Brad Templeton had a very interesting post over the weekend on Dave Farber's list in which he characterized the RIAA lawsuit strategy as an example of spamigation – "bulk litigation that's only become practical due to the economies of scale of the computer era."
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30 Days of DRM – Day 03: Oversight of DRM Misuse (Markets)
This argument is a bit technical, but important.
Statscan Survey Shows Internet’s Potential and Pitfalls
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) examines recent Statistics Canada data on Internet use. The survey found that nearly 17 million Canadians – 68 percent of the adult population – used the Internet for personal non-business reasons last year. Moreover, almost two-thirds of Canadian adults who […]
“Would You Trust These People?”
David Basskin, the head of the CMRRA, commenting on the recording industry as both prepare for a major hearing at the Copyright Board of Canada on online music downloads, has the following to say about the recording industry and the interests of songwriters and music publishers: "Record companies do not […]
30 Days of DRM – Day 02: Region Coding (Markets)
The premise behind region coding is fairly straight-forward. With DVD region coding, the world is divided into eight regions (Canada and the U.S. form Region One). Consumer electronics manufacturers have agreed to respect region coding within their products by ensuring that DVD players only play DVDs from a single region. The net effect is that Canadian-purchased DVDs will play on Canadian-bought DVD players, but DVDs purchased in Europe, Australia, or Asia (all different regions), are unlikely to work on those same DVD players (with the exception of those DVDs that are region coded zero, which can be played worldwide). The is also true for playing the DVDs on a personal computer – my Macintosh will only allow a limited number of region changes.
Note that the use of region coding has nothing to do with traditional notions of copyright law. The underlying work may involve a copyrighted work – DVDs and video games regularly use region coding – yet the protection is designed to manipute markets by restricting the ability to use fully authorized copies of works.