Featured here is a summary of Pascale Chapdelaine’s paper recently published in the Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal and now available here. Whether copyright is property continues to ignite passionate debate, more than 300 years after the entry into force of the Statute of Anne. At the heart of the controversy lie various conceptions of […]
In the words of Taylor Swift, Joss Whedon is probably singing: "Are we out of the woods yet?" On April 13th, author Peter Gallagher (no, not the actor known for playing a cool dad on The O.C.) hit Whedon – director and producer of The Avengers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – with a massive copyright […]
The U.S. Copyright Office is currently in the process of conducting its 6th triennial rulemaking review under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). This section allows the Copyright Office to create exemptions to the DMCA’s prohibition against bypassing technological measures that control access to copyright protected works. In each rulemaking proceeding […]
Video streaming, we all do it (or have done it at some point). It’s difficult not to in this day and age when entertainment is so easily transportable and amenable to on-the-go enjoyment, the stationary television becoming less and less the platform for watching our favourite movies and shows. Some of us have engaged in […]
On March 16th, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) heard oral arguments in CBC v SODRAC . The SCC granted leave to appeal from the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) decision back in September, which originally stemmed from a 2012 Copyright Board (the “Board”) decision. The issue centers on whether broadcasters should be required to pay […]
Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the IP Intensive Program, and the IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the IPilogue, the Deputy Editor of the Intellectual Property Journal, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. 2014 was another exciting year in intellectual property (IP) law. […]
It’s hardly surprising that politicians and members of the press often find themselves at odds with one another, as the two have a long history of conflicting priorities and mandates. Yet the two entities occupy complementary and at times oppositional roles in serving the public good. The recent debate surrounding leaked information about possible copyright […]
IP Osgoode would like to thank everyone who attended Dr. Emily Hudson's lecture, titled “Copyright Exceptions as Users' Rights? An Empirical Critique,” on September 29, 2014 at Osgoode Hall Law School. The video of the lecture is available here. You can also read Joseph Turcotte's reflections of Professor Hudson's presentation here.
The recently announced decision of the United States District Court in Manhattan, UMG v. Escape Media Group (Grooveshark), serves to further elucidate the terms on which service providers can expect legal protection if their users are found to be uploading infringing content. More importantly, it gives us an excellent example of the differences between the US […]
On 19 August 2014, Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante released a draft of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. This publication is a 1,200 page document that in many parts reads as a treatise on U.S. copyright law. Its size alone speaks to the complexity of identifying and protecting copyright and […]