Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto.

Normally when a consumer purchases a copyrighted work embodied in a tangible object (e.g., a book or a CD) they are completely free to lend or resell that object without the permission of the rightsholder. In the United States, this is called the doctrine of first sale and it has been recognized for over a century. Business practices, prices, and consumer expectations all reflect the assumption that sale of a book is just a regular property transaction. This article discusses how this changes when we switch from tangible objects to digital distribution.

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Posted in Copyright, Digital Downloads
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Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto.

According to a report commissioned by ICANN, the organization that oversees the domain name system, less than one quarter of domain name ownership records are accurate. Recent statements by the FBI and the UK Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) have drawn upon this report in calling for stricter identity verification when registering a domain. This article discusses the findings of the study, possible solutions and their drawbacks.

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Posted in Domain Names, Internet
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Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto.

Joel Tenenbaum was the second person to go to trial after being accused of internet file-sharing. His struggle with the RIAA has won him plenty of supporters as “the average David fighting against the corporate Goliaths.” This is just part of a larger social movement that sees piracy not only as acceptable, but laudable. While it’s hard to defend the recent decisions of the RIAA and other big media companies, I think this is the wrong path to take.

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Posted in Copyright, Digital Downloads, IP
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Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto.

Last week, the Federal Court of Australia published a highly anticipated judgment in Roadshow Films v. iiNet. iiNet is an Australian ISP accused of authorizing copyright infringement by creating a service by which it profited from infringement and by failing to take “reasonable measures” to prevent illegal downloading on its network. The Court held in favour of iiNet. One of the more interesting findings was that a notification and termination policy is not a reasonable measure to prevent copyright infringement.

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Posted in Copyright, IP
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