Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The UK Ministry of Justice recently published a consultation paper entitled “Defamation and the internet: the multiple publication rule“. The consultation revisits, as its name would suggest, the multiple publication rule currently in use in the UK in light of the internet and online […]
Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Where do we draw the line between commercial and non-commercial uses? Is this view the same across content creators and users? A quick background Creative commons licences are designed to help content creators (who own the copyright) communicate to their users which rights they […]
Amanda Carpenter is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Last Tuesday, the British Columbia Court of Appeal affirmed an important precedent-setting decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court regarding online defamation in Crookes v. Newton., 2009 BCCA 392. In the decision, Justice Saunders and Bauman found against the plaintiff Wayne Crookes who argued […]
This blog post reports on the report of findings made by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) against a US-based company called Accusearch, Inc., operating as Abika.com (Abika) for collecting and disclosing data on Canadian residents without their knowledge and consent. This decision is noteworthy since it recognizes the harm done to […]
There is an interesting debate going on right now between William Patry and Ben Sheffner at the Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars blog. It centres on the verdicts in two recent high-profile p2p trafficking cases launched by RIAA against regular people (Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum). In Thomas-Rasset’s case, a jury awarded damages against […]
The recent announcement of Yahoo and Microsoft’s partnership may mean more choice and transparency for consumers, advertisers and publishers. It certainly means more competition in the world of online search and advertisements. Carol Bartz of Yahoo and Steven A. Ballmer of Microsoft finally put pen to paper on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, to announce this […]
European Union Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding is planning to overhaul Internet downloading policies in order to facilitate simple, consumer friendly, and legal access to music and films online. Her response to a recent survey, showing 60% of people between ages 16-24 as downloaders of illegal audiovisual content, is that “internet piracy appears to become more […]
Balancing the rights of trademark holders and registered web-domain owners is a complicated process. Understandably, trademark holders wish to protect their intellectual property rights and prevent cyber-squatters from acquiring valuable domain names for an illegitimate purpose. Conversely, domain owners argue that corporations should not be granted the automatic right to acquire any domain that can […]
Despite the ominous verdict from the Swedish court which sentenced The Pirate Bay (TPB) operators to a year in prison and a penalty of US $3.6 million for facilitating copyright infringement, TPB may soon have new life breathed into the service. Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish software company, has offered to purchase TPB for […]
Virgin Media and Universal Music Group have taken the plunge into an ISP and digital music collaboration to provide customers in the UK with unlimited access to MP3 downloads and streaming of Universal label artists. Although the exact monthly fee for this service has yet to be determined, Virgin plans to provide the service for […]