Category: Featured

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

My paper The Orphans, the Market, and the Copyright Dogma: A Modest Solution to a Grand Problem is now posted on SSRN. I presented an earlier version at the Berkeley Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Symposium last April. Here’s the abstract: This article proposes a modest common law solution to the orphan works problem: works that are still under copyright but whose owners cannot be easily located. Most discussions on the orphan works problem focus on the demand side: on users’ inability to locate owners. However, this article looks also at the supply side and shows that the problem of orphan works arises …

The Orphans, the Market, and the Copyright Dogma Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Featured

I’m one of the signatories of an amicus brief filed with the US Supreme Court in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. The case involves parallel importation of books and whether the first sale doctrine applies to copies that were made (with permission of the copyright holder) outside the US. Here’s the abstract of the brief: The first sale doctrine has long provided that legitimate owners of non-infringing copies of copyrighted works may use and sell their copies as they see fit — just as all property owners may generally use and alienate their property. In keeping with that rationale, …

Brief of 25 Intellectual Property Law Professors in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons Read more »

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

The Canadian Library Association has issued a “Statement on Licenses with Access Copyright in Post-Secondary Institutions“. CLA thinks, quite correctly, that these licenses are uncool. While viewing the move from Copyright Board proceedings to contractual negotiations as a welcome development, the CLA is unimpressed with the result. Therefore, The Canadian Library Association strongly urges academic leaders to consider other alternatives that ensure lawful use of works protected by copyright without requiring a license agreement with Access Copyright. Alternatives include: institutional policies and practices based upon fair dealing, fuller utilization of institutions’ licensed electronic holdings, use of open access resources, use …

The Canadian Library Association on Access Copyright Licenses: Dislike Read more »

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

The Copyright Board of Canada and that various tariffs that it certifies rarely attract media attention. But a tariff recently certified received coverage by most major media outlets. That tariff, mandating payments for playing recorded music in weddings and other events for the years 2008-2012, will be collected by Re:Sound, a private organization representing record companies and performing musicians. If the events include dancing, the fee is double. This unusual media attention, often describing the fees as a “wedding tax” or “dancing tax”, is not surprising because it reflects how undemocratic some aspects of Canada’s copyright system have become. If …

Copyright Taxation Without Representation Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers, Uncategorized

I received a copy of a document in which McMaster University provides answers to some of the questions arising out of its decision to sign the Model License with Access Copyright. Since many universities are grappling with similar questions and answers, I have taken the liberty of providing some responses to this document. The document is in a Q&A form, so I added my responses in green below each answer. You can read it here.