Post Tagged with: "copyright"

Industry Minister Responds to Manufacturing IP Recommendations

This morning Industry Minister Maxime Bernier released the government's response to the Industry Committee's manufacturing report, which included a recommendation to ratify the WIPO Internet treaties and to increase IP enforcement to combat counterfeiting and piracy. The government's response is about what you would expect:

the Government of Canada is:

reviewing the enforcement of intellectual property rights, and options to strengthen this regime, in order to combat video piracy and the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, and
preparing amendments to Canada's copyright regime that would provide for the implementation of the WIPO Internet Treaties into our domestic legislation

The response continues by noting that the Public Safety and Industry committees are also examining the counterfeiting issue. I do not think there is anything particularly new here – the government has long indicated that it plans to amend the Copyright Act and this statement is obviously consistent with those plans.

May 29, 2007 — 2 comments — News

P2PNet Talks to Allofmp3

P2PNet scores an interview with the controversial Allofmp3.com.

May 28, 2007 — Comments are Disabled — News

Will The Next Copyright Bill Pass Constitutional Scrutiny?

My colleague Jeremy deBeer has been the leading voice questioning whether anti-circumvention legislation – the legal protection for DRM that is often described as "para-copyright" – is constitutional, given that the potential rules arguably involve property rights (which falls under provincial jurisdiction) far more than traditional copyright (a federal matter). […]

May 24, 2007 — 4 comments — News

Japan To Propose Novel Approach to Online Video

Variety reports that Japan's IPR Policy Working Group is proposing a novel change to that country's copyright law with respect to online video. The Group is proposing that Internet distribution of previously broadcast television shows will no longer require permissions from all rights holders. Instead, they need only to ensure […]

May 24, 2007 — 1 comment — News

Museums and the Public Domain

The Associated Press has picked up on a story involving public access to images in the Smithsonian Institution. Public.Resource.Org has posted 6,288 images currently sold by the Smithsonian on Flickr (a book of the images can be downloaded for free from Lulu.com), arguing that the U.S. institution is overreaching by claiming copyright or control over images that are in the public domain.

The issue is an important one that should also resonate in Canada. Some readers may recall the battle between a small school division in Manitoba and the National Gallery of Canada over fees levied for a public domain Paul Kane painting. In the wake of that incident, I've been working with some students to identify how Canadian museums address access to public domain works in their collections. The research is not yet complete, however, the preliminary news is not good.

Museums are strapped for cash and therefore use their physical control over images to levy fees over public domain works. While a cost-recovery fee for digitization or administration is understandable, many institutions go much further charging "surrogate copyright fees" or "user's fees" for public domain works or deploy technology to limit the potential uses of digitized versions of those works.

For example, consider Emily Carr, whose work entered the public domain in 1996.

May 23, 2007 — 1 comment — News