2016 CMW Global Forum Breakfast Focuses on the Power of Music to Heal Communities Affected by War and Conflict

How can we use music to heal and inspire communities in the aftermath of war, conflict, and division? That was the topic of this year’s Global Forum Networking Breakfast, an interactive panel session sponsored by Music Canada and one of the marquee events of Canadian Music Week 2016, held on May 6th at the Sheraton […]

Compliance with EU Data Protection Regulation

The re-posting of this analysis is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective. Introduction By means of an innovative and modern directive (Directive 95/46/EC – the “Data Protection Directive”), in 1995, the European Community adopted its first data protection legislation aimed at providing common legal […]

Privacy Commissioner Targets IoT Health Devices in Sweep

The re-posting of this article is part of a cross-posting agreement with CyberLex. What rumours is your fitness tracker spreading about you? In its latest Internet of Things themed sweep, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada reviews what personal information is being collected about Canadians by “smart” health and fitness devices.

The Right to Be Forgotten, A “Bad Solution to a Very Real Problem”

Jonathan Zittrain[1] calls the right to be forgotten a “ bad solution to a very real problem.” This article sets out to answer two questions. Firstly, what is the problem that the right to be forgotten is trying to solve? Secondly, why is the right to be forgotten a bad solution to this problem?

Life After BitCoin: The Future of Banking May Be in the Blockchain

Introduction In the past 6 months, the US Patents & Trademark Office (USPTO) has published more than 200 patent applications filed by Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other top-tier financial institutions for their own proprietary blockchain systems.  Previously the territory of online anarchists and drug dealers, why are banks suddenly so interested […]

Fashion Labels and Inuit Designs: When Law is Not Enough

A recent incident involving replication of an Inuit design by a UK fashion label raises interesting questions regarding whether businesses should be required to go beyond the scope of law and consider what is ethical within the culture being borrowed from. Salome Awa, an Inuit woman, was outraged to discover a sweater made by fashion […]

Osgoode Wins Best Factum, Takes 2nd Place at the 2016 Fox IP Moot

A preeminent Canadian artist named Ann Phibian. Her shaded-in line drawing of a leaping frog titled “50 Shades of Green” and the public domain painting it was based on titled “One Giant Leap”. A graphic designer named Baron Greenback. The problem for the 2016 annual Harold G. Fox Moot was packed with as many amphibious […]

Hacking in Canada

This blog is cross-posted with permission from Margaret Haig, Head of Copyright Delivery at the UK IPO, her original post is available here. In February, I got invited to take part in a hackathon. I took a second look at the invitation, and 'hackathon' jumped out! But we wouldn’t be hacking our way into the […]

A Copy is a Copy is a Copy: Reproduction Rights In CBC v. SODRAC

The Honourable Mr. Marshall Rothstein is a tough act to follow, especially when recounting his own majority decision. At the recent UNPACK SODRAC: Technological Change and Copyright Tariffs after CBC v SODRAC (SCC 2015) symposium, the former Supreme Court justice stood firmly by his decision in the case during his keynote address. The panelists during […]

Embracing failure: IPOsgoode's Orphan Works Hackathon.

Fail early. Fail often. For lawyers and law students, failure is anathemal; but, in the context of design, failure is a valuable learning tool. For three days starting February 3rd, innovators, law students, and stakeholders in the creative industries descended on Osgoode for IPOsgoode's second annual hackathon.