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Warner’s Summer Blockbuster

The summer movie blockbuster season is upon us – Spiderman 3 opening last weekend – and today Warner Bros unveiled the lobbying equivalent of the blockbuster.  In an effort to attract even more attention to the claims regarding movie camcording and piracy, Warner Bros. has announced that it is cancelling […]

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May 8, 2007 17 comments News

New Yorker on Exporting IP

The New Yorker's James Surowiecki places the spotlight on the USTR policy of exporting IP.

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May 7, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

Oda Claims Clerical Error Behind Fundraising Controversy

The Globe and Mail reports that Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda now says that her riding association submitted an inaccurate report to Elections Canada.  Oda blamed a clerical error for the fact that the report did not indicate that contributions from broadcast executives were returned after a fundraiser was cancelled […]

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May 7, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

Minding the Machines

Ian Kerr on South Korea's recent announcement that it is developing ethical guidelines for robots.

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May 7, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

Facing Up To Facebook Fears

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) examines the recent controversy associated with Facebook, including student suspensions for postings and the Ontario government decision to ban access to the site for thousands of bureaucrats and elected officials. I argue that while the merits of Facebook is open to debate – some love it, others hate it, and many simply do not understand what the fuss is about – there should be no debating the fact that many of these policy responses are unnecessary, knee-jerk reactions to an emerging social phenomenon that is poorly understood.

The recent backlash against Facebook has generally on centered around two concerns – derogatory comments and workplace productivity (ironically missing the real sources of concern such as the privacy impact of posting deeply personal information). 

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May 7, 2007 14 comments Columns