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Prime Time Crime |
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Copyrights and regulated markets

New York Times June 1897 |
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Vested interest have done their best to cloud the copying of
Intellectual property, a
Government granted monopoly, with the counterfeiting of
physical property which can put lives at risk. Other
related definitions:
Oligopoly
Free market
Regulated market
The old school symbols of freedom,
music and film, have become the new symbols of
authoritarianism. |
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Greed and
Corruption |
Media Ownership |
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Entitled |
Regulators |
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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement |
Michael Geis |
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Software piracy down in Canada
OTTAWA - A study released by the Business Software Alliance says the
proportion of software installed on computers in Canada that is not
legally licensed fell last year to 29% from 32%. (Financial Post)
PREVIOUS: Lobby
spin
Another win for lobbyists
Glossy, Canadian and
subsidized
"Our
government is proud to help magazines that speak to Canadians' interests
and passions," Federal Heritage Minister James Moore said. The only
thing new about the fact that Ottawa is stuffing cash into Canadian
magazine publishers' pockets is that the Conservatives seem keen to get
some public credit. (National Post) MORE:
Magazines receiving money from the Canadian periodical
fund
Copyright lobby's spin falling apart
Each April, the US issues the
Special 301 report,
which examines the intellectual property laws of its main trading
partners. For the past 15 years, Canada has been included on the watch
list of countries the US believes need reforms.
Among the hundreds of submissions, one from the Computer
and Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
stands out as critically important to Canada.
(Toronto Star)
Bad Google
PARIS - A Paris court on Friday found the Internet giant
Google guilty of violating copyright by digitizing books and putting
extracts online, following a legal challenge by major French publishers.
(Reuters) MORE:
Fine for Google over French books
Copyright lobby goes after itself
Given how aggressively the recording industry likes to
pursue file sharers, one would assume that the industry itself is in the
clear when it comes to copyright infringement. But that assumption has
been put to the test in Canada, where a massive infringement lawsuit is
brewing against some major players. Members of the
Canadian Recording Industry Association,
including the Big Four (Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI
Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada), face the prospect of damages
ranging from $50M up to $6B due to their use of artists' music without
permission. (Ars Technica)
MORE:
Record industry faces liability
SOCAN's
secret copyright submission
University fears copyright reforms
OTTAWA - During
the last attempt, most of the attention was focused on the implications
for music lovers hoping to download and share tunes online, but the same
rules would severely restrict what researchers and teachers can do when
they work with technology in online courses and in the classroom. “All
knowledge is based on previous knowledge and they're cutting us off from
that.” (Edmonton Journal) MORE:
Excess copyright
Robot law is taking over
Special interests go online to protest music funding cuts
Copyright lobby board recalls pirated report
Canada may not
be such a land of lawless pirates after all. The
Conference Board of Canada, which
accused Canada in a report last week of being the file-sharing capital
of the world, has recalled three reports on intellectual property rights
after it was revealed the research contained text plagiarized from
entertainment and software industry lobbyists. (Montreal Gazette)
MORE:
BSA guessed at piracy rates
Lobbying board of Canada
EU to
extend copyright period
BRUSSELS - Performers and
record labels currently earn royalties for 50 years. That would rise to
70 years under the new plan. . (BBC)
New plan, new set of problems
The Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA)
is taking a dangerous step with its decision to stop suing suspected
music sharers and start cutting off their Internet access instead.
(Washington Post) MORE:
Music Industry to abandon mass lawsuits
RIAA ‘bait & switch’
Industry's digital reversal on copyright
For much
of the past decade, the music industry has relied on three pillars to
combat peer-to-peer file sharing - lawsuits, locks, and legislation. (Ottawa Citizen)
All jokes fit into 8 categories
LONDON -
Alastair Clarke, a British evolutionary theorist,
identified eight patterns which all jokes could fit into no matter where
you come from in the world. . (Telegraph UK) |
Copyright debate turns ugly
"The only
people who are opposed to this legislation are really two groups of
radical extremists,"
James Moore
said at a meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (CBC)
MORE:
Who are Moore's 'Radical Extremists'?
