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IFPI Excludes University from P2P Press Conference

More here on the situation in Brazil.

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October 17, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Yahoo on DRM

Yahoo music executive David Goldberg on DRM and music : "The notion that a track I buy in DRM is protected and one without DRM isn't is a fallacy," Goldberg says. "It's all nonsense. Music is never going to be protected, and anybody who tells you that is not being […]

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October 16, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Does YouTube Deal Foreshadow Licensed P2P?

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version , BBC version ) examines the parallels between YouTube and Napster, asking whether the YouTube – Google deal might foreshadow licensed peer-to-peer systems. While some media companies, including Time Warner, speculated publicly late last week about possible lawsuits, it is […]

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October 16, 2006 3 comments Columns

MPs Get Not-So-Straight Talk on Copyright

The Canadian Heritage Parliamentary Committee has received two briefings on copyright from department officials in recent weeks.  The first briefing was "copyright 101" briefing.  The second briefing, focusing on future reform plans, was more interesting.  The officials did their best to say as little as possible – when questioned about timing or specific issues, they found multiple ways to avoid directly answering the question. There were, however, several noteworthy exchanges including a moment when Charlie Angus (NDP) noted that many countries have yet to ratify WIPO (as opposed to the "coalition of the digital willing" that includes Azerbaijan and Botswana), and Danielle Bouvet from Heritage responded with obligatory "Canada is trying to have its own made-in-Canada legislation on copyright."  Further, Mauril Belanger (Liberal) spent a lot of time asking about the lobby groups who are asking questions about copyright and asked for a list of all groups that have met with Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada since January.

More troubling were two exchanges that may not have provided the MPs with a fully accurate sense of the law.

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October 13, 2006 5 comments News

Quebec Court Approves Sony Rootkit Settlement

Another Canadian court has approved the Sony rootkit class action settlement.  The Quebec Superior Court granted its approval earlier this week.

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October 13, 2006 Comments are Disabled News