Afroditi Theodoridou is a PhD student at Osgoode Hall Law School.

On April 16, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision in favour of iParadigms who operates the “Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service”. This online system evaluates the originality of submitted written assignments by comparing them with content available on the Internet, previously submitted student papers, and journal databases. Turnitin also offers an “archiving” option so that the submitted assignments become a part of its database, if so requested by the educational institution. In order to submit a paper, a student has to agree to iParadigms’ “terms of agreement”. Four high school students had sued iParadigms for copyright infringement for archiving their submitted works. Although their respective submitted papers included an objection to the archiving of their works, the courts found that these disclaimers did not “modify the Agreement”.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing
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Afroditi Theodoridou is a PhD student at Osgoode Hall Law School.

At the 27th Annual Conference of the Visual Resources Association (VRA), the international organization of image media professionals, the opening plenary session entitled “Fair Use or Fair Dealing: Which Should Give You More Comfort?” was held at the Ontario College of Art & Design on March 18, 2009. The guest speakers were Dr. Kenneth D. Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University, and Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, Director of IP Osgoode. As images in the online environment easily cross borders, the question of which approach to copyright exceptions gives more comfort is a justified one. The Internet and the varying international approaches to copyright increase the already existing uncertainty by which VRA members are plagued. 

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, IP
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Afroditi Theodoridou is a PhD student at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Now that we are heralding a New Year, the European Union is welcoming in Prague, on January 7, 2009, its European Year of Creativity and Innovation (EYCI) with the aim to promote an innovation and creativity-friendly environment.

This is a meaningful continuation of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, since culture, creativity and innovation go hand in hand. The Member States can seize the opportunity to amend national intellectual property and technology laws. The Ministry of Justice in Germany, for instance, announced that it sees the EYCI as a great opportunity for further copyright and patent law reform. In parallel, Member States can push for further E.U. harmonization in this area.

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Posted in Innovation
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