Copyright

384 posts

The Pirate Bay – Operators Fined for Aiding and Abetting Copyright Infringement

 In what is being heralded as a victory for copyright holders, a Swedish district court has found four operators of the file-sharing service The Pirate Bay guilty of aiding and abetting copyright infringement, fined them US$3.6 million, and sentenced each to a year in prison.
The defendants were involved in the operation of The Pirate Bay, reportedly one of the world’s largest bittorrent-tracking website. According to the court, users could upload and store torrent files on the Pirate Bay website as well as search the site’s database for torrent files to download.
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A Time for Change: Toward a New Era for Intellectual Property Rights in Canada.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Council (CIPC) recently released a report entitled A Time for Change: Toward a New Era for Intellectual Property Rights in Canada. The report discusses the importance of an effective intellectual property (IP) rights (IPR) system in encouraging innovation, ensuring economic prosperity, and maintaining global competitiveness. It then outlines a number of areas in which Canada’s IPR regime lags behind other nations and does not adequately protect IPRs. In particular, it notes that counterfeiting and piracy go largely unchecked in Canada, costing the Canadian economy an estimated $22 billion annually.…

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Google Settles Book-Search Case with Authors and Publishers

Google has entered into an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers to settle two lawsuits over Google’s Book Search project. This settlement will allow more materials to be easily accessible online while also ensuring that copyright holders are able to receive compensation for their works.

In 2004, Google started scanning books and making their text available online, accessible through the Google search engine. In 2005, several publishers and authors filed a class action lawsuit, claiming that Google had violated US copyright law.…

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The SAC Proposal for the Monetization of the File Sharing of Music in Canada: Does it Comply with Canada’s International Treaty Obligations Related To Copyright?

In November 2007, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) released a proposal for the monetization of the file sharing of music in Canada.  This article attempts to determine whether or not Canada, given its international and bilateral treaty agreements, could ever adopt the SAC‘s proposal.  The article approaches this analysis through the ― three-step test, which was adopted under the Berne Convention in 1971 and enshrined in the subsequent TRIPS Agreement and NAFTA; the article also analyzes whether or not the Proposal is compatible with Canada‘s obligations under the Rome Convention.  …

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Proposed Canadian Copyright Reform — Bill C-61

After much anticipation, the federal government released Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. If passed, the Bill will (i) amend the Copyright Act in order to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) and Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), (ii) create exceptions for certain uses of copyright material for private purposes, (iii) create exceptions for Internet service providers (ISPs), and (iv) permit certain uses for educational and research purposes of Internet and other digital technologies.…

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Barry Sookman
This site is about technology, copyright, artificial intelligence, and privacy law.