Open core licensing, also known as commercial extensions, is a licensing regime that offers core components for free, but charges licensees for additional premium products. The approach is a twist on the dual licensing approach where the vendor, as copyright holder, makes the source code freely available, but also offers the same code under a […]
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in the United Kingdom holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world. Over the past five years, the gallery has been working on its £1 million project of digitising its entire collection for viewing online. In addition to the low resolution images of the complete works, the NPG […]
For months newspaper publishers have been complaining about Google, creators of the ubiquitous search engine and the largest online ad-space sellers. Publishers have argued that online news aggregators like Google News unfairly generate tons of ad revenue for Google without compensating the papers who provide its content. In a move likely to anger European publishers, […]
On Monday, July 13th, Mosaid Technologies Inc. filed a suit against IBM Corporation for patent infringement concerning six of Mosaid's United States patents. The suit was filed in the United States District Court in the District of Delaware. Mosaid, an Ottawa-based company, is well known for developing semiconductor technology. The patents involved in the suit […]
Jasdeep Bal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The Human Rights Law Network (where I am summer interning) utilizes public interest litigation (PIL) as their primary weapon to fight for human rights. The People's Patent Group, under the umbrella of HRLN, is not a priority, however, as HRLN seems to have their hands […]
On July 16th, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released a report of findings into complaints made by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) against Facebook Inc. for alleged breaches of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Facebook, as most Canadians know by now, is a major […]
Canada's Copyright Act was enacted in 1924. It went through a series of changes throughout 1990s, with the last amendment being in 1997. In 2001 the Federal government initiated a public consultation but it went nowhere. The last two attempts of the government to modify the act were in 2005 and 2007 when the Federal […]
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions. The ECOSOC is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; […]
Balancing the rights of trademark holders and registered web-domain owners is a complicated process. Understandably, trademark holders wish to protect their intellectual property rights and prevent cyber-squatters from acquiring valuable domain names for an illegitimate purpose. Conversely, domain owners argue that corporations should not be granted the automatic right to acquire any domain that can […]
A recent decision (Julie Does II v. MySpace Inc.) by the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in California held that MySpace could not be held liable for sexual assaults on minors that started with a meeting online. The court found that MySpace was protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). I believe […]