Category: Featured

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Featured, Stationers No Comments

Earlier this month I suspected that the US copyright lobby might soon mount a new attack on Canada’s copyright law. It turns out that the attack had begun that very same day. Here’s the written testimony of the IIPA from Sept. 4, 2012, which, as Michael Geist reports, will be heard orally today. American readers might be particularly interested in footnote #1, which apparently refers to Canada’s new fair dealing provision, which explicitly mentions education, parody, and satire, as allowable fair dealing purposes. The IIPA takes issue with this amendment: In particular, we note that the new Canadian copyright reform …

Blame Canada! Read more »

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The Copyright Board held today that the disputed copies in Access Copyright’s K-12 tariff, the copies that were subject to the appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada in Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright constitute fair dealing. In its previous ruling, the Board held that those copies were not fair dealing. This ruling, upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal, was ultimately reversed by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court found that “Because the Board’s finding of unfairness was based on what was … a misapplication of the CCH factors, its outcome was rendered unreasonable”. The Court allowed the appeal with costs …

Copyright Board: Category 4 copies are fair dealing Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers 2 Comments

In a lengthy post last week, Barry Sookman responded, and attempted to refute, Michael Geist’s analysis of the implications of the recent Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions on Access Copyright and its business model. In a nutshell, Michael Geist argued that schools, which already have directly negotiated licenses with numerous publishers, can now “rely more heavily on fair dealing for the copying that takes place on campus and in the classroom. This includes copies made by teachers for students for instructional purposes, copies that previously formed a core part of Access Copyright’s claim of the necessity of a licence.” Michael Geist …

Eviscerated or Not: More on the Access Copyright Question Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured 2 Comments

Yesterday, Howard Knopf and I talked about the recent developments in Canadian copyright law in an event organized by the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University, Washington College of Law. A third speaker was Prof. Martin Senftleben from the University of Amsterdam who offered a very interesting and informative analysis on those issues from a European civil law perspective. The webcast and a summary of the talks are archived here.  

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There seems to be some real interest in the recent developments in Canadian copyright law south of the border. Next week, two separate events will take place in Washington DC. On Sept. 12, Howard Knopf and I will talk about the recent developments at American University Law School. The title of our talk is: “Canadian Copyright: Calm, Cool, and Clever”. The event is organized by the Program on Informational Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Law School. Martin Senftleben from VU University of Amsterdam will offer additional analysis of fair dealing from a European perspective. More details here. The following day, …

Canadian Copyright is Coming to the USA Read more »