Ownership

Luksan v. Van der Let, Or Rather, EU v. UrhG?

A recent dispute before an Austrian court has demonstrated a quirky conflict between EU and domestic law with regards to the granting of statutory exploitation rights in cinematographic works.

Mt. Everest Skydive Footage Lands In Court

In Slater v Wimmer [2012] EWPCC 7, a cameraman claims copyright infringement after a skydiver provided some footage of what was billed as “the first tandem skydive over Mount Everest” to a Danish television show. As an aside, it turns out the skydive occurred about 20 km away from Everest and the adventure company that […]

Advocate-General’s Gumption Could Keep the ‘Fun’ in Computer Functions

Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Yves Bot’s opinion at the end of last year, on SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd., was based on the High Court of England and Wales’ preliminary judgment for the same case. Issued on 29 November 2011, Adv.-Gen. Bot focused on specific provisions of Directives 91/250/EEC […]

This Suit Is Bananas

Representatives of the defunct rock band, The Velvet Underground, have brought an action against the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. concerning rights over the world’s most iconic banana image a full 45 years after it was first released.

Prof Drassinower On "Copyright Infringement As Compelled Speech"

Featured here is a paper by Abraham Drassinower, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. The paper's abstract is reproduced. In his paper entitled, “Copyright Infringement as Compelled Speech”, Professor Abraham Drassinower offers a rights-based account of copyright law, providing an expansive conception of the public domain. Its central proposition is that a "work" […]

Appropriately Approaching Appropriation: Osgoode Professors On Feminist Alternatives To Postcolonial Intellectual Property Issues

Mekhala Chaubal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Our very own Osgoode professors and feminist scholars, Rosemary Coombe and Carys Craig, presented a thought-provoking keynote entitled, “Copyright and the Moral Arts of Appropriation: Feminist and Postcolonial Perspectives”, at the Feminism and the Politics of Appropriation Conference hosted by the Women and Gender Studies […]

Century 21 v. Zoocasa: Contract and Copyright in the Electronic World

Nora Sleeth is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On September 2, 2011, the Supreme Court of British Columbia passed judgment on Zoocasa’s alleged breach of contract and copyright infringement against Century 21. The decision is important to both copyright and contract law in light of present and future technical advancements. The full […]

22 American Universities Form Coalition To Implement Open Access Policies

Kalen Lumsden is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The University of Kansas, one of the first universities with a formal open access policy, along with 21 other universities, have joined together to form the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI). Their mandate will be to craft policies to implement open access […]

Marvel Wins Right To Retain Copyrights Of Comic Characters

Taylor Vanderhelm is a JD candidate at the University of Alberta. Marvel Worldwide Inc. won its case to retain the copyrights to comic characters against the estate of legendary comic creator Jack Kirby. The suit was in response to Kirby’s heirs filing of 45 notices of copyright termination in order to reassert their claim to […]

WIPO Looks To Find Balance Between Performer And Producer Rights

Brent Randall is a JD candidate at the University of Ottawa. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recommended to the General Assembly on July 26, 2011, that a diplomatic conference be held on the protection of audiovisual performances.