I was looking forward to interning SOCAN for two main reasons. First, I was being given the opportunity to work on behalf of fellow musicians. When I was a professional musician, SOCAN was truly a lifeline.  Whenever I needed help, they always took the time to make sure any issues were taken care of; and since most of the money I generated through my music went straight to publishers, managers, and labels, SOCAN was the only place from which I actually received remuneration.  Second, I was going to get some much-needed real-world legal experience, including a rare opportunity to assist in preparing for the multiple upcoming hearings at the SCC that concerned communication to the public.

Although I was initially quite nervous, my first week at SOCAN went a long way to assuaging any fears I had due to my lack of experience.  Everyone I met was extremely helpful and welcoming; and they were happy to answer even the most naïve questions.  The legal department at SOCAN was actually smaller than I expected, and unusually calm considering the amount of cases they had coming up at the SCC.

I was mainly given research tasks during my time at SOCAN, and not all of it had to do with copyright or music.  In my time working with counsel there, I learned that the job of in-house counsel deals with many different areas of law.  Of course, I conducted legal research into various new proposed Tariffs, Bill C-11, and the upcoming SCC cases, but I also looked into such things as insurance contracts and corporate law.

I also worked on litigation files.  I not only had the opportunity to draft such things as Undertakings, Refusals and Statements of Claim, but I was also able to have in depth discussions about each task with the lawyers who assigned them to me.  The hands-on approach that this intensive made possible is a fantastic way to learn such things – working side by side with counsel in such a way is not possible in a classroom situation.  Every new assignment taught me more about what it is to be a lawyer, and each memo I wrote brought everything into sharper focus.

What really impressed me about SOCAN is how concerned they are with doing what is right. SOCAN is more interested in making legal access to music as easy as possible than it is in enforcing strict copyright regimes.  Most people who work there do so because they love music, and they genuinely want what is best both for creators and users.  Working with SOCAN on behalf of musicians and music users (for fair remuneration and easy legal access) was truly an honour for me.

I can easily say that interning at SOCAN was best experience of my Osgoode education so far.  It helped so much to prepare me for what it will be like once I am back in the “real” world.  Until the intensive, I found that law school had done little to prepare me for what the actual work of a lawyer was like, and my time at SOCAN went a long way to bringing the concept of working as a lawyer into focus.

Joshua Dallman is a JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Here, he reports on his experience at the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), while interning there as part of the inaugural offering of the (IP Intensive) at Osgoode.

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On September 8, 2011, members of the intellectual property law community gathered at the Toronto offices of to celebrate the release of the long-awaited second edition of Professor David Vaver’s book Intellectual Property Law: Copyright, Patents, Trade-Marks.

First to speak was , who had high praise for Vaver’s book, saying that the second edition “improves on what was already very, very good.”  He went on to say that it is an impartial look at the challenges we face in intellectual property law, and that it “attacks the tough stuff beautifully and understandably.”

Next we heard from Jeffrey Miller, from the publisher Irwin Law, who thanked Professor Vaver for his leap of faith in trusting him with his manuscript for the first edition 14 years ago, when Irwin Law was just starting out.  He recalled how the first edition went on to become an authority on intellectual property law in Canada; and stated how the second edition has already been cited by the Supreme Court, while still remaining “readable, accessible, and entertaining.”

Then the guest of honour, Professor Vaver, spoke a few words.  He stated that, since the first edition of his book was published fourteen years ago, intellectual property law has grown from an esoteric field to what it is today; and in that time, he did not expect the first edition to become the authority that it did.  Due to these reasons, the new edition contains more case law and nuances in order to paint a more detailed picture of intellectual property law in Canada.  To close, Professor Vaver said that he hopes the new edition will stimulate discussion in Canada around intellectual property law reform and, paraphrasing Einstein, he closed with a statement that applied not only to his vision of reform, but to his new book as well: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

The evening ended on a high note with a surprise announcement from Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino that she and Professor Vaver are collaborating on a long-awaited second edition of Professor Vaver’s book Copyright Law, which was last published in 2000.

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