Barry Sookman

Copyright, Intellectual Property, Computer, Internet, e-Commerce Law.

Archive for the ‘Fair Use’ category

Copyright law 2011 –the year in review in Canada and around the world

January 13th, 2012

Yesterday, I gave a talk at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s 16th Annual Intellectual Property Law: The Year in Review program. My talk canvassed developments in copyright in 2011. My slides are shown below. The associated paper prepared in collaboration with Glen Bloom, with the help of others, is available here.

My slides and/or the paper summarize the following copyright cases from Canada, the USA, UK and Europe:

CANADA

Re: Sound v Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada 2011 FCA 70

Reference re Broadcasting Act 2011 FCA 64

Crookes v. Newton 2011 SCC 47

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Posted in C-11, Copyright, Counterfeiting, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, Google Book Scanning, Internet defamation, Piracy, Presentations, Reproduction, Robertson case, authorization, communication to the public, conflicts of law, copyright reform, cyberlockers, fair dealing for education, human rights, hyperlinking liability, iiNet case, infringment, international law, jurisdiction, statutory damages, storage lockers

Tags: canada Copyright law society speech

Webcasts of the Supreme Court copyright cases now available

December 9th, 2011

The webcasts of the five Supreme Court of Canada copyright appeals are now available. The ESA/Bell v SOCAN “communicate to the public” and the SOCAN v Bell fair dealing cases can be viewed here. (They are streams and not downloads and so are communications.) The K-12 Access Copyright and Re:Sound appeals can be viewed here.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, communication to the public, fair dealing for education

UK: “not practical” to adopt US fair use

December 9th, 2011

The UK will not adopt US fair use. This was revealed in statements made by Baroness Wilcox, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills and John Alty, Chief Executive and Comptroller General, Intellectual Property Office, in testimony before the UK Business, Innovation and Skills Committee on November 15, 2011.

Here is a extract from the testimony.

Q219 Chair : At the time, there were assertions that companies such as Google would not start up in this country because of the UK copyright law. Do you still hold that theory now and will Government policy reflect that or accommodate Google?

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Posted in C-11, Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, fair dealing for education

Tags: canada fair dealing Fair Use UK

Some observations on Bill C-11: The Copyright Modernization Act

October 3rd, 2011

Last Thursday the Government of Canada introduced into the House of Commons Bill C-11, an Act to Amend the Copyright Act. In a press release describing the Bill, Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Christian Paradis, stated that the Bill will ensure that Canada’s copyright laws “are modern, flexible, and in line with current international standards” and will “protect and help create jobs, promote innovation, and attract new investment to Canada.”

This is a preview of Some observations on Bill C-11: The Copyright Modernization Act. Read full post.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, Graduated Response, ISP Liability, ISP exceptions, Piracy, TPMs, Three Strikes, WIPO Treaties, c-32, copyright reform, fair dealing for education, geist, p2p piracy, statutory damages, wct, wppt

Tags: berne three step test Bill C-11 Bill C-32 canada copyright reform digital locks dmca education enablement encryption research fair dealing isps Michael Geist safe harbors search engines secondary liability security testing statutory damages tpms UGC user generated content WIPO Treaties

US court: Google book settlement not “fair, adequate and reasonable”

March 22nd, 2011

U.S. Judge Denny Chin released his decision today on whether to approve the class action settlement with Google involving the Google book scanning project. Judge Chin rejected the settlement as not being fair, adequate, and reasonable.

