Settlement in Chet Baker Music Royalties Class Action

Judge George Strathy of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave approval for Canada’s largest copyright class action settlement on Monday, $50 million for unpaid royalties. This finally brings a somewhat troubled copyright infringement case to an end. The lawsuit was originally initiated by the estate of jazz legend Chet Baker, who also represented songwriters and music publishers with unpaid royalty claims against four Canadian record labels for hundreds of thousands of copyright infringements from unlicensed use of their work. Read the rest of this entry »

Trademark Decision: Masterpiece Inc. v. Alavida Lifestyles Inc.

The SCC released a significant trademark decision last week, Masterpiece Inc. v. Alavida Lifestyles Inc., one which re-examines the legal concept of “confusion” in trademark law and the befuddled relationship between registered and existing, unregistered trademark rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

The War Between Old Media Empires and the Internet

It is now clear that the true enemy of traditional media, still unbloodied, is the Internet itself. The remarkable ability of digital technology to reduce the transaction costs of information exchanges of all kinds has destroyed the business models, if not the businesses, on which content providers have operated successfully since at least the 18th century. That’s when the first copyright law was passed in England.

The focus on “media” in the very name of the industry belies its reliance on the limited life of physical copies as the key control mechanism. But as physical copies are replaced by faster, better, and cheaper digital alternatives, control becomes more illusory. The entrenched providers are growing desperate.

- Larry Downes, in his recent, and somewhat lengthy, column Leahy’s Protect IP Act: Why Internet content wars will never end Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese Prisoners Forced to Game

If there is such thing as modernization of forced labour, this would be it. Prisoners in a labour camp in north-eastern China have allegedly been forced to play MMORPG’s, like World of Warcraft, to build up online credit that prison guards would then trade for real money. Netting the prison guards approximately $800 to $900 a day, it is said to be even more lucrative than the manual labour prisoners are traditionally forced to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Shaw’s Internet Pricing Shakeup

In response to ongoing consumer outrage against Canada’s uncompetitive internet pricing market, Shaw Communications Inc. is introducing new data plans that promise to include higher caps, faster service and even new, unlimited plans. Pressure has been mounting from both the public and politicians over the fees Canadians are paying, among the highest in the world, for broadband provision, a service known to cost very little to provide once infrastructure is set up.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tech Elites Gather for Inaugural e>G8 Forum

World leaders and movers and shakers of this digital age are gathered in Paris, France, just two days ahead of the 37th G8 Summit, for the first ever e>G8 Forum. The two-day forum is hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy with a focus on internet regulation. The purpose of the forum is to gather private sector technology leaders for plenary sessions, town hall meetings, and workshops to inform G8 nation heads and enrich their discussions at the following Summit. Read the rest of this entry »

Potential Effect of Digital Locks on Music Industry Clouds

Since Bill C-32, an Act to amend the Copyright Act, died with the election, the new Tory majority government had promised in their campaign to reintroduce and pass the same bill, albeit with a new number, in the next Parliament. It is unclear what, if any, changes will be made to C-32 upon reintroduction. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple’s Bid for Musical Cloud Supremacy

Amazon and Google seemed to have the upper hand in the cloud music service, launching their service months and weeks ago, respectively. But in the latest move in the escalating music cloud battle, it seems like Apple may having the last say. Three of the big four music labels, Sony Music, EMI and Warner Music, have agreed to stream music through Apple’s iCloud service, a feat neither Amazon nor Google were able to achieve prior to their own launches. Read the rest of this entry »

Super-injunctions: Twitter Sued by Footballer (UK)

In what may be the first lawsuit against the microblogging site, an English footballer is suing Twitter and its users after a/some Tweeter(s) purported to reveal the name of a player who allegedly had an affair with a model. The lawsuit lists the defendants as “Twitter Inc and persons unknown” according to reports. It seems like we finally have an answer to how Twitter gags could potentially be enforced. Sort of. Read the rest of this entry »

The First Sale Doctrine: What Antitrust Law Can (and Cannot) Teach

Professor Ariel Katz recently posted a new paper on SSRN.  The paper is based on a presentation that he gave at the Exhaustion and First Sale in IP Conference held at Santa Clara Law School last November.  Abstract:

“The first sale doctrine (or exhaustion) limits the exclusive rights that survive the initial authorized sale of an item protected by such rights.  The first sale doctrine has always been under pressure by owners of intellectual property rights, and courts have never been able to precisely outline its contours, or fully articulate its rationale. Recently, and somewhat counter-intuitively, insights borrowed from modern antitrust law and economics are invoked to provide a seemingly robust theoretical foundation for undermining exhaustion rules or narrowing their scope, and thereby strengthen IP owners’ control over downstream distribution and use of the goods they produce.” Read the rest of this entry »