Last week, the Governor General in Council fixed the day portions of the Copyright Modernization Act are to come into force, as the day it is published in the Canada Gazette, likely on November 7th. Continue reading Copyright Modernization Act
Tag Archives: Copyright
Tariffs for online music
The Copyright Board released its tariff decision in the SOCAN Tariff 22.A and CSI Tariff proceedings for online music. The Board certified tariffs for CSI for music downloads, to both SOCAN and CSI for online music streaming and to SOCAN for video-clips. The Board applied the recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions on previews and downloads.
Foreign Enforcement of IP and Ontario
Earlier this month, the Ontario Superior Court issued a couple of judgments relating to foreign IP proceedings with Ontario parties. In Blizzard v. Simpson, 2012 ONSC 4312, foreign copyright damages and an injunction were enforced. In Agemian v. Pactiv LLC, 2012 ONSC 4571, an “anti-suit” injunction was rejected, allowing an Illinois action relating to a North American patent settlement to proceed.
Copyright Board and the SCC
Last week, the Copyright Board published a series of orders on pending tariff proceedings relating to satellite radio, ringtones, online music and educational institutions asking the parties to comment on the effect of the Supreme Court’s copyright ‘pentalogy’.
Supreme Court on Copyright
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada released five decisions on copyright considering issues of communications to the public, soundtracks, and music previewing, all arising from the Copyright Board.
In ESA v. SOCAN, 2012 SCC 34, a majority held that a musical work contained in a video game downloaded over the Internet was not a ‘communication’ and in Rogers v. SOCAN, 2012 SCC 35 that streaming works to requesting members of the public was a ‘communication to the public’ after considering issues of technological neutrality. In Re:Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, 2012 SCC 38, the court held that “sound recording” excludes soundtracks of cinematographic works.
The court considered fair dealing in SOCAN v. Bell Canada, 2012 SCC 36 and Alberta (Education) v. Access Copyright, 2012 SCC 37. In Bell, the court found that music previewing was fair dealing and in Access Copyright, a majority found photocopies by teachers to be fair dealing.
Copyright at the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Canada will release decisions on the 5 pending copyright proceedings on Thursday morning. The proceedings were taken under reserve last December and raise issues of communications to the public, previewing music, music in online games, educational fair dealing, and music in soundtracks.
Copyright Amendments
The Copyright Modernization Act (C-11) has passed parliament and received Royal Assent. The Act makes significant amendments to various aspects of the Copyright Act including to fair dealing, technological protection measures, educational use and performer’s rights. It comes into force on a date to be fixed by cabinet, likely with corresponding regulations.
Beijing Treaty
The World Intellectual Property Organization has announced the finalization of a new treaty called the “Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances“. The treaty is directed to establishing rights for audiovisual performance artists such as actors.
Oracle v. Google
A mixed verdict was issued today by the jury in the Oracle v. Google proceeding on the Android system and the Java language. The jury determined that Google has infringed the overall structure, sequence and organization of copyrighted works but the jury did not rule on Google’s “fair use” defence
ECJ on software
The European Court of Justice in SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd, C‑406/10 held that functional aspects of software are not an “expression” protected by copyright.