Louis Vuitton and Burberry Knock-off Companies Fined $2.5million

In a decision rendered this week, the conclusion of Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. v. Singga Enterprises (Canada) Inc. saw three Canadian companies fined approximately $2.5 million for selling knock-off Louis Vuitton and Burberry handbags. Vancouver-based Singga Enterprises Inc. and Carnation Fashion Company, and Toronto-based Altec Productions were accused of “manufacturing, importing, distributing, selling and offering for sale Counterfeit and/or Infringing Items”.  Read the rest of this entry »

Lawful Access Concerns Gathering Steam

The Conservative government first introduced “lawful access” legislation in three bills in late October and early November of last year. The bills’ aim was to amend the Criminal Code to give law enforcement authorities new investigative powers for computer-related crimes and to use new communications technologies for that purpose. With a Conservative majority in place, that legislation appears likely to pass. Opposition to Bill C-51, however, is also gathering momentum.  Read the rest of this entry »

Violent Video Games: Brown v. Entertainment Merchants

Formerly titled Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants, the Supreme Court of the United States on Monday struck down a California law, first enacted in 2005, which banned the sale of violent video games to minors. The main issue in the case was whether this state law violated the First Amendment right to free speech. In a 2-7 holding, the Court held that California’s law violates the First Amendment and that video games do qualify for First Amendment protection.  ”Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium.  And ‘the basic principles of freedom of speech … do not vary’ with a new and different communication medium.”

Chilling Effect of Vague “Fair” Use Doctrine in U.S.

Andy Baio of Waxy.org produced an 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis‘ well-loved Kind of Blue album last year, making sure the entire project was legally honourable. In spite of his efforts, his project was still subject to a copyright claim, but surprisingly, over his cover art. Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Amazon’s “one-click purchasing” Patent Battle

The official blog of Search Engine by Jesse Brown recently featured a very informative podcast discussing the implications of Amazon’s 13-year “one click” ordering system patent dispute in Canada, which can potentially be concluded very soon. Amazon has held this patent in the U.S. for many years now, but here in Canada, Amazon was denied the patent in 2009. Amazon appealed the decision, of course, and the case has made its way before the Federal Court of Appeal with the hearing held on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

Dropbox Accounts Accidentally Open to All for 4 Hours

A code update Monday afternoon introduced a bug which made Dropbox accounts password-free, meaning anyone could have logged into anyone else’s account with only the email address, for about four hours. The breach occurred between 1:54pm and 5:41pm Pacific time and was fixed at 5:46pm. According to Dropbox’s blog post, however, only less than one percent of users logged in during that period. Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver Riot: Why E-Evidence May Not Be Enough

In the aftermath of the downtown Vancouver riots that took place after the Canucks’ Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, we all heard about how a social media movement took root, with angry and embarrassed Vancouverites posting images online, asking for and giving help in identifying perpetrators. The Facebook page “Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos“, started on Thursday, provides a site on which people can upload their riot photos. Vancouver police are now combing through more than one million photos and a thousand hours of video footage submitted as evidence following the Stanley Cup riot. But sometimes, a photo is just a photo. Read the rest of this entry »

LawTech Camp a success

On Saturday, June 18, 2011 the University of Toronto Faculty of law was host to an innovatively structured gathering featuring a series of sessions and discussions on issues relating to law and technology. Based on the idea of BarCamp–user generated gatherings, or “unconferences”–the sessions arose from the suggestions and proposed discussion topics put forward by the participants and attendees at the sessions.

Sponsored by CILP, lawyerlocate.ca, SapnaLaw, Mitchell E. Kowalski and My Legal Briefcase, lawTechcamp featured sessions that dealt with a range of issues, from questions around social media in the courts, privacy issues in the context of corporations and PIPEDA, free access to law through organizations such as CanLII, and the strengths and challenges that arise from cloud computing structures, the topics were diverse and the resulting discussions were at times lively. Read the rest of this entry »

Prof Katz Requesting Competition Commission Intervention in Access Copyright Case

Earlier this year, Access Copyright (AC) won a Copyright Board decision that granted a new interim tariff for post-secondary education institutions. In response to AC’s quest for a 1,300% increase in its post-secondary tariff, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) filed a request on June 9, 2011 to the Copyright Board to amend the interim and order Access Copyright to grant transactional licenses. The Board ordered all parties to respond by today. Read the rest of this entry »

Nokia and Apple’s Patent Dispute Settled

Two of the world’s largest mobile giants, Nokia and Apple, have finally ended a lengthy legal battle on Tuesday by entering into a patent-license settlement covering all their patent disputes. If one party is to be declared the “winner”, it would likely be Nokia as Apple will be making a one-time payment to Nokia and pay continuing royalties for the term of the agreement. The specific financial terms have not been released. Read the rest of this entry »