Literary Works
What the Dickens? Fact or Folklore?
Storytelling in the 21st Century: An Interview with Hal Niedzviecki
Storytelling in the 21st Century: An Interview with Hal Niedzviecki
Hal Niedzviecki is a prolific novelist and cultural critic, as well as the founder of Broken Pencil. He is in the process of releasing The Archaeologists, his first novel in a decade, in a serialized format online, where it can be read for free prior to publication. We met up for coffee one afternoon to […]
IP Osgoode Speaks Series featuring Dr. Abraham Drassinower: What's Wrong with Copying?
IP Osgoode Speaks Series featuring Dr. Abraham Drassinower: What's Wrong with Copying?
On March 11, the IP Osgoode Speaks Series hosted University of Toronto’s Professor Abraham Drassinower to present his new book, What’s Wrong with Copying? His presentation was followed with comments by Professor Bita Amani from Queen’s University, as well as Osgoode’s own Professor Carys Craig; each of whom offered insightful critiques of Drassinower’s book.
Republishing Mein Kampf: An Act of Respect to the Public Domain
Republishing Mein Kampf: An Act of Respect to the Public Domain
New Year's Day is synonymous with new beginnings, and 2016 will be no exception. Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), the manifesto in which Adolf Hitler explains his vision for Germany’s future and his political ideologies, will be falling into the public domain on January 1st, 2016. A French publishing house named Fayard, along with a few German editors, have […]
Don’t Shoot The Messenger - Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.
Don’t Shoot The Messenger - Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.
Jim Bouton, one of the designated hitters represented by the Authors Guild took another swing at Google Books services program in the United States Court of Appeal (2nd Circuit) (“the Court”). The Court rejected the copyright challenge brought forward by the Authors Guild and concluded that Google’s activities were transformative in nature and thus fell […]
Do War Criminals Have Copyrights? The Role of Morality in Controversial Works
Do War Criminals Have Copyrights? The Role of Morality in Controversial Works
At first, a request for royalties by the estate of Nazi propagandist Goebbels was considered a joke by counsel for Random House. But the publisher now finds itself in the middle of a legal controversy after releasing a biography about the notorious World War 2 Nazi, which largely draws from Goebbels’s diaries.
Court Rejects Class Action Settlement in Long-Standing Copyright Dispute Between Lawyers and Legal Publisher
Court Rejects Class Action Settlement in Long-Standing Copyright Dispute Between Lawyers and Legal Publisher
An Ontario Superior Court has rejected a class action settlement between the publisher Thomson Reuters and a collection of Canadian lawyers and law firms, stating that the proposed settlement is not “fair, reasonable, or in the best interests of the Class Members.” The proposed settlement would have seen Thomson Reuters fund a trust for public […]
Pride and Percentages: Copyright Term Limits and Payments to Authors in the Romantic Period
Pride and Percentages: Copyright Term Limits and Payments to Authors in the Romantic Period
In common law countries, the term of protection granted by copyright has been steadily growing ever since its advent in the eighteenth century, yet the benefits of these term extensions has been vigorously debated. A new study by Meghan McGarvie and Petra Mosner, however, provides evidence that payment to authors by London publishers significantly increased […]
Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Copyright Court
Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Copyright Court
What makes a fictional character who they are? Would Darth Vader be Darth Vader without being Luke Skywalker's father? Would Harry Potter be Harry Potter without defeating Voldemort? An American court will be asked to decide just that in Klinger v Conan Doyle Estate.