Patricia Akester of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge has released a comprehensive empirical study on the effects of DRM on copyright exceptions relied upon by libraries, educators, and consumers. The study is interesting because it includes interviews with all the major players […]
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Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians Adopts Copyright Resolutions
The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians adopted several copyright reform resolutions at its biennial conference earlier this month. The AEBC was founded in 1992 out of a desire for equality and empowerment of blind people in Canadian society. The resolutions call for a flexible fair dealing provision and and limits on anti-circumvention provisions. The full resolutions should be online shortly, but in the meantime, three of the most noteworthy are:
DRM and the Amazon Kindle
Lots of talk online about the ability of Amazon to brick the Kindle following claims of abuses of the company's return policy.
EA ‘Dumps DRM’ for Next Sims Game
The BBC reports that Electronic Arts has confirmed that its next version of The Sims will be DRM-free.
Ontario Court Orders Website To Disclose Identity of Anonymous Posters
An Ontario court has ordered the owners of the FreeDominion.ca to disclose all personal information on eight anonymous posters to the chat site. The required information includes email and IP addresses. The case arises from a lawsuit launched by Richard Warman, the anti-hate fighter, against the site and the posters. The court focused heavily on the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, which contain a strong duty of disclosure on litigants.
The discussion includes a review of many key Internet privacy cases, including the CRIA file sharing litigation (which the court distinguishes on the basis of different court rules) and the Irwin Toy case (which emphasized the importance of protecting anonymity, but which the court tries to distinguish on the basis of the newness of the issue at the time). The court also looks at the string of recent cases involving child pornography cases and ISP disclosure of customer information, concluding that "the court's most recent pronouncement on this is that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy."