Conferences
10 years of the WCT
I’ll be attending a symposium next Friday at Case Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland entitled “The 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaties: 10 Years Later“. There will be a webcast of the event for those interested.
Copyright
Copyright industry exaggerates piracy
According to an article from Oz, the Australian Institute of Criminology will soon publish research that warns that piracy figures quoted by software, movie and music industries are absurd, inflated, and what they call “self-serving hyperbole”. Really? Colour me surprised! A quote from the yet unpublished report says: “It is Read more
Regulation
Defending your reputation online
As we spend more and more time online, we are (wittingly and unwittingly) leaving behind vast amounts of personal information. Dodgy poems, bad pictures, posts in the Pokémon forum, that Céline Dion fan website… you may have several things rattling online of which you’re not particularly proud. Personally, I do Read more
Microsoft
Microsoft waives patent enforcement against SuSE
(Thanks to Amy Terry Sheehan for link) Microsoft and Novell have signed an agreement by which the software giant will not assert its software patent rights for technology that can be used in SuSE Linux distributions. The agreement also provides Microsoft users with the possibility of obtaining support for dual-boot Read more
Conferences
Criminal Enforcement Directive Workshop
Free Public Workshop – 13 November 2006 The first in a series of free public workshops is to be held Monday, 13 November 2006, 6pm (followed by drinks). Criminal Enforcement Directive and Patent LawLet the Punishment Fit the Crime? The workshop will be held in the seminar room of the Read more
Cases
More on Aerotel’s ruling
I’ve finished reading Aerotel v Telco Holdings, and I have to say that I have been impressed with a lot of the excellent reasoning displayed by Lord Justice Jacob in the ruling. I have selected some quotes: “[…] despite the fact that such patents have been granted for some time Read more
Feeling silly
YouTube blues
“If you upload a video to YouTube you are a legitimate target for legal action in the same way the music industry is suing MP3 users […] Most of the clips uploaded to the site will be infringing copyright in some way.” That is an inaccurate statement. While most of Read more
Regulation
Costa Rican online gambling still working
There are 200 gambling websites operating from Costa Rica employing a calculated 10,000 people. There was serious concern that the sites would be seriously affected by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. I will not be ashamed to admit that I’m considerably worried about the law’s impact on Costa Rican Read more
Copyright
Report urges copyright law reform
The Institute for Public Policy Research has published a report asking for a reform of UK copyright law to accommodate the digital age and the MP3 generation. The problem pointed out in the research is that the UK does not have any private copying provision in its legislation, and there Read more
Cases
Court of Appeals rules on software patent appeal
The England and Wales Court of Appeal has decided on the case of Aerotel Ltd. v Telco Holdings Ltd & Ors [2006] EWCA Civ 137. This seems to be one of those decisions that splits opinions, or rather, unites them into a negative opinion regardless of the side of the Read more