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The Battle over the Rights to “Zombies in a Mall”

The Battle over the Rights to “Zombies in a Mall”

When asked to think about the pop-culture zombie genre, classics such as George A. Romero’s 1979 film “Dawn of the Dead” (and its 2004 remake) and Peter Jackson’s 1992 creation “Dead Alive” come to mind. After all, the storylines read typically: man battling the undead for ultimate survival. Joining the genre is the popular video […]

Faster Than A Speeding Lawsuit

Faster Than A Speeding Lawsuit

In two months’ time, the estate of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, will finally take Time-Warner Communications (via its subsidiary, DC Comics) to trial over ownership of copyright. Siegel (along with artist Joe Shuster) created Superman in 1928, and DC Comics currently owns the rights. Of course, it’s not that simple. Last year, the Siegel […]

Some Share the Files, All Share the Costs

Some Share the Files, All Share the Costs

The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) recently proposed legalization of peer-to-peer music filesharing via the imposition of an obligatory $5 monthly fee on all Canadian broadband users. It is estimated that this would result in the collection of $500 million to $900 million per year, to be distributed to musicians and creators to compensate them […]

Targeting Individuals: Targeted Advertising on Online Social Networks

Targeting Individuals: Targeted Advertising on Online Social Networks

Advertising has always been, or has tried to be, “targeted” at potential and existing customers. The entire purpose of advertising has, and continues to be, to communicate the virtues of a product or services to consumers in the marketplace in an effort to turn potential consumers into actual customers. In the past, this type of […]

Mashups, Fair Use and Community Standards

Mashups, Fair Use and Community Standards

Mashup culture continues to expand and proliferate, especially in the online word. Many audience members are no longer content merely to consume media, but actively comment on it, interact with it and reshape it. The explosion of repurposed copyrighted material that appears online challenges old notions of the fair use doctrine, and suggests the need […]

Effective Copyright Online – Drawing from Tariff 22 and 22A

Effective Copyright Online – Drawing from Tariff 22 and 22A

Illegal file trading will likely exist on the internet for the foreseeable future. As a result we are faced with the challenge of upholding the notions of copyright online or changing the scope of such laws and legalizing, to some extent, file trading. The former is an objective which I believe Tariff 22A falls short […]