fair dealing decision that saved LSUC lawyers from the copyright infringement claims of plaintiffs like The Thomson Corporation (pre-Reuters merger). […]

Moving Forward with a Canadian Private Copying Levy: Lessons From the EU

Steven Zuccarelli is a 2012 JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. It is often surprising for the newest generation of multimedia consumers to realize that making private copies of copyrighted work has been occurring long before the arrival of digital music players.  In fact, few remember or even know of recording radio songs onto […]

First sale and digital content

Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto. Normally when a consumer purchases a copyrighted work embodied in a tangible object (e.g., a book or a CD) they are completely free to lend or resell that object without the permission of the rightsholder. In the United States, this is called the doctrine […]

A New Proposal to Protect Canadian Musicians: The iPod Levy

Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Along with the large amount of copyrighted music that gets copied in Canada without compensating the musician, there are attempts to make sure that some money goes back to Canadian musicians. For example, every time you buy blank media such as a CD or […]

Piracy as a Social Movement?

Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto. Joel Tenenbaum was the second person to go to trial after being accused of internet file-sharing. His struggle with the RIAA has won him plenty of supporters as "the average David fighting against the corporate Goliaths." This is just part of a larger social […]

Panel discussion on graduated response raises key issues

George Nathanael is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On January 27 in Washington, D.C., the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus held their annual State of the Net Conference. One panel discussion, entitled “Copyright Strikes: When Has a Pirate Graduated to Internet Exile?”, featured commentary on the concept of graduated response […]

IP Colloquium Podcast asks: Can Content Survive Online?

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Good news for IP lovers who want to get their fix of policy debate at the gym or in the car: The Intellectual Property Colloquium podcast is for you. Based out of UCLA, the monthly downloadable program is hosted by law professor Doug Lichtman […]

The Disappearing Tail: A Clue to the challenges facing Copyright

Virgil Cojocaru is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. ‘The Long Tail’, written by Chris Anderson refers to the alleged effect of online stores such as Netflix appealing to smaller niches. Individually these niches do not yield a large profit, but collectively (hence the long part) they can provide a handsome reward. Some […]