Copyright ← Innovation Law Blog

Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons: A Canadian Perspective 1

Oct

2012

The IP blogosphere is abuzz today over an U.S. Supreme Court hearing, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a case that has the potential to change the landscape of copyright law, and in particular, the first sale doctrine (otherwise known as the exhaustion doctrine). Ronald Mann from SCOTUSBlog has a good overview of the positions ...

Capitol Records LLC v. ReDigi Inc., the applicability of the first sale doctrine to digital music 3

David Ben Salem

Oct

2012

The start-up ReDigi is judicially battling music giant Capitol Records (EMI) over whether digital music can be resold after it has been lawfully purchased. Launched in October 2011, ReDigi bills itself as an online marketplace for second-hand digital material. When users sign up to its service, they are required to download proprietary software which verifies if ...

Research Works Act pulled as Elsevier bows to boycott pressure 1

Kevin P. Siu

Feb

2012

For the last month, the academic publishing industry has been the latest battlefield over American copyright law. In December 2011, the US Congress introduced the controversial Research Works Act, which aimed to reverse the National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy of requiring academic research papers funded by its federal grants to be made open access one ...

Lawful Access: Reviewing the Bill C-30 Controversy

Jordan Katz

Feb

2012

On February 14th, the government finally re-tabled Bill C-30, long referred to as the ‘lawful access’ legislation and now re-introduced as the “Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act” or the short and controversial title of “Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act”. Commentators such as Michael Geist and the University of Toronto’s Lisa Austin have ...

Apple v Samsung: This Time It’s Global

alexkitz

Feb

2012

“The United States district court is a public institution, and the workings of litigation must be open to public view,” Justice Alsup wrote in an October order in Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc. Yet this is not the approach of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh and U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal, who have not ...

Is SOPA Dead? 3

Kevin P. Siu

Jan

2012

The story of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its sister act, Protect IP Act (PIPA) has been an intriguing and increasingly polarizing one. As Sarit wrote a few days ago, the increasing pressure from tech companies has forced the White House to come out against certain provisions, such as the DNS blocking provision ...

The End of the Internet?

Jordan Katz

Nov

2011

Tension between the interests of copyright holders and the accessibility and openness of the Internet is not a new phenomenon – Napster anyone? However, a potentially game-changing new development in online intellectual property and copyright law is currently making its way through the United Stages legislature. The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, was introduced ...

Who Gets Burned When the Dragon Stirs? – Ramifications of Stricter Patent Protection in China

alexkitz

Nov

2011

Jameson Berkow in The National Post recently voiced a concern not unfamiliar to those who have seen the cover of any Economist magazine in the past eight years – the dangers of China’s evolving economy, in particular their approach to patent protection. The article argues that, “China … has intentionally maintained a lax intellectual property ...

Apple Manages to Frustrates Developers…Again!

Sarit Pandya

Nov

2011

Apple has launched a new requirement, which will require sandboxing of all Mac App Store applications, starting next March. This move again will frustrate developers, although Apple claims its main motivation for such a move is to provide safety. Apple has had a unique relationship with many app developers in the past, providing a superb ...

SCC Judgement: Hyperlinking to Content Does Not Constitute Republication

Sarit Pandya

Oct

2011

Last Wednesday (October 19th, 2011), the Supreme Court of Canada released its judgement on Crookes v. Newton (2011 SCC 47). The case focused on whether or not liability existed when one post hyperlinks to allegedly defamatory material on the internet. The court’s decision was succinctly summarized by Justice Abella, who stated, “I would conclude that a hyperlink, ...