Did you know today was World Intellectual Property Day? It’s ok, neither did I until a few hours ago. And it is ostensibly my job! We should get a cake or something. Anyway, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about (ramble on about) Intellectual Property (IP) in general and why it’s important, while telling you how I regularly violate IP law online. Whoops.
Topic All
No Tweet for you, at least from a Québec courtroom
As of today, there will be no electronic communications allowed from Québec courtrooms. Just like in the Middle Ages.
P0rn! Star Trek!
Now that I have your attention…
These are the slides for a presentation I gave last Thursday to the cool kids at the Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Policy Club of McGill’s Faculty of Law, which I thought you might enjoy. It really has porn and Star Trek in it! Unfortunately you don’t get the awesome banter I am famous for, but it’s still a fun presentation nonetheless. Did I mention Star Trek? And porn, the kind you see on www.tubev.sex?
As Scribd converts documents to PDFs when you upload, the YouTube videos in the presentation are unplayable from the slides. Here they are, in order:
Rhymin’ and Stealin’ Slide 6
Mister Worf, Fire the Mashups Slide 18
Oh, Pretty Woman Slide 24
Pretty Woman Slide 24
Just one more vid Slide 31
For the tl;dr crowd, here’s the conclusion of the presentation: you can be creative online, but you better not be a pirate and make any $$$ doing it.
isoHunt is Toast
Yesterday there was a huge ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California. Now normally we don’t write about U.S. internet law around here, but since the decision affects our favourite Canadian pirate, Gary Fung of isoHunt, we’re gonna make an exception. Especially because isoHunt is fucked.
Chill, everyone: Canadian “ACTA” is not ACTA
On Friday, our old friends in the Conservative Government introduced Bill C-56 in the House of Commons. People are writing that the Bill will introduce the dreaded ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement, to Canada. It will not, at least in the most important way for us internet law folks. Lemme explain.
Farewell Bill C-30, we hardly knew ye
Greetings, internet denizens! Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I think the internet took the month of January off, so there was really no news to report. But yesterday, there was good news! The Conservative government has decided to kill Bill C-30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, or as we liked to call it around here, the Vic Toews is an Idiot Act.
We wrote quite a bit about C-30 and its various nefarious schemes. Suffice it to say, when a Federal Minister says things like “you are either for this bill or you are a child molester” (I’m paraphrasing, but not by much) there is going to be some media attention. The internet exploded with rage (as it is wont to do) at the bill last February, and the government seemed shamed somewhat. Yesterday’s announcement was too long in coming yet welcome, and was an obvious reminder that people who actually know about the internet (i.e. me) must be listened to.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, in describing what changes the future might hold, said yesterday that amendments or modernization of Canadian law:
“will not contain …warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information or the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capability within their systems.”
Let’s just leave that here for posterity to remind the government of its position on this, if when they bring up “lawful access legislation” again.
Is Canada’s Anti-Spam Law a joke?
Yes. Yes it is.
Let me explain.
I’m number 24! I’m number 24!
Happy New Year to you kids! And to me too, because I am proud to be number 24! Canadian IP lawyer extraordinaire and blogger Barry Sookman has ranked the most popular intellectual property and technology law blogs. He ranked the Top 10 for the world, and a bunch of other geographic areas (EU, US, UK, etc.) and most importantly, Canada.
Most importantly because your humble blogger appears on the Canadian list, at the awesome Jack Bauerian ranking of 24! Hells yeah!
Thanks to all of you readers for making this achievement possible, and to Barry for compiling the rankings. Let’s aim for top 20 in 2013! And then we’ll knock Geist off his perch in 2014. He has it coming.
Arrrgh, there be pirates in Canada, and you may even know them, Part 2 in a _-part series
Another week, another notice from another ISP forwarded to your intrepid blogger for his usual insightful analysis snark. But this one’s even more fun, because it’s already found its way into the courts this week. Let’s dive in to the tale of a third-rate Hollywood movie company intent on suing everyone, everyone’s favourite Canadian ISP TekSavvy, and my secret spy friend, WHO’S TOTALLY INNOCENT. I want to make that clear.
Arrrgh, there be pirates in Canada, and you may even know them
Tell us something we don’t know, Mendelsohn! OK OK, we all know illegal downloading rulez in Canada. But as of now, it seems like the copyright owners are getting serious about fighting online piracy in Canada. Do you think that they won’t come after you if you just downloaded one little TV program? Well, I’ve got a real surprise for you.
Tell the government your cell phone contract sucks
The CRTC (admittedly not the government per se) is accepting public consultations, via internet! Since my readers evidently use the internet, and most likely are beholden to some evil Bell or Rogers contract, they may be interested in this. Here’s the background from the CRTC:
The CRTC decided to develop a mandatory Wireless Code to help consumers make informed choices about wireless services. Once completed, the Wireless Code will provide a clear and consistent list of terms and conditions that wireless companies will need to include in their contracts.
So what they’ve done, in the throes of their new consumer-friendly ‘tude, is to to develop a spiffy new website (well, not really spiffy, kinda boring actually) so that you can give them your opinion about wireless contracts. They may even listen! So go tell them your contract sucks.
Kill Bill C-11 Vol. Final: Welcome new copyright law!
You could be seeing this less often now
Did you know that you woke up this morning to a brand new copyright regime in this country? Of course you didn’t, because copyright is boring. Not so! You can now do many things that you were probably doing before anyway, but now are legal! Let’s do a quick rundown of some of things you may find important.
Allen
Mendelsohn
is me.
I am a lawyer specializing in internet law working out of Montreal, though sometimes I do it in front of the U.S. Capitol. That should tell you what you need to know about internet law in Canada. I also warp young legal minds at the Faculty of Law at McGill.
More about me