Columns

Harry Potter and the Right to Read

My latest Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, freely available hyperlinked version) brings together two Canadian copyright stories from last week that demonstrate the damage that can occur when copyright law goes awry.  The first is well known: the very disturbing Harry Potter court order which barred Canadians from reading […]

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July 17, 2005 8 comments Columns

The High Stakes Battle for Control of the Internet

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, freely available hyperlinked version) assesses the recent round of Internet governance developments including (i) the U.S. statement which indicated that they no longer intend to transfer control over the root servers to ICANN, but rather to maintain their "historic role in authorizing […]

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July 11, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns

Canada Needs A National Privacy Breach Reporting Law

My latest Law Bytes column  (Canada Needs A National Privacy Breach Reporting Law  Toronto Star version, freely available hyperlinked version) makes the case for a national Canadian privacy and security breach reporting law. Over the past twelve months, there has been a staggering number of reported privacy and security breaches — with […]

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July 4, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns

Reflecting on Grokster

The Toronto Star features a special edition of my Law Bytes column (HTML backup version, freely available hyperlinked version; Toronto Star reg. version) reflecting on Monday's Grokster decision. I argue that while the highest court in the U.S. unanimously ruled that two file sharing services, Grokster and Streamcast, can be sued for actively encouraging copyright infringement by their users, the decision is not the clear cut win its supporters suggest.

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June 29, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns

Bill C-60 A Missed Opportunity

My regular Law Bytes column (freely available hyperlinked version, Toronto Star version, homepage version) examines Bill C-60, Canada's new copyright reform bill. I argue that the bill represents a missed opportunity.

While some of provisions strike an admirable balance, those that are ostensibly designed to facilitate technology-based education and the digital delivery of library materials fall far short of their goal by hobbling any new rights with suffocating restrictions that render the provisions practically useless.

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June 27, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns