*This is a guest blog post by Bobby Glushko, Head of the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office for the University of Toronto Libraries* On May 22, 2015, the Copyright Board of Canada certified a surprisingly low tariff for copying undertaken by the full time professional staff of provincial governments, such as legislators, aides, and other provincial employees. The tariff, 11.56¢ per…

You probably already know it’s baseball season, but you may have missed some particularly interesting inside baseball going on in the world of copyright law and policy. The most recent example: the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office has recommended the Supreme Court deny certiorari  — that is, refuse to review — to a Federal Circuit Court decision earlier this month that reversed and…

Imagine a world in which automakers declared that, even though you own most of the vehicle you purchased from your auto dealer, you don’t own the tires. No, in fact, you just have a license to use the tires, the Big Three might say. If you want to get them changed or improved, you need to go to dealer who…

R.J. Lehmann: Copyright lobby seeks new hammer to pound free speech in Florida Anonymity and pseudonymity have been key threads in the fabric of American life since the Colonial era. From arts to politics, from the Revolutionary era-tracts known as Cato’s Letters to the street art of the elusive Banksy, there is a long tradition, respected in practice and protected…

Copyright Office to Hear Public Testimony in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. – Experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify at public hearings held by the U.S. Copyright Office this week and next, urging officials to grant and expand critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  The exemptions will secure the…

EFF will go to bat for users’ rights at this month’s hearings on exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Section 1201’s overreaching restriction on circumventing “access control” or “digital rights management” (DRM) technologies comes in direct conflict with lawful activities like conducting security research, repairing cars, and resuscitating old video games. For that reason, Congress…

Today a federal appeals court in California rejected an effort to use copyright to suppress the distribution of a controversial film online, echoing sentiments I previously expressed in two posts on what I called “IP immigration” [1] [2].  Others have discussed the case at length today [1] [2] [3] [4].  In short, the Ninth Circuit court of appeals rejected a…

Today, the Ninth Circuit, in an en banc opinion in Google v. Garcia, reversed itself and upheld a lower court’s decision to deny actress Cