OBA – Entertainment, Media & Communications Section to Launch Journal

The OBA Entertainment, Media & Communications Section is accepting submissions for the launch of the OBA Entertainment, Media & Communications Section Newsletter – Journal Edition ("Journal"). The Journal will provide OBA members, their clients and the academic community with substantive scholarly work exploring legal aspects of the entertainment, media and communications industries.  The Journal, which will be circulated […]

How To Minimize Costs Associated With Copyright Clearance: The DOC's Guidelines For Documentary Filmmakers

Vincent Doré is a JD/MBA Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business. Documentary films are meant to depict reality. In fact, a documentary’s sole purpose may be to expose the reality obscured by propaganda, censorship and corruption. It is therefore in the public’s best interest to allow documentary filmmakers to depict […]

Moving Forward with a Canadian Private Copying Levy: Lessons From the EU

Steven Zuccarelli is a 2012 JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. It is often surprising for the newest generation of multimedia consumers to realize that making private copies of copyrighted work has been occurring long before the arrival of digital music players.  In fact, few remember or even know of recording radio songs onto […]

Federal Court of Appeal Gives a Broad Interpretation to "Research" for Fair Dealing

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Last week the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a 2007 Copyright Board decision concerning online music stores and those 30 second previews that are found on nearly every music download site. In doing so they endorsed a broad definition of the term “research” for […]

Patentability of Computer Programs in Europe

Robert Dewald is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School On May 12, 2010 the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) responded to several questions posed by the President of the EPO, Ms Alison Brimelow, regarding the patentability of computer programs in Europe.  The resounding answer to these questions, provided […]

Trade-Mark Appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada

Ashlee Froese is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and currently practices intellectual property at the law firm of Keyser Mason Ball LLP. For the first time since 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has been asked to clarify on important trade-mark law principles.  The Supreme Court of Canada  has granted leave to hear an appeal […]

Tony Chapman at Canada 3.0: Canada’s Starring Role as Global Launch Lab

Nathan Fan is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. At this year’s Canada 3.0 conference, over 2,000 members of the private, public and academic sectors gathered together in hopes of forging actionable ideas that could bring Canada’s digital media industry into the global forefront. As keynote speaker, Tony Chapman (CEO of Capital C) […]

'Copyright law is tort law, too'

Michael John Long is an LLM candidate advancing to the PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School In their recent article, Copyright as Tort, authors Avihay Dorfman and Assaf Jacob argue towards a more comprehensive tort based analysis for copyright law than has been offered so far.  The authors argue very matter of factly ‘that copyright […]

Omega v. Costco and discounted luxury goods

Anjli Patel is an LLB Candidate at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law. Today’s post will be of interest to anyone who has ever extensively compared prices on big-ticket items before making a purchase. The US Supreme Court recently announced that it will review the case of Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, 541 […]

The Insensitive Internet - Brazil and the Judicialization of Pain

Marcelo Thompson is a Research Assistant Professor in Law and Information Technology at the Faculty of Law of The University of Hong Kong and Acting Co-Director of its Law and Technology Centre. Without the usual diatribes of the political process; without the bickering and finger-pointing, earmarks and pork barrel provisions, a new Bill is being […]