In a column dated April 29, 2008,[1] Law professor Michael Geist called a draft version of CIRA’s WHOIS policy “a model for domain name registries around the world.”[2] When the policy was finally introduced in July, Professor Geist’s position changed dramatically; WHOIS was now “a significant setback.”[3] Why the stunning volte-face? First, some background. […]
A recent report in the Globe and Mail revealed that a potentially precedent-setting case of a Facebook impersonator, could lead to a slew of charges against “pranksters” on popular social-networking sites. The accused, a Manitoba high school student, was charged with the rare offence of personation after police had decided that the fake profile he […]
Court and Tribunal decisions, being a work under the direction or control of Her Majesty, fall under the Crown Copyright.[1] Because of the importance in a democratic society to provide unimpeded access to the law, the federal government has officially made an exception to the exclusive copyright possessed by the government for decisions and the […]
It is said that a problem shared is a problem halved. Is it possible that innovation shared could mean innovation doubled? If one looks to economic theory to justify IP, the underlying purpose of IP appears to be the promotion of advancements in science and useful arts- by protecting the creator’s rights the law provides […]
In re Bilski, the courts must re-interpret 35 U.S.C. § 101, which states that a process can be patented. In State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group, the court decided that business methods were patentable as long as the process produced a “useful, concrete, and tangible result” [1]. In re Comiskey, the courts put an […]
American Airlines (AA) dropped the trademark lawsuit against Google in July 2008. Google maintains it did not violate trademark law. Still, the conditions of the settlement remain undisclosed. The Texas Business and Commerce Code (the case was filed in Texas) defines a trademark as a “word, name, symbol, device, slogan, or any combination” of the […]
July 29, 2008 was a day of mourning for half a million procrastinators around the world. It was the day Scrabulous, a notoriously popular application on Facebook, was removed from the networking site. The withdrawal was prompted by a lawsuit launched by Hasbro, the US copyright owners of Scrabble. Hasbro cited Scrabulous’ developers, Jayant and […]
For years, if you registered a .ca domain, anyone could see your name, address and email in online “whois” databases. In 2008, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) restricted access to this information. Internet law guru Michael Geist hailed early drafts of the CIRA’s new whois policy as “a model for domain name registries around […]
Last May in Brandon, Manitoba, police charged a high-school student with criminal personation after he set up a Facebook profile in his teacher’s name. The charge was laid on the conviction that the profile “contained enough information to cause some disadvantage to the teacher”. Under the Criminal Code it is well established that impersonation alone […]
Our society has become increasingly accustomed to concepts of sharing through the use of the internet. Whether it is sharing photos on facebook or music on limewire we are in an age of rapid-fire sharing. A group of scientists, many of whom are in the Boston area, have extended the sharing concept to the field […]