Archive for January 12th, 2009

Copyright and the Obama Visit to Canada

The Globe and Mail focuses on President-elect Obama's plans to visit Canada as his first foreign trip.  While economic issues will obviously be central, the degree to which copyright enters the conversation is worth watching.  The Bush administration focused heavily on copyright in its Canadian discussions, leading to the anti-camcording […]

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January 12, 2009 16 comments News

The Music Industry’s Digital Reversal

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) opens by noting that Canadians focused on hockey success and economic doom-and-gloom over the past month may have missed a series of events that suggest a dramatic shift for the recording industry.  For much of the past decade, the industry has relied on three pillars to combat peer-to-peer file sharing – lawsuits, locks, and legislation.  

The lawsuits, which began in 2003, resulted in suits against more than 35,000 alleged file sharers in the United States.  The locks, which refers to digital locks that seek to impose copy-controls on music files, was a requirement for online services such as iTunes before it was given the green light, while the lobbying for legislative reforms to support the use of copy-controls led Canada to introduce the failed Bill C-61.

In a matter of weeks, the foundation of each of these pillars has either crumbled or shown serious signs of cracking.

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January 12, 2009 8 comments Columns

Canadian Trademark Act Reforms Come Into Force

The Canadian Trademark Blog reports that new Trade-marks Act reforms came into effect on January 1st that block Canadian wine makers from using terms such as Burgundy and Bourgogne.

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January 12, 2009 1 comment News

Toronto Star Investigates Textbook Copying

The Toronto Star conducted an investigation into textbook copying in Toronto and found considerable infringing activities.  The comments to the article are worth reading.

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January 12, 2009 4 comments News

Canton on Facebook Activitism

David Canton looks at the success of Facebook activism in his London Free Press column.

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January 12, 2009 Comments are Disabled News