site blocking Archives

FairPlay copyright blocking proposal: my presentation at the Fordham IP conference

I had the pleasure to speak at the 26th Annual Fordham Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference. In my opinion, this is the best IP conference. My topic was

Canada’s Fairplay’s Website-Blocking Plan: What is it and is it consistent with international norms and principles including requirements for proportionality, rights to freedom of expression and principles of net neutrality?

I have written extensively about the proposal including in a lengthy intervention supporting it filed with the CRTC, also available here.…

View Post

Website blocking effective without over blocking: EUFA v British Telecommunications

Site blocking is an important tool to reduce online copyright piracy. As I argued in a recent blog post, Website blocking proposal good policy, there are persuasive reasons why these orders should also be available in Canada.

Some opponents of effective protection for the creative industries, broadcasters and distributors oppose site blocking, questioning whether it is effective and suggesting it is a disproportionate remedy, despite the studies and decisions around the world that show otherwise.

In a recent U.K. decision, Union Des Associations Européennes De Football v British Telecommunications Plc & Ors [2017] EWHC 3414 (Ch) (21 December 2017) Justice Arnold made an injunction order on behalf of UEFA, the governing body for association football in Europe, requiring the ISP defendants to block, or at least impede, access by their customers to streaming servers which deliver infringing live streams of UEFA competition matches to UK consumers.…

View Post

UK Culture Secretary calls for boldness in dealing with online piracy

UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants action to protect and encourage investment in intellectual property. In a Speech given to the Royal Television Society on September 14, 2011 he signaled that the UK was exploring all options available to do so. This includes making it more difficult for online sites that contribute to piracy to stay online and making search engines take reasonable steps to make it harder to access sites that a court has deemed contain unlawful content or promote unlawful distribution of content.…

View Post

UK proposals to modernize UK Copyright Act released

The UK Government outlined plans earlier today to support economic growth by modernising the UK’s intellectual property laws. The Government accepted a number of recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves in his report, Digital Opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth in its response to Professor Hargreaves’ Review of Intellectual Property and Growth. The Government’s response can be found online at www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse.

The UK Government also simultaneously published a series of other reports including: Next steps for implementation of the Digital Economy Act, “Site blocking” to reduce online copyright infringement, Draft-Sharing-of-Costs statutory-instrument, Impact Assessment for the Sharing of Costs Statutory Instrument, Digital Economy Act Appeals Process: Options for reducing costs, International Strategy, and IP Crime Strategy.…

View Post

Subscribe