Detailed look at Bill C-32: part 1
Developing world mounts opposition
Copyright laws are the opposite of allowing 'market
forces' to act
YouTube wins copyright battle with Viacom
Copyright cease & desist
letter
What makes this cease and
desist so very, very special is that it's for a fake product we launched
for April Fool's day. (Think Geek)
Copyright protects public image
CALGARY -
Political commentators in
Rocky View County
claim their local government is using the courts to prevent criticism.
(CTV)
For sale
WINNIPEG
-
Ever dreamed of having your name immortalized on a
parking meter? The city that recently toyed with the idea of
corporate-sponsored pothole repair is launching a new campaign aimed at
raising money by selling off the naming rights of virtually any city
service. (CBC)
Copyright fee
LONDON -
The Digital Economy Bill, which requires internet service providers
(ISPs) to disconnect users who are accused of illegal file-sharing, will
cost consumers up to £500M, the Government has estimated. The
Government’s impact assessment document [available
in PDF form], which
examines the likely effects of the Bill, estimates that around 40,000
households will give up their broadband connections entirely to avoid
the higher fees. (Telegraph UK)
Everybody is still guilty
TORONTO - Since 1997 a
small fee has been levied on blank media such as audio cassettes,
mini-discs and CD-Rs as a way to compensate artists for copies made of
their work. The non-profit
Canadian Private Copying Collective
was established to collect the levy and to date they have distributed
more than $160M to more than 100,000 songwriters, recording artists,
music publishers and record companies. But now the CPCC says that cash
flow will dry up if Canadian law doesn't get with the times. (CP)
No
trademark on free speech
OTTAWA -
Trademark and copyright protections exist to prevent commercial
free-riders from exploiting the investments that businesses make in
their products and marketing. These protections are not designed to
insulate corporations from public criticism. (Toronto Star)
PREVIOUS:
Lawyer asks Google to reveal blogger
SLAPP
Censorship in Canada
Canadian Bar Association (CBA)
US takes a hit
The creation of
ZookZ
was made possible by the 2007
WTO ruling
that awarded Antigua $21M
annually in the form of abrogated rights to US-produced entertainment,
meaning Antiguan firms can copy and sell - free of charge - up to $21M
each year in entertainment properties otherwise licensed by American
entertainment firms. (Poker News)
Face put on one of worst copyright pirates
MADRID -
Pablo Soto's
story may be every computer whiz kid's dream - or nightmare. After
leaving school at 16 to support his family, he managed to eke out a
living doing what he loves most: designing computer programs. (AP)
MORE:
Big 4 labels target Pablo
'Cultural' boss moved
MONTREAL - The
embattled president of Quebec's cultural funding body
SODEC was removed and transferred to a
low-level job until the end of his contract in a move to avoid a
potentially crippling lawsuit. Jean-Guy Chaput was blasted by the
provincial auditor-general last month for racking up expenses while
travelling on the taxpayer's tab. (Montreal Gazette) PREVIOUS:
Where the money for 'art' really goes
What's all the fuss about
Piracy
blacklist backfire
WASHINGTON -
By wildly overstating its claims on many countries, the US has
undermined its credibility and confirmed criticisms that the report
lacks reliability or objective analysis. (BBC)
MORE:
US piracy list just bluster
Hollywood battling 'DVD copying'
Win for
US lobbying association
IIPA
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Lots of power, no
responsibility
OTTAWA – The government is
once again trying to modernize copyright legislation by introducing a
bill that would finally legalize what thousands of Canadians have been
doing for years. (Toronto Star) |
Tony Clement
James Moore
Copyright lobby trump users
Documentarians infuriated
Media control
Bill C-32 |
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Canadians should expect to pay more
Bookworms north of the
border shouldn't expect to pay the same prices as their American
neighbours even if the dollar hits parity, said Susan Dayus,
executive director of the Canadian Booksellers Association. (CP) |
Rules about competition not culture
Expanding our choices or a threat to our culture?
