Peeking behind the curtain: Michael Geist comments on the decision of an Ontario judge to order the disclosure of all information relating to discussion board participants by the owners of the website. Geist's conclusion: "I fear that the high threshold seems to have been abandoned here, with the court all-too-eager to dismiss the privacy considerations associated with mandated disclosure by not engaging in an analysis as to whether the evidentiary standard was met."
The grandest licensing scheme of them all: Geist (him again) reports and comments on the Songwriters Association of Canada proposal to create "a new right of remuneration for music file sharing in return for the consumer freedom to share an unlimited amount of music across all platforms". The most interesting part of the initiative is its potential for extension to video works as well, since ACTRA has evidently expressed some tentative openness to considering the issue.
Bloodsport: Barak Y. Orbach has written a paper about the origins of US film censorship - which oddly enough apparently has its origins in films of boxing matches in the late 1800s (ht: Media Law Prof Blog). Download the paper here.
The most painful headline ever: In reporting on the news that a Toronto firm has been tasked with licensing and protecting the trade-mark interests of Bob Marley's estate, the CBC elected to use this headline: "Toronto firm gets up, stands up for Bob Marley trademark rights". Ow. (Oh, and shouldn't the CBC style guide prefer the Canadian iteration "trade-mark" to the American "trademark"?)
"It costs money even to talk to the copyright holders": Everybody else has already talked about Sita Sings the Blues and its innovative release strategy, but I would be seriously remiss if I didn't mention it as well.
Consistently in the middle of the pack: The Canadian Intellectual Property Office released its 2007-2008 Annual Report a few weeks ago. 9,321 copyright applications were received, compared to over 47,000 trade-mark applications, 5,174 industrial design applications and 0 (count 'em) integrated circuit topography applications.
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