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ACTA progress announced with plans to release final draft in September

August 23rd, 2010

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a Statement on the recent ACTA negotiations.The Statement followed the conclusion of the 10th round of negotiations on the ACTA held in Washington, D.C. from 16 – 20 August 2010.

The Statement reported on the progress of the talks which are slated to conclude following meetings in Japan this September. It also served to allay fears about the proposed contents of the treaty by again re-affirming what the treaty will not extend to.

The Statement said the following in this regard:

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Posted in ACTA, Copyright, Piracy, TPMs, p2p piracy

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Study shows 97% of torrents relate to infringing copyright content

July 23rd, 2010

A study by the Internet Commerce Security Laboratory  (ICSL) has found that over 97% of .torrent files that relate to copyright works shared over BitTorrent networks relate to infringing content.

The ICSL found that 0.3% of the files sampled were confirmed as being non-infringing (True Negatives); 89% were confirmed as being infringing (True Positives); 1.6% were ambiguous where they could not determine if they were infringing or not, and .91% related to pornographic torrents. Of the torrents in the top three categories (Movies, Music and TV shows), there were no legal torrents in the sample. According to the report:

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Posted in Copyright, Piracy, isohunt, p2p piracy

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ACTA will not create new IPRs or interfere with fundamental liberties statement says

July 4th, 2010

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a statement concerning the recent round of the ACTA negotiations in Lucerne, Switzerland. The release included he following that outlines some of the proposed limitations to the treaty:

“Participants stressed the importance of ACTA as an agreement that will establish an international framework for their efforts to more effectively combat the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy, which undermines legitimate trade and the sustainable development of the world economy.

While ACTA aims at establishing effective enforcement standards for existing intellectual property rights, it is not intended to include new intellectual property rights or to enlarge or diminish existing intellectual property rights.

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Posted in ACTA, Copyright, Counterfeiting, Piracy

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Minister Moore’s Speech on C-32

June 23rd, 2010

Heritage Minister Moore gave a speech yesterday at a meeting of the The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). His focus was on Bill c-32, the Copyright Modernization Act. He made a number of important remarks about the goals behind the Bill. He also used the occasion to comment on some of the Bill’s main critics Here are some highlights of his speech.

Minister Moore stressed the contribution that the copyright industries make to Canada’s economy noting that they “cannot be underestimated, both in terms of stimulating investment and creating jobs”.

This is a preview of Minister Moore’s Speech on C-32. Read full post.

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Posted in ACTA, Piracy, TPMs, WIPO Treaties, c-32, copyright reform, p2p piracy, wct, wppt

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Legends and reality about the 1996 WIPO Treaties in the light of certain comments on Bill C-32

June 17th, 2010

I.  INTRODUCTION

It was at a copyright seminar abroad that I learned about the publication of Bill C-32 by which the Canadian government intends to adapt the copyright legislation to the digital on-line environment. By the time I arrived home, some of my European colleagues, with whom we usually exchange information, had sent me the links to various blog posts that were trying to offer a first assessment of the new Bill. Some of them contained objective analysis pointing out both the commendable elements of the draft provisions and those where further improvements were found desirable, while others seemed to reflect continued opposition to the government’s intention to modernize the copyright norms the way required by the international treaties and the emerging international standards. 

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Posted in Copyright, Piracy, TPMs, WIPO Treaties, c-32, copyright reform, intellectual property, p2p piracy, wct, wppt

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Future of Music Coalition Panel: DC Policy Day 2010 – Focus on ACTA

May 27th, 2010

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Posted in ACTA, Copyright, Counterfeiting, Piracy, WIPO Treaties, copyright reform

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Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2009-2010)

May 26th, 2010

Here are the slides used in my presentation to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group earlier today,  The Year in Review: Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2009-2010). It covers significant developements since my talk last spring.

The slides include a summary of the following cases and statutory references:

Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. British Columbia, 2010 SCC 4

Internet Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. v Mar LLC [2009] EWHC 844 (Ch)

Gammasonics Institute for Medical Research Pty Ltd v Comrad Medical Sysytems Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 267 (9 April 2010)

Kingsway Hall Hotel Ltd. v Red Sky IT (Hounslow) Ltd. [2010] EWHC 965

This is a preview of Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2009-2010). Read full post.

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Posted in Copyright, Criminal Law, E-commerce, Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA), Fair Dealing, Fair Use, Fundamental breach, Google Book Scanning, Graduated Response, ISP Liability, IT Contracts, Limitations of liability, Patents, Piracy, Presentations, Privacy, Trade Marks, data protection, human rights, intellectual property, isohunt, p2p piracy

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Isohunt permanently enjoined by US court

May 21st, 2010

Yesterday, District Court Judge Stephen Wilson issued an order permanently enjoining Ishount and Gary Fung from continuing to engage in copyright infringement. The Court found an injunction necessary because the plaintiffs “have demonstrated that they have suffered irreparable harm, and would suffer further irreparable harm from Defendants’ continued infringement”.

According to the Court, “Plaintiffs’ power to control their rights has been so compromised by the means through which [Defendants] encouraged end users to infringe (digital files plus the internet) that the inducement amounts to irreparable harm.” Further, “it is axiomatic that the availability of free infringing copies of Plaintiffs’ works through Defendants’ websites irreparably undermines the growing legitimate market for consumers to purchase access to the same works.”

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Posted in Copyright, Piracy

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John Degen “weapons down, please”

May 14th, 2010

Check out John Degen’s post yesterday. In it he laments the “inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric that seems to sprout up and spread like dandelions whenever anybody in power utters the words ‘copyright protection’”. His observations about the rhetoric around DRMs are also insightful. Asking people to tone down the dialog for a while, he asks “can we please put away the revolvers, handcuffs, chains, scary-looking safes, and weird dystopias?”

John also reminds us that a central purpose of  copyright is to enable individuals to decide for themselves how and when they want the product of their creativity to be presented and disseminated to the public. He says:

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Posted in Copyright, Piracy, book piracy

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What do LimeWire, Napster, Kazaa, and Isohunt all have in common?

May 13th, 2010

LimeWire now joins the ignoble club of  sites and services around the workd that have been found liable for inducing, contributing to, or authorizing massive online copyright infringement. Other well known sites and services found liable on these and other secondary liability or criminal theories include Napster, Aimster, Grokster, Kazaa, Pirate Bay, Mininova, Usenet.com, Newzbin, and Isohunt.

Courts around the world have not tolerated or been willing to countenance online businesses whose core business model involves profiting from facilitating online copyright infringement. The most recent example is LimeWire.

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Posted in Copyright, Piracy, p2p piracy

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