The notion of originality in copyright seems to reinforce an outdated assumption of author as a singular creator. Today, there are a plethora of cases that defy this notion. Most…
Category: Copyright
Copyright Law in Iraq: All Bark, No Bite
On January 28th, 2008, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and the IZDIHAR Project co-hosted Iraq’s first Iraqi Copyright Awareness Conference. While it was awarded minimal media coverage, the rare congregation…
Facing Up to Facebook: The Fight for Fair Copyright in Canada
Editor’s note: Thanks to those of you who joined us for the lecture! This page will now provide an archive of the lecture. If you are unable to see the…
The Commodification of Intellectual Property, and You!
I recently attended a lecture by professor Bruce Ziff, of the University of Alberta Law School, where he described what he termed as his only original academic idea. He posited…
The Battle over the Rights to “Zombies in a Mall”
When asked to think about the pop-culture zombie genre, classics such as George A. Romero’s 1979 film “Dawn of the Dead” (and its 2004 remake) and Peter Jackson’s 1992 creation…
Some Share the Files, All Share the Costs
The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) recently proposed legalization of peer-to-peer music filesharing via the imposition of an obligatory $5 monthly fee on all Canadian broadband users. It is estimated…