If you are creator or publisher of original creative works, you will want to know about copyright law. The digital world has made the practical application of copyright more complicated than in the past. What about downloading and file sharing, what about digital rights management? And, in our … [Read more...]
Copyright in the Classroom
Copyright, a category of intangible proprietary rights, has always been an important consideration in the delivery of Canadian primary and secondary education (“K – 12”). This is because K – 12 educators and students make up two prominent groups of copyright users - those who use the property of … [Read more...]
Common Misconceptions about Copyright
As an intellectual property lawyer, I am often consulted by creators of works protected by copyright. Here are five of the most common misconceptions I have encountered in my practice, and my comments on them: If a work is not marked with the © claim, it is not protected: Annotation of the … [Read more...]
Balancing Copyright and Privacy Rights
Many Internet users assume that they can surf the Internet and remain anonymous. Nothing could be further from the truth. Where serious harm is done by an anonymous Internet user the injured party is often able to compel third parties to disclose who the Internet user is. In Canada and other … [Read more...]
Who Cares about Internet Law and Policy?
How familiar are these stories? “When I got to work this morning, our Internet service was down. There was almost nothing I could work on without my online databases and email.” “The place we went for holidays had no Internet or cell phone service. Wow, did I ever feel cut off from the … [Read more...]
The Confidentiality of Commercially Valuable Information
Introduction: the Cymbal Business In an age when multi-billion dollar companies struggle to survive, a small family-owned company called Zidjian continues to manufacture cymbals as it has for almost four hundred years. It controls almost 65% of the world’s cymbal market, with annual revenues close … [Read more...]