Reproduction Archives

Is Google News legal? (Updated)

In May, 2011 a Belgium appellant court released an important decision finding Google liable for copyright infringement by offering its Google News service to subscribers in Belgium at the Google.be and Google.com websites. The decision in Google Inc v Copiepresse et al, Brussels Court of Appeal (9^th Chamber) May 5, 2011 suggests that services such as Google News cannot be legally offered in many countries around the world even from servers located in North America.

On February 14, 2012, the UK Copyright Tribunal in the Meltwater Holding BV v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited case suggested Google News and the Google Alerts service would also be illegal in the UK without a license from publishers.…

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Copyright law 2010 –the year in review in Canada and around the world

Here is a copy of the slides I used today at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Intellectual Property Year in Review conference. The associated paper prepared in collaboration with Glen Bloom, and with the help of others, is available here.

My slides summarize the following copyright cases from Canada, Australia, UK, Ireland, Singapore, Europe and the USA:

Canada

Bell Canada v SOCAN (Tariff 22) 2010 FCA 220

Canadian Private Copying Collective v.…

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When do broadcasters reproduce works ? The Copyright Board clarifies the law in the Commercial Radio Tariff case

The Copyright Board released its reasons for decision in the Commercial Radio Tariff proceedings last week. The case involved many different parties and issues and resulted in the certification of a tariff that covers a gamut of music uses by broadcasters in the course of their operations.

In the course of giving reasons for its decision, the Board made a number of important statements about what constitutes a reproduction for the purposes of the Copyright Act. In particular, the Board canvassed the activities of broadcasters and examined which activities resulted in reproductions of musical works (and sound recordings) in the course of their broadcasting operations.…

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