Tagged - torrent(-ial downpour of copyright violation)

Notices! Online Pics! YouTube! It’s the Canadian internet law jurisprudence month in review

Posted on May 31, 2017 by allen

mmm, dusty

The month of May 2017 will go down in the annals of internet law history for having not one, not two, but five (three, sir!) three cases of note about internet law in Canada. Well, maybe not “of note”, but noteworthy. Oh crap, I just looked and one of the cases is actually from April. Well this is starting poorly.
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Posted in: Copyright, The Courts
Tagged: ,
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Hear the dulcet tones of my voice talking Notice and Notice

Posted on November 21, 2016 by allen

 

 

Do you enjoy a lawyer repeatedly saying “you know”? Do you enjoy the line “the Barreau du Quebec would have my butt”? Well then do I have audio for you!

Last week I was on CBC Daybreak with the always excellent Mike Finnerty. We had a really good interview about the 2-year old news story of copyright notices for illegal downloading. It was in the context of a story of a woman who received a notice and paid up. Big mistake! Anyway, I managed to sneak into the Rad-Can building late at night to get my hands on the audio which you can hear above (j/k, they were actually quite nice about it, hat tip to them).

Here’s a true story. I went into the studio at 6:30 AM for the interview, no shower, no shave, my hair was a mess and I was wearing a hoodie. Because it was CBC Radio. Well, as it turns out the 6-7 hour of Daybreak is on CBC TV! A fact i did not know as I am not normally awake at that hour. As a result, I have destroyed all copies of the video in existence. As far as you know.

Enjoy the audio.

Posted in: Copyright
Tagged: , , ,
2 Comments

Illegal set-top boxes – a multimedia extravaganza post

Posted on June 30, 2016 by allen

Audio! Words! Internet cat fights! This post has it all.

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Posted in: Copyright, The Courts
Tagged: ,
6 Comments

Let’s “look” at the TPP

Posted on October 5, 2015 by allen

TPPmapHey big news today! And it has brought yours truly out of hiding. So it looks like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a go! What’s the TPP? Damned if I know, because I’ve never seen the TPP agreement. Well, no one has ever seen it! So why is your humble blogger talking about it? A couple of lines on a government website have me perturbed. Let’s find out which ones.

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Posted in: Commentary, Uncategorized
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Internet law expert says things on TV

Posted on January 2, 2015 by allen

canada am screen shot3This morning noted internet law expert Allen Mendelsohn (who?) appeared on CTV’s Canada AM to opine about the update to the Copyright Act that came into effect today. It’s called the “notice and notice regime” and I’ve written about it before. Wow, 3 years ago! Everything I wrote is still valid though, as the government did not change or add one word to the law since then. Lazy government.

Anyway, god forbid CTV should have an embeddable video player, so here are some links:

Just the video

Actual news story with quotes from somebody you know (plus the video)

My new year’s resolution is to media whore like it’s 1999. So far so good. I’ll be on CJAD tomorrow at 7:10 AM, CKNW on Sunday at 4:30 PM (EST) and on other radio stations Monday morning. Just waiting on The National. Call me, CBC!

Posted in: Copyright, Site meta
Tagged: , ,
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Rough waters for the Pirate Bay this week

Posted on December 12, 2014 by allen

rough waters pirate bayYou know an internet law story is real news when the national media calls me. I’m obviously the most important and telegenic internet law expert in Canada. While my CTV Canada AM appearance was cancelled at the last minute, CBC online contacted me yesterday for a comment on the Pirate Bay raid and torrents in general for an article that should be up soon (update – voilà). Is the Pirate Bay sunk? Let’s review. And speculate wildly! My specialty!

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Posted in: Commentary, Copyright
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Remember Al? He’s back – in podcast form!

Posted on April 1, 2014 by allen

Podcast

I had the pleasure of sitting down recently with the fine folks from the McGill Law Journal, who have an amazing podcast series, with lots of law learnin’ ‘n stuff. For some reason they thought I would be a good guest. Big mistake. The title of the podcast is “Seeking Jane Doe: The Voltage Decision”, and obviously, it’s about the Voltage decision. Here is the description:

Voltage, a US film producer and distributor, is using a controversial legal procedure to go after illegal downloading. We talk to Allen Mendelsohn, internet law expert, David Fewer, Director of CIPPIC, and Voltage’s lawyer, John Philpott, about how this will impact Canadian Internet users.

You can listen online, or visit  the iTunes McGill Law Journal podcast page to get it in iTunes.

Posted in: The Courts
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Arrrrrrrr your piracy days over? Federal Court of Canada weighs in

Posted on February 24, 2014 by allen

ARRRGGHH

Last Thursday, a huge decision came down from the Federal Court of Canada in the case of Voltage Pictures v. John Doe and Jane Doe. No, seriously, this is big. 80 Google News results! When was the last time a Federal Court decision even made the news? Does the decision mean the end of Canadian illegal downloading as we know it? Maybe! Maybe not! Well that’s clear as mud. Let’s try and sort this all out.

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Posted in: Copyright, The Courts
Tagged: ,
17 Comments