Tag: Piracy

The Combating Counterfeit Products ActThe Combating Counterfeit Products Act

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Last week, the Government introduced Bill C-56, Combating Counterfeit Products Act. It has two main objectives. First, to protect public safety and health by enacting legislation specifically to target commercial scale trafficking in counterfeit products. Second, to make technical amendments to the Trade-marks Act such as to permit registration of non-traditional trade-marks like sounds, and to improve registration procedures. The Government backgrounder and related FAQs, and other information is available at Industry Canada’s website.

The anti-counterfeiting portion of the legislation addresses recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (May 2007) and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (June 2007) to crack down on commercial counterfeiting operations because of the serious health and safety consequences.…

Read FullRead Full

Strangest copyright cases of 2012Strangest copyright cases of 2012

December 28, 2012December 28, 2012 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

If you’re on holidays and looking for some copyright law hilarity, take 15 minutes to read Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571. This case from Alberta examines the practice of Organized Commercial  Pseudolegal Commercial Argument litigants (“OCPA” litigants). These persons employ a collection of techniques and arguments promoted and sold by ‘gurus’ to disrupt court operations and to attempt to frustrate the legal rights of governments, corporations, and individuals.

One of the techniques involves a scheme pursuant to which the litigant purports to claim copyright and trade-mark rights in his or her name and a unilateral notice that foists obligations on anyone that uses the name (including to communicate with the person).…

Read FullRead Full

Google’s plans to prioritize legitimate online contentGoogle’s plans to prioritize legitimate online content

August 13, 2012August 13, 2012 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Google announced on Friday it is updating its search algorithms. In making the announcement Google said the purpose is to “help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed fromSpotify.” According to the statement, it plans to reduce search rankings for sites with “high numbers” of valid takedown notices.

Google acknowledged it has reliable data from rights holders that signal which sites host or otherwise facilitate widespread infringement.…

Read FullRead Full

Canada signs ACTACanada signs ACTA

September 30, 2011September 30, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Earlier today, Ed Fast, the Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The press release announcing the signing stated the following:

“Counterfeit and pirated goods are an increasingly global problem that requires a globally coordinated solution,” said Minister Fast. “We all have an interest in combatting counterfeiting and piracy because these activities cost billions of dollars each year in revenue and trade losses, which translates into higher prices, lost income and lost jobs for people employed in a range of industries—from film and pharmaceuticals to electronics.

…

Read FullRead Full

UK to get even tougher with IP crimeUK to get even tougher with IP crime

August 4, 2011August 4, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Yesterday, the UK Government released a number of proposals to modernise the UK’s intellectual property laws. One of the reports is dedicated to outlining The UK IP Crime Strategy. The rational for the strategy is clear: counterfeiting and piracy are of concern both as a barrier to growth and because of the wider ills to which they have been linked, which include dangerous goods, online fraud and serious organised crime.

The report recognized that “The key technology for IP infringement is the internet.…

Read FullRead Full

Who Profits from Piracy?Who Profits from Piracy?

April 12, 2011April 12, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

The video shown below is based on a presentation first given by Ellen Seidler (fastgirlfilms) at Canadian Music Week’s Global Forum in March of 2011.

In the introduction to the video she says: “Online piracy isn’t about altruism, it’s about income. Today’s technology allows web pirates to steal content and monetize that content with a click of a mouse. Meanwhile, “legit” companies encourage and facilitate this theft while also profiting from it (ad service providers, advertisers and payment processors). The time has come for reasonable measures to be taken to discourage this theft.…

Read FullRead Full

What art copyrights and sandwhiches have in commonWhat art copyrights and sandwhiches have in common

March 21, 2011March 21, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Here is a video included in a blog How copyright infringement is like stealing my sandwhich. It is by an artist “to put copyright infringement into terms the average person can understand: lunch”. It is an interesting perspective given the recent testimony of Margaret Atwood at the Parliamentary Committee on Bill C-32.

…

Read FullRead Full

iiNet court backs reasonableness of graduated response to stop illegal file sharingiiNet court backs reasonableness of graduated response to stop illegal file sharing

March 8, 2011March 8, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Last week the Australian Full Court released its decision in the landmark case Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNet Limited, [2011] FCAFC 23. The Australian appeals court by majority dismissed the appeal from the decision of the primary judge who had held that iiNet, an ISP in Australia that had not acted on any information provided to it by copyright owners, was not liable for authorizing the copyright infringement of its subscribers who had used its facilities to engage in unlicensed peer to peer file sharing.…

Read FullRead Full

Canada: online piracy a problem hurting artists, creators and the economyCanada: online piracy a problem hurting artists, creators and the economy

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released a report that spotlighted Internet and physical markets that exemplify key challenges in the global struggle against piracy and counterfeiting. Not surprisingly, Canada-based IsoHunt was identified as a major piracy site which “recently ranked among the top 300 websites in global traffic and among the top 600 in U.S. traffic.”

The report follows on the heels of last week’s submission by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) to the USTR recommending that Canada be maintained on the Special 301 Priority Watch List in 2011.…

Read FullRead Full

The Pirate Bay operators lose criminal appeal and sent to prisonThe Pirate Bay operators lose criminal appeal and sent to prison

November 27, 2010November 27, 2010 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

The Swedish Court of Appeal affirmed the legal liability of the operators of the Pirate  Bay.  A video from the court is shown below. Meanwhile IsoHunt and its founder Gary Fung await a ruling from a California court on whether they are liable for contempt of the injunction order of Judge Wilson by continuing to operate the IsoHunt BitTorrent website in violation of the injunction.

…

Read FullRead Full