I am excited and honoured to give the Hong Kong University Public Lecture in IP next Wednesday, Nov 9, 2016. The title of my lecture is “Fair Dealing: Have We Had Fair Use All Along?” The lecture is based on this book chapter. Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that while the fair use doctrine in the United States is omnipresent and flexible, fair dealing, its Commonwealth cousin is more rigid and can only apply to the specifically enumerated statutory purposes. Fair use, on this view, is an American invention—foreign to the copyright traditions of the rest of the common law world. …

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First published in the Globe and Mail on Oct 25, 2016 While Wallonia’s opposition to the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement has received considerable attention, a recent decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court shows that CETA faces more fundamental hurdles than most Canadian and European leaders are willing to acknowledge. On Oct. 13, the constitutional court declined to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting the German government from signing CETA. While it allowed Germany to sign, a careful reading of the decision reveals that it gave CETA a very qualified green light and contains several important lessons for Canada.

Pier-Luk Bouthillier is a Montreal graphic designer. He had previously worked as an Art Director for the cultural weekly “ICI Montreal”, and in 2007, he launched his first in a series of environmentally-themed t-shirts. You can see his t-shirts on his website (as well as some ‘Fleur de lys’ boxer briefs). One of Mr. Bouthillier’s shirts, J’aime Montréal, features a few stylized drawings of various Montreal landmarks, organized around the slogan J’♥ Montréal. According to the CBC, this got Mr. Bouthillier in some legal trouble.