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Cracking Down on Green Mountain Trolls

Watch out, patent trolls - the Attorney General of Vermont is coming to get you. Vermont recently became the first US state to enact an anti-"patent trolling" law.

IP Osgoode: Call for IPilogue Editor Applications

The IPilogue is seeking additional members for its summer editorial team.

Game of Thones - Piracy is Coming

TorrentFreak has reported that the first episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones season three broke historic download records, with more than a million as of April 1st, 2013. Canada ranked fourth internationally in terms of the highest number of TorrentFreak S3E1 downloads, representing 7.4% of total downloads at the time of reporting.

Call for Applications - Summer Research Assistant Positions in Copyright / IP Research

Professor David Vaver and Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino are seeking two JD students to assist in the research of a copyright project to be undertaken in Summer 2013 as well as other research in IP (each position is for a total of 256 hours) with an early May start date.

The copyright claws come out in EU catwalk photo battle

Tout arrive en France, especially for folks following recent intellectual property news. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a key judgment in January in a case that pitted copyright against freedom of expression.

Equitable Copyright on The Table

A recent Ontario Superior Court ruling has attracted the attention of the copyright law community. On January 24th Master Abrams allowed the Delta Hotels v. Backus-Naur et al. motion pleading equitable ownership of copyright, an equity doctrine in many Commonwealth countries that is currently not legally recognized in Canada.

Electronic Communication: Privacy (In)Action

In the US, a recent bill that included amendments to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) has caused considerable controversy among privacy advocates. While some are worried about what is in the bill, the bigger problem is what it leaves out.

Cyber Attacks: Unsure About Disclosure

In recent years, the threat of cyber crime has become a staple of the news cycle. While most reports focus on threats to unwitting consumers, a recent New York Times article looked at the predicament facing publicly traded companies.

UK Collecting Societies To Adopt Minimum Standards

The UK government has released a minimum standards document detailing codes of conduct to be implemented by all UK collecting societies. The document details collecting societies’ obligations to rights holders and licensees, and follows recommendations made in an independent report commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010.

Pornography, Privacy and Professional Computers

The Supreme Court has ruled on a case that began with nude student photos on a teacher’s work computer, but opened the larger question of an employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy when using office technology.