Won鈥檛 somebody think of the children!? A New 91亚色 federal court judge will. A copyright infringement lawsuit by multiple authors鈥 groups 鈥 including two Canadian ones 鈥 against Google and several universities for their HathiTrust Digital Library book scanning and digital distribution has been聽dismissed.
DC Comics v Pacific Pictures Corp et al, the recent decision of a Central District of California court to deny termination rights to the heirs of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, may be legally based in American copyright law. However, the case has its roots, loosely speaking, in Canada.
In a brief decision released September 19, the Copyright Board of Canada held that the Category 4 copies at issue in Alberta (Education)聽v聽Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) [Access Copyright] constituted fair dealing for the purposes of research and private study.
In June, Google, Inc. received some welcome news in France after the lawsuits instigated by the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l鈥櫭ヾition) and the French Author鈥檚 Association (Soci茅t茅 des gens de lettres) were withdrawn following a successfully agreed upon 鈥渇ramework鈥 settlement. Google wrote on its European Public Policy blog that the new arrangement gives […]
Without a background in horse racing, I feel comfortable expressing today as a 鈥淔ivefecta鈥. Since Monday鈥檚 announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada (鈥淪CC鈥) would release judgments in five critically important copyright appeals heard on December 6 and 7, 2011, there has been a growing excitement in the Copyright community. The decisions from these appeals, […]
On June 11 2012 an article by Vinay Menon appeared in the Toronto Star titled 鈥淎nne of Green Gables to be remade for TV鈥.聽 The article reports that Kate Macdonald Butler, granddaughter to author Lucy Maud Montgomery and president of the family-owned company Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc., will be centrally involved in a new […]
The battle鈥檚 heating up, but this time it鈥檚 not in kitchen stadium 鈥 it鈥檚 in the courthouse. Today鈥檚 secret ingredient - copyright which protects reality TV shows such as Iron Chef, American Idol, Real World, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) and Big Brother.
In November 2011, the Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Yves Bot, issued an influential but non-binding legal opinion, positing that the functional aspects of computer programs should not be protected under copyright law. To do so would be against the interests of fair dealing, by preventing decompilation and reverse engineering, among other […]
On February 21, 2012, Judge Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted certification for a proposed class action suit under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. C.6 against Thomson Reuters Canada Limited in Waldman v Thomson Reuters Corporation. The suit was launched by Mr. Lorne Waldman, an Ontario lawyer specializing in […]
Tali Eliav and Stephen Hutchison are 2011鈥2012 articling students at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. On December 6 and 7, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada heard five critically important copyright appeals. We were lucky enough to assist with Cassels Brock鈥檚 submissions to the Court. We were also fortunate enough to have a seat in […]