Wikimedia vs BUS: How to Regulate Copyright on Public Art in the Digital Age

If you’re thinking about posting on Instagram one more selfie from your recent trip to Sweden, think again. OffeSntlig Konst, an open database where visitors can see descriptions, maps and images of public works, was recently found guilty of copyright infringement by the Supreme Court of Sweden. According to the court ruling, the platform, owned […]

Compliance with EU Data Protection Regulation

The re-posting of this analysis is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective. Introduction By means of an innovative and modern directive (Directive 95/46/EC – the “Data Protection Directive”), in 1995, the European Community adopted its first data protection legislation aimed at providing common legal […]

Is Google “Feeling Lucky” at the Supreme Court?

  At the Supreme Court of Canada, Google Inc. will be searching for a more favourable ruling than it got at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Google Inc. The appeal stems from the BC Supreme Court’s granting of an injunction requiring Google to de-index certain websites from its […]

Will Google’s Alphabet Begin with B-M-W?

“A, B, C,…as easy as 1, 2, 3?” That remains to be seen. BMW may be driving Google down a bumpy road named Trademark-Infringement Lane, after Google surprised everyone on August 10th with the creation of a new company, Alphabet. I say this because the trademark “Alphabet” and the domain name alphabet.com are currently owned by German automobile-manufacturer BMW. Following the announcement, BMW reportedly […]

"Notice and Notice" and Video Streaming - Are You Breaking Bad?

Video streaming, we all do it (or have done it at some point). It’s difficult not to in this day and age when entertainment is so easily transportable and amenable to on-the-go enjoyment, the stationary television becoming less and less the platform for watching our favourite movies and shows. Some of us have engaged in […]

A New Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility within the IGF

  The re-posting of this analysis is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective.   Two weeks ago, the Secretariat of the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum (IGF) approved the creation of the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility (DC PR). This new component of the IGF […]

Revenge and Domain Name Seizure: CIRA Allows Transfer of Registration of Domain Names Used for Personal Attacks

In March 2014, a single member Canadian Internet Registry Association (CIRA) panel allowed the transfer of two domain names which consisted, in both cases, of the personal names of people involved in a dispute with an unsatisfied former customer. The decision of the panel could preserve individual privacy rights online. It also serves to protect […]

The Future of Rights: Intellectual Property, Economic Inequality and the ‘Digital Divide’

A quarter century since he helped to create it, the man widely regarded as the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has renewed calls for a Digital Bill of Rights to help preserve the open and innovative character of his invention and to protect human rights in the so-called digital age.

Canadians #TalkTV: The Question Surrounding Digital Content Licensing

For the past month the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been attempting to open its policy and regulation processes to the Canadian public. On October 24, CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais launched A Conversation with Canadians with speeches and discussions at the Université Laval and Ryerson University. As Mr. Blais stated during his presentation at Ryerson, this conversation is designed to […]

Revenge of the Trolls: Back to Square One for Apple

“To live is to war with trolls,” said Henrik Ibsen. Well, Apple Inc (“Apple”) has recently reached an impasse in its war against patent holding firm or "patent troll" Lodsys, LLC.