The Supreme Court of Canada issued another copyright decision this morning, ruling in favour of Claude Robinson in a longstanding copyright infringement battle over a children’s television series. Robinson was vindicated in the decision with an award of millions of dollars. The case is an important one for determining whether […]
Post Tagged with: "copyright"
Copyright Collectives Gone Mad: How the ERCC Spent Dollars to Earn Pennies
Howard Knopf points to an interesting Copyright Board of Canada decision that provides a instructive lesson in how copyright collectives fail. At issue is the Educational Rights Collective Canada, a collective formed in 1998 to collect royalties for educational copying of broadcast programs in classrooms. The ERCC, which includes the […]
Podcast on the Fight for Digital Rights
I appeared on CJSR’s Think to discuss the Fight for Digital Rights. Listen to this podcast or download it in iTunes.
Proposed U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pledges More Pressure on Intellectual Property
During the years of debate over Canadian copyright reform, I frequently argued that caving to U.S. demands on issues such as digital locks would not relieve the pressure but rather invite more of the same. While Canada has done much of what the U.S. has asked – digital locks, anti-counterfeiting […]
Taking User Rights Seriously: Two Weeks That Changed Canadian Copyright Law
I delivered a keynote speech titled Taking User Rights Seriously: The Two Weeks That Changed Canadian Copyright as part of the 3rd Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest at the University of Cape Town.
Two weeks changed Canadian copyright for the foreseeable future. In a single day, the Supreme Court of Canada’ ruled on five copyright cases. This was just weeks after the Canadian government passed long-awaited copyright reform legislation. This talk examines the decade-long process that resulted in a seismic shift in Canadian copyright law toward user rights.
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