The Globe and Mail reports on a new McGill study that concludes that intellectual property laws may be stifling innovation and that increased patent protection may hamper future innovation.
Post Tagged with: "McGill"
CIPP Launches Copyright Act Wiki
McGill's Centre for Intellectual Property Policy has launched a Copyright Act wiki that will allow people to make substantive contributions on possible copyright reforms.
DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach
McGill University hosted an interesting conference today on music and copyright reform. The conference consisted of two panels plus an afternoon of open dialogue and featured an interesting collection of speakers including Bruce Lehman, the architect of the WIPO Internet Treaties and the DMCA, Ann Chaitovitz of the USPTO, Terry Fisher of Harvard Law School, NDP Heritage critic Charlie Angus, famed music producer Sandy Pearlman, and myself. A video of the event has been posted in Windows format.
My participation focused on making the case against anti-circumvention legislation in Canada (it starts at about 54:30). I emphasized the dramatic difference between the Internet of 1997 and today, the harmful effects of the DMCA, the growing movement away from DRM, and the fact that the Canadian market has supported a range of online music services with faster digital music sales growth than either the U.S. or Europe but without anti-circumvention legislation.
The most interesting – and surprising – presentation came from Bruce Lehman, who now heads the International Intellectual Property Institute. Lehman explained the U.S. perspective in the early 1990s that led to the DMCA (ie. greater control though TPMs), yet when reflecting on the success of the DMCA acknowledged that "our Clinton administration policies didn't work out very well" and "our attempts at copyright control have not been successful" (presentation starts around 11:00).
McGill Conference on Music, DRM and the Law
McGill University is holding a great one-day conference on the music industry, DRM, and the law on Friday. I'll be on a panel focused on DRM along with Bruce Lehman, Ann Chaitovitz, and Terry Fisher. Details here.
More on McGill Turnitin.com Controversy
The McGill Turnitin.com controversy heads down under as the Australian media picks up on the story. Professor Geist is quoted commenting on the associated copyright implications. see: Ethical Query in Online Check also see: Canadian Privacy Law Review Information
