In a recent blog article, Kevin Kelly proposes that ownership is not as important as it once was and discusses the many benefits of renting, leasing, licensing and sharing compared to owning. Kelly discusses this notion both in the context of tangible goods and intangible goods. In the article, Kelly is extremely thorough about listing […]
Wendy Gordon is the Philip S. Beck Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law, and is currently serving as the Bacon-Kilkenny Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. Now that Apple is removing DRM from its itunes songs, newspapers are trumpeting the move in ways like this: "COPY AN ITUNES […]
Chris Castle is Managing Partner of Christian L. Castle Attorneys, a law firm specializing in music industry issues, content based technologies and public policy. Ever encounter people who think that illegal downloading can be solved by "turning off" the Internet? That makes about as much sense as "voluntary collective licensing" or "ISP licensing" (used interchangeably). […]
In a move that is sure to make legislators around the world stand up and take notice, the French Senate recently sent a clear message to those engaged in illegal downloading that their behaviour will not be tolerated. In a landslide vote of approval which crossed party lines, the French Senate voted 297 to 15 […]
What started in early 2007 as just another simmering lawsuit against YouTube boiled over halfway through the summer into a full-blown battle over Internet privacy. While it’s still unclear who’s on which side, it’s fairly obvious that in the end, users are the ones losing out. And for that, we have Google to thank. In […]
Is online music downloading to the new millennium what marijuana was to the 1960s? It seems like nearly everyone is doing it and most have some way of legitimizing it. However, unlike marijuana, Canadian law has been seemingly unclear on the legality of peer-to-peer file sharing – until now. In July of this year, Justice […]
There are rumours that a new copyright bill is imminent. Copyright issues are increasingly gaining public prominence and there are views of every stripe. See below for a distinct view by Barry Sookman, copyright expert and co-chair of the Technology Group at McCarthy Tétrault, on the copyright debate as we await the new legislation and continue […]
The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) recently proposed legalization of peer-to-peer music filesharing via the imposition of an obligatory $5 monthly fee on all Canadian broadband users. It is estimated that this would result in the collection of $500 million to $900 million per year, to be distributed to musicians and creators to compensate them […]
In October 2007, the Copyright Board of Canada rendered a decision regarding tariffs payable to SOCAN by online music services.[1] As part of the Board’s decision it concluded that music previews do not infringe copyright as they constitute fair dealing for the purpose of research. While I agree in principle that a prospective purchaser of […]
The recent closure of AllofMP3 is coming to an end. The site that was closed in July 2007 has recently been reopened under another name and site location. The site that has users pay a flat rate to download music was thought to be in violation of copyright laws in Russia. However, a recent court […]