His 48 page reasons were summarized as follows:

While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action – which was brought against defendant Google Inc. (“Google” )to challenge its scanning of books and display of “snippets” for on-line searching to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Use, Google Book Scanning, book piracy

Tags: authors guild book scanning project Copyright Fair Use google

En réponse à «Pour démêler la confusion à l’égard du droit d’auteur» (Clearing Up the Copyright Confusion), du Professeur Michael Geist

January 26th, 2011

Par Dan Glover,* 9 janvier 2011 (version originale en Anglais)

Résumé

La création d’œuvres protégées par le droit d’auteur pour fins pédagogiques est une entreprise importante et complexe, particulièrement dans un pays aussi vaste, diversifié et peu peuplé comme l’est le Canada. Il faudrait mener une réflexion approfondie avant d’instituer des règles d’utilisation équitable qui menaceraient l’édition pédagogique.
L’équité est un concept subjectif qui doit être examiné au cas par cas. Six ans seulement après la décision historique de la Cour suprême dans la cause CCH concernant l’utilisation équitable, la voici saisie à nouveau !

This is a preview of En réponse à «Pour démêler la confusion à l’égard du droit d’auteur» (Clearing Up the Copyright Confusion), du Professeur Michael Geist. Read full post.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, berne three step test, c-32, copyright reform, fair dealing for education

Tags: C-11 c-32 Copyright copyright reform fair dealing fair dealing for education geist

Bill C-32’s fair dealing and other new copyright exceptions

November 17th, 2010

Here are slides from the speech I gave earlier today at Osgoode Hall Law School’s professional development program on understanding Bill C-32. The speech focused on the proposed fair dealing exceptions including the new exception for education, exceptions for individuals including the UGC, format shifting, time shifting, and back-up copy exceptions, and the new exceptions for developing interoperable programs, encryption research, network security testing, and technological processes.

Sookman Osgoode C-32 Speech

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Posted in Fair Dealing, Fair Use, Presentations, Uncategorized, c-32, copyright reform

Tags: C-11 c-32 computer program interoperability Copyright copyright reform education fair dealing format shifting

Some observations about the debates on Bill C-32 in the House of Commons

November 9th, 2010

Last week there was lots of interesting debate in the House of Commons about Bill C-32 leading up to a vote at Second Reading to refer the Bill to a legislative committee for further study.

All of the political parties agreed that copyright reform is important. They concurred with the objectives behind the Bill including the goals of creating a legal climate in which creators can both safely invest in and get paid for their content and at the same time ensure access by users to their works. They recognized the need to modernize the Copyright Act to address the challenges of the 21^st century.

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Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, ISP Liability, Piracy, TPMs, WIPO Treaties, c-32, copyright reform, p2p piracy, wct, wppt

Tags: c-32 Copyright copyright reform education fair dealing private copy levy private copying tpms UGC UGC exception

Separating facts from hype about C-32

September 27th, 2010

Some anti-copyright critics compare the proposed copyright amendments in Bill C-32 with the copyright laws of the US to argue that Canadian copyright law with Bill C-32 passed would be more restrictive than in the US. International comparisons of copyright laws can be a very useful tool to gauge how Canadian laws stack up with international standards and norms. Regrettably, anti-copyright advocates often make their case by inaccurately and misleadingly describing US law to make it look more permissive than it is and by describing Bill C-32 in ways that makes it appear more restrictive than it is. This makes it difficult for the vast majority of the public to really assess Bill C-32 and to make properly informed judgements about it.

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Posted in Copyright, Counterfeiting, Fair Dealing, Fair Use, Piracy, TPMs, WIPO Treaties, c-32, copyright reform, p2p piracy

Tags: C-11 c-32 Copyright copyright reform Counterfeiting digital locks fair dealing Fair Use geist notice and notice Piracy tpms

Toronto Star says proposed exception for education in C-32 needs rethinking

August 14th, 2010

The Toronto Star published an editorial today on C-32. In it the Star expressed concern over the proposed inclusion of education as a new fair dealing allowable purpose exception. According to the Star:

Writers and publishers are worried that a broad interpretation of “education” could lead to rampant copying of textbooks, instructional manuals and even novels. Would a school board be allowed to buy just one copy of a new textbook and copy it for all its students? Would universities be allowed to copy bits and pieces of 20 different books to compile reading material on a certain subject for their students? Indeed, would a monthly book club be considered an “educational” activity and be allowed to copy novels on its reading list?

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