Free the Canadian book market
Indigo
Heather Reisman
Gerald Schwartz
Chapters
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Guitars down, comrades
LONDON -
Millionaire rock stars
are traditionally more synonymous with conspicuous consumption than
the workers' struggle, but artists have formed a new organization to
stand up for their rights. It will have a six-point manifesto,
including fair compensation after deals between labels and
technology companies, and a "use it or lose it" approach to
copyright so that recordings don't go unreleased. (Guardian
UK) |
Consumers spend big on video games
TORONTO -
Canadians spent a record $2 billion on video games last year, fuelled by
a $500 million pre-Christmas spending spree in December. Sales
including hardware, software and accessories totalled $2.094 billion in
2008, up 32.7% over the previous year when $1.578 billion was spent.
(CP)
PREVIOUS:
Industry's
digital reversal on copyright
TV losing consumers to digital shift
Consumer shift |
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Copyright claim
Just as the
University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa looks for a
new name, a city councillor claims he owns the current one.
(Toronto Star) PREVIOUS:
Canadian intellectual property
office |
Authors fight free books site
Scribd.com
attracts 55 million visitors a month, many drawn by the chance to
download versions of books by popular authors that have been uploaded on
to the website without the consent of the writer or publisher. (Times
online) |
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Hollywood north upset at rules
TORONTO - Canada's
film and television industry is screaming censorship over a
government plan to cut tax credits for productions with graphic
scenes of sex and violence, warning the plan could water down edgy
Canadian films. (Reuters) MORE:
There are some films Ottawa
shouldn't bankroll
Smothered with money
When lobbyists speak in tongues
Bill C-10 is bad economics
Bill C-10
Industry will leave
Canada
Another copyright success story |
Fighting back
VANCOUVER - A Richmond
man who runs an Internet search engine that allows users to find video
and audio files online is suing the Canadian Recording Industry
Association over "false" allegations of copyright infringement. In an
unprecedented move, Gary Fung, president of
isohunt
Inc. launched a preemptive strike against the CRIA in BC Supreme Court
last week stemming from the ongoing dispute with the association over
alleged copyright violations. (Vancouver Province)
RELATED:
Pirate Party |
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Cellphone law reaps double profits
MONTREAL - At
Future Shop,
they say they're selling
Parrots
like hotcakes. And virtually every other model of
Bluetooth,
too. (Montreal
Gazette) |
Copyright industry wins another one
OTTAWA -
The Supreme Court of
Canada won't hear an appeal of a decision that gave musicians and
songwriters a percentage of royalties for downloaded cellphone
ringtones. (CBC) |
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Killing cheap technology
At the
World Economic Forum
in Davos in January 2005,
Nicholas Negroponte,
supreme prophet of digital connectivity, revealed a strange
tent-like object. It was designed to change the world and to cost
$100. (Times online)
PREVIOUS:
The
children machine |
'Pay up or we'll sue'
LONDON -
The
computer games industry has launched an unprecedented assault on illegal
downloads, demanding payment from thousands of families who obtained the
latest releases over the internet without paying. (Times online)
MORE:
Big fine for
1st Brit convicted |
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Heirs feel publisher's wrath
NEW YORK - In a
Manhattan court this week,
John Steinbeck's
son and granddaughter were stripped of the rights to some of the
author's most famous works, including The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice
And Men, Tortilla Flat, and his first published novel Cup of Gold,
after years of courtroom wrangling that would make a dramatic novel
of their own. (Telegraph UK) |
'It ain't broke'
TORONTO - Premier
Dalton McGuinty has dampened hopes that the way Ontarians buy beer is
going to change. "It ain't broke," the premier said about a system that
gives the foreign-owned Beer Store chain a virtual private monopoly.
(Toronto Star) PREVIOUS:
Bad Brew: Part 1
Bad Brew: Part 2
Petition protests beer monopoly
Alcoholic beverages in
Canada |
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US judge sets Internet music royalties
SAN FRANCISCO - A
federal court on Wednesday established a formula for determining the
Internet royalties owed to thousands of music composers, writers and
publishers by three major online services - Yahoo Inc., AOL and
RealNetworks Inc. (AP) PREVIOUS:
The
Internet is evil |
Counterfeit product conference
VANCOUVER - The
public is not permitted at the conference, because it will be dealing with the latest methods of detecting
counterfeit products. The conference is also being hosted by the
Vancouver police department and the law firm of
Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus.
(Vancouver Sun)
MORE:
Counterfeiter fads |
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Supreme Court rules against multiple royalties
WASHINGTON - The
Supreme Court has limited the ability of companies to collect multiple
royalties on their patents. The unanimous decision was helpful to
customers of Intel Corp. and is the latest step by the justices to scale
back the power of patent-holders. (AP) JUDGMENT:
Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics,
Inc. .pdf
|
Unique voices silenced by copyrights
TORONTO - Documentary
filmmakers say it's getting tougher to make independent productions
because of growing restrictions on what images and sounds they can
use. The battle over rights issues was a hot topic of discussion at
Toronto's
Hot Docs Film Festival, where a
session last week about
fair use was packed
with filmmakers from around the world. (CBC) |
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Canada still taking part in secret
negotiations
OTTAWA - Canadian officials are taking part in negotiations for a
top-secret copyright treaty. Under the worldwide rules of the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,
Internet service providers such as Bell and Rogers in Canada would be
required to become copyright police and filter out pirated material from
their networks, hand over the identities of customers believed to be
infringing copyrights and restrict the use of identity-blocking
software. (Edmonton Journal)
EU demands in free trade talks would retool our copyright laws
What happens when you upset Disney
|
Copyright conviction raises civil rights concerns
Liberals, Bloc and NDP support motion to extend
copyright tax
Rules about competition not culture
Copyright overreach goes on world tour
Abuse of power
Hypocrisy and the ACTA
Internet
censorship
Net firms start storing user data
Secret treaty
ACTA
Canadian Consultation Report
Big Brother
The quiet unravelling of democracy |
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Law eases net snooping
OTTAWA - As
Canada's top privacy watchdog, Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Jennifer Stoddart
regularly
appears before House of Commons committee hearings to identify the
privacy implications of government bills. In a
public letter
to Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Canadian Heritage Minister
Josée Verner, Stoddart cautioned against using forthcoming copyright
legislation to undermine privacy. (Tyee) |
The copyright MPs
The concerns of copyright reform
Identity, privacy and the need of others to know who you are
Security concerns, technological advances threaten
privacy |
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Caving into lobbyists
LONDON -
Lord
Peter Mandelson's
visits to Corfu placed him at the centre of a new row today when his
department signalled a major U-turn on illegal downloads less than a
month after the peer met a Hollywood mogul on the Greek island. The
Digital Britain report,
published on June 16 after a year of deliberation, rejected the idea
of removing internet use from illegal downloaders. (Times
online) |
Downloaders to have internet connections
cut
UK crackdown on file sharing
Pirates, protectionists and panic
Cash for Influence
Greed & Corruption UK
David Geffen |
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Fee for incoming
TORONTO -
Rogers Communications Inc. will begin charging
wireless subscribers 15 cents for each incoming text message received on
cellphones despite watching federal politicians berate its rivals for
implementing similar charges last summer.
Bell Canada Inc. and
Telus Corp. announced last July that they
would charge 15 cents for each incoming text message, a move that
prompted a backlash from consumers and some politicians. (Toronto
Star)
List of Canadian mobile phone companies
Nanny-state mandarins seek to justify jobs
Keep
Canada's Internet open
Canadian content (CanCon)
Lobbying
central
Need for
'throttling' not supported by ISP figures
Rogers hikes
Internet and cable fees
Censorship in Canada
Canadian Media
Big Brother
Mobile phone racket
Ofcom: Mobile rate review
Ofcom to look into mobile charges
Censor seeks red pencil
National censorship council |
Dissolve the CRTC
Bell & Rogers collecting for the CRTC
Shining a light on Canadian wireless
CanCon not
on guest list
CRTC increases CanCon tax
Canadians reject ISP levy
Cabinet asked to referee fights
Potential win for the consumer
New agency created
Why TV lost
Storm clouds ahead
Broadcasters blundered
Canada moves to YouTube, like the rest of the world
Victims pay
Bell wants
to make it harder to switch
Bell Canada
says customers must pay for fraud calls
Demolish the FCC
CRTC
CRTC troubled by bankrupt TV network's plan
Remstar Corporation
CRTC ponders changes to TV program
funding
Media Scam
CRTC
will review hands-off approach
CRTC out of control
Commission out of control
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TV losing consumers to
digital shift
Customers owed refund for phone bills
Google’s end run around the wireless
carriers
Open Secrets
Communications Monitoring Report 2008
Wireless Jim's failed auction
$4.25B from wireless spectrum sale
Prentice puts a positive spin on your bills
EU wants to
cap costs on text messages
Cost of EU
texts to come down by 50%
Ottawa linked to cellphone lobbyists
Canadian Consumer Handbook 2007
CRTC asked to stop Bell's 'throttling'
Bell slows down CBC experiment
'Traffic-shaping' likely to slow Internet users |
When government controls opinion
Customer beware: government regulated
telecoms
Hot-button issue
Television welfare money on the line
Are you getting what you're paying for?
Speedtest.net
Bell
Rogers Shaw Telus
Rogers seals iPhone deal, profit doubles
Rogers customers complain
Rogers accused of hijacking other web pages
No extra cash
Canadian content
CRTC rejects
plea for extra fees
If consumers
don't get what they want, it is because the cable and satellite
companies won't provide it
CRTC report
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Companies scramble to stop cell phone
trafficking
Prentice
wants explanation
Rogers
reacts to complaints
Bell,
Telus to charge for incoming text messages
Canadians face triple lock on iPhone
Ottawa's
wireless tax
Conventional TV ad revenue declined in 2007
What about consumers
Regulated marketplace backfires
Digital switchover
Good and bad as CRTC hearings wrap up
Regulator sets conditions for deal
BCE (Bell Canada)
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
CRTC oks Bell buyout |
Rogers website messages irk Google
Is Rogers hijacking the Internet?
It's hard to regulate an industry
The
Internet grab
Telus ordered to pay refund
Telephone companies get full access to
markets
Time to revamp mobile Internet pricing
Dual-mode disconnect
A wireless 'stranglehold'
The high cost of Canadian wireless
Tories' cellphone misdial
Wireless auction
Confusion the name of the game
Coming soon: grid internet
How about another trade agreement
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Bell puts the squeeze on ISPs
The Bell wake up call
Teksavvy 95% approval rating
Bell Sympatico 62% approval rating
CRTC 2007 annual report on Canadian
broadcasting
Canada adds new tax on downloaded
MP3 files
Comcast blocks some Internet traffic
Apple iPhone warning proves true
Savy cellphone users break free
Hackers who modify iPhones could face
legal battle
Unlocking the iPhone could invite DMCA
suit
Why Apple Can't stop iPhone hackers
Tories flex some muscle with CRTC
Telephony Shock
jock monitors CRTC |
Canadian Telecom
complaints commission
Another telecom cash cow
Consumers may gain, someday
Minister from Quebecor
US
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Mr. Rogers vs. the 'corporate bums'
Limit access to wireless spectrum,
Rogers says
Court certifies class-action
cellphone suit
Ottawa hangs up on CRTC
How the CRTC killed Canadian drama
Quebec TV drama takes a punch
Channel gone? Could be the cable 'ladder'
Subscription fees 'trash,' Rogers tells CRTC
Canadian
Association of Broadcasters
'Lobbying' by MPs must be made public
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Your DNA can not be
patented
NEW
YORK - A federal judge on Monday nullified patents associated with human
genes known to detect early signs of breast and ovarian cancer. It was
the first time a federal court has invalidated a patent on genes. The
American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case, said the New
York federal court decision “calls into
question the validity of patents
now held on approximately 2,000 genes.” (Wired) |
Pigs fly
Is the DNA patent dead
How human genes became patented in US
ACLU
wants patents declared unconstitutional
US Patent Office gave a monopoly on our DNA
USPTO |
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Canada's
new copyright bill: more spin than 'win-win'
OTTAWA -
When Canada's reform
copyright 2008 Bill C-61
was tabled last week, Industry Minister
Jim
Prentice
called it a "win-win approach" that balanced the
needs of users and creators. Anyone who actually reads the bill,
however, will quickly realize that claims about balance are simply spin.
(National Post)
How the US got its Canadian copyright bill
Is the fix in on new copyright laws?
Bill supporters:
Entertainment Software Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Laser printers
accused of copyright infringement
Canadian bill made in the USA
|
Digitization of Canada's heritage left to Google
'Huge paradigm shift'
The tail trying to wag the dog
Canadian copyright consultation
Protests surge online
Copyright legislation currently hard to
enforce: police
Is your
iPod breaking the law?
A Betrayal
Fine print a disturbing read
ISP: Copyright liability
Proposed copyright law puts squeeze on downloads
Government tables
copyright bomb
The band pays
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Homeland already copyright police
WASHINGTON - Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or
other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified
period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border
search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
DHS
officials said the newly disclosed policies - which apply to anyone
entering the country, including US citizens - are reasonable and
necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have
long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public
interest in the matter. (Washington Post)
Proposed secret copyright
deal
ACTA
Discussion paper on anti-counterfeiting trade agreement
.pdf
Online piracy now means
up to 5 years in jail
US NET Act
More bad news coming
Channel ok
as long as it has 50% domestic porn
Canadian content
Government of Canada webpage
Writers Guild push for laws to maintain Internet freedom
G8 intellectual property experts' group meeting
.pdf
A
looming legal crises on the Internet |
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
Government Planning 'Insider' ACTA group
Turning Net into a virtual police state
US piracy crackdown going global
India cuts off 25M cellphones
Privacy watchdog eyes telecoms
Kempton Lam
Corey Doctorow
Michael Geist
Howard Knopf
Tories
blink on copyright law change
Turning Canadians
into criminals
Canadian DMCA: What you can do
They're shrinking the internet
How the
Grinches stole 'net neutrality'
The letters of the law
New levies proposed
for iPods and memory cards
Heavy levies could arrive for iPods, memory cards in 2008
Tories blink on copyright law change
Copyright court fight leads 2008 playlist
Opposition seems to have blindsided Prentice
Prentice to unveil his answer to copyright
law disputes
Studios aren't all about protecting artists after all
CAB attacks CRIA
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Court
jails Pirate Bay founders
STOCKHOLM - A court in Sweden has jailed
four men behind
The Pirate Bay,
the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde
were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year
in jail. They were also ordered to pay $4.5M in damages. (BBC)
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Pirate Bay founders defiant
Jail for breaking copyright
Protecting an old business model
Beached but not sunk
Guilty of copyright infringement
What
does verdict mean for innovation?
Is Google next?
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CBC sale of TV rights
There's some funny
business going on at the CBC…and we're not talking about a new
sitcom here. Last month, a good chunk of the publicly-owned
company's catalogue of TV shows was sold to ContentFilm, which is
headquartered in Britain. (Vancouver Province) PREVIOUS:
CBC
blasted for selling off catalogue |
Mint wants $48,000 for use of penny pic
TORONTO - The City
of Toronto says the Royal Canadian Mint wants almost $48,000 in
compensation after the city used the image of a penny in a prominent
ad campaign, without proper authorization. (CTV) Egypt to copyright pyramids
Rwandan gorilla seen as copyright
opportunity
Hands off our emblem, Canada tells illicit users |
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Net firms quizzed on speed limits
LONDON -
Bosses at six of the UK's top net providers are being asked to
explain why consumers do not get the broadband speeds firms
advertise. The six executives are being questioned by
Ofcom's Consumer
Panel which acts as the
regulator's customer champion. (BBC) RELATED:
Internet pirates could be banned from web
Internet users could be banned
More music industry internet idiocy |
Press for harsher action against trademark and copyright
violators
TORONTO - The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is spearheading a drive to
tighten Canada's protection of intellectual property. The new
Canadian Intellectual Property Council
(.pdf) is pressing the case that harsher action against violators of
copyright and trademark rights is needed to protect innovation and
Canadian competitiveness. (CP) |
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Johnson & Johnson sues Red Cross over
use of Cross Emblem
NEW YORK -
Johnson
& Johnson (founded 1886),
the health-products giant that uses a red cross as its trademark,
sued the American Red Cross, demanding that the charity halt the use
of the red cross symbol on products it sells to the public. (AP)
MORE:
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (founded Oct. 29,
1863) |
Misleading RCMP data
OTTAWA - At the heart
of counterfeiting debate are repeated claims that it is a growing
problem in Canada that results in billions of dollars in losses each
year. Responding to an Access to Information Act request for the sources
behind the $30 billion claim, Canada's national police force last week
admitted the figures were based on "open source documents found on the
Internet." (Toronto Star) |
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AP stories
The
Associated Press (AP)
doesn't
get to make it’s own rules around how its content is used, if those
rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they
are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it's clear
that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set
of property rights that don't exist today and that they are not legally
entitled to. And like the RIAA and MPAA, this is done to protect a
dying business model. (TechCrunch) |
AP struggles to save face
AP goes after bloggers
Copyright infringement alleged by the Associated Press
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New
group aims to 'save the Internet'
WASHINGTON - Days before a congressional committee is set to vote on
overhaul of the nation's telecommunications policy, a broad coalition
of media, consumer and Internet groups has organized behind a dramatic
tagline: "Save the
Internet." (C/Net) |
Net
neutrality or playing favourites on the Net Time
Warner AOL & Yahoo to charge for e-mail
America
Online
BellSouth
AT&T
Yahoo
Oligopoly
Watch: Telephone/cable industry |
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Ontario hospital sued by Bayer
THUNDER BAY
- A major pharmaceutical company has taken the unusual step of suing
an Ontario hospital for patent infringement, alleging the
institution effectively duplicated a patented
Bayer
Inc. antibiotic by diluting a more concentrated, generic version of
the same drug. (National Post) |
Fight
for public domain goes on
Digital
archivists aren't giving up on their efforts to free out-of-print
books, movies and music from overreaching copyright laws, despite a
recent setback in court. Now, out-of-print albums and books -- many of which are
not commercially viable -- are simply rotting away unused, but are
still protected by copyright.
(Wired) |
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Texas patent court strike again
Microsoft has filed a motion to suspend an injunction imposed by a
US court that banned the company from selling copies of Word in the
US. The ban was imposed after a Texan court ruled that
Microsoft had
breached patents owned by a software company, i4i Ltd, pertaining to
the way Word handles XML, a type of programming language. (Times
online) |
Microsoft claims i4i's evidence is
'irrelevant'
Texas patent central
Patent troll
About face on US patent decisions
US patent laws strike again |
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A Haven for Patent Pirates
RIM faces fresh patent lawsuit
Patent trolls
'Patent Trolls' may live or die by ebay ruling
Patent troll tracker
Bush
signs DVD 'sanitizing bill'
French
court rules against copy protection |
Judicial
Hellholes 2007
TorrentSpy loses Calif. copyright
lawsuit
Google sued over patent
BlackBerry
Deal: Patently absurd
RIM
pays $612M to settle US suit
Settlement reached in BlackBerry patent case
RIM countersues in new patent lawsuit |
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Mayor seeks to trademark 'EcoDensity'
VANCOUVER -
Want to use the term EcoDensity? Better watch out. Vancouver
Mayor Sam Sullivan is about to gain exclusive rights to it, if his
application to the
Canada Intellectual Property Office
goes through without opposition this week. (Vancouver Sun)
RELATED:
Vancouver: Canada's counterfeit capital |
US repels British invasion
WASHINGTON - This
fall, the British aren't coming. Immigration restrictions are
stopping some popular UK acts from reaching US borders. Part of the
problem, immigration specialists say: The traditional visa system
isn't set up to cope with the new face of popular music. (Wall
Street Journal) |
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Search
engines challenged on 'theft'
A
group of newspaper, magazine and book publishers is accusing Google
and other aggregators of online news stories of unfairly exploiting
their content. They
are demanding compensation from search engines. (Financial
Times) |
Old
media vs. new media
Belgian papers win Google copyright suit |
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Another RIAA court victory
BOSTON - A federal
jury on Friday concluded that a 25-year-old college student must pay
$675,000 - or $22,500 for each of the 30 songs he was found liable of
infringing. (Wired)
How it feels to be sued for $4.5M
Joel fights back
Excess copyright
$1.92M fine for 24 songs
Jammie Thomas
Retrial ends with massive fine
Single-mother must pay $80K per song
Rise of Sweden's Pirate Party
RIAA ruling
dismissed
Jammie Thomas
RIAA mistrial
Court of appeal rejects iPod levy
ISPs pledge not to 'spy' on web users
Net firms in music pirates deal
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Apple threatens Victoria school over logo
Dangerous
fakes
Sony BMG drop music
copy protection
Teen accuses record companies of
collusion
MP3s illegal, grounds
for lawsuit
Music Industry Needs Dose Of Innovation
Copyright will soon see its name in lights
Power of goodbye
EU court says file sharers don't have to be named
EU
reaches ITunes deal with Apple
Man charged with video piracy
Man charged for taping movie at theatre
Fox expands digital copy to iTunes
Canadian Songwriters Propose Legal Music Sharing Fee
Feds
query labels about music prices
The movie download derby
Music industry to tax down-loaders
BC man named in file-sharing lawsuit
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Death of the record label and RIAA
Radiohead's revenge is sweet
Hairdresser balks at order to pay
SOCAN
seeks tariff on cellphone rightones
Music
Industry wins $200,000
Jury finds Thomas liable for
infringement
Recording Industry vs. The People
Music companies sue 8,000
more
Digital-copyright.ca
Copyright infringement
Oligopoly Watch: Music
Industry
Oligopoly
Watch: Movie Industry
Hollywood puts squeeze on
Canada
YouTube cuts 29,549 'illegal' clips
Bit brother sees Internet as
up for grabs
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50% of movie piracy from Canada: Hollywood
DVD region code system
Digital
deterrents drive fans away
Judge: sterile movies illegal
New bill would punish students who don't
become copyright cops
BC man takes on Hollywood in
piracy case
US copyright law
RCMP charges Quebec
man for film piracy
RCMP demonstrates that movie piracy law unnecessary
Montreal man could face jail time for movie piracy
Sony
BMG Music agree to 'payola' settlement
Sony
settles payola investigation
Price-fixing
against major record companies
Time
Warner settles fraud charges
Copyright
walks fine line on civil liberties
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Music Companies grab share
of YouTube sale
Tone deaf Sarmite 'Sam' Bulte
Historian calls Liberal MP's fundraiser a
worry
That's what friends are for
Music companies lose lawsuit
Barenaked guide to music copyright reform
Sony/BMG
sued by artists
Canadian
Music Creators Coalition
Canadian
record label taking on the RIAA
Spitzer
subpoenas companies price-fixing
$50M
in royalties returned to artists
Sony
BMG faces lawsuits More
pain for Sony over CD code
Viruses
use Sony anti-piracy CDs Sony
anti-piracy software triggers uproar |
Media
companies are pirating your copyrights
International
Media Control
Canadian Media
Ownership
The 36 plots
Movie studio sue
'pirates'
Beatles
Lose Apple Suit
Woman
takes on Recording industry alone
Grandpa
sued for grandson's downloads
Students
fight copyright hoarders
Digital
Media 2004
Court: No free music samples
Bootlegs:
A short history
RIAA sues hundreds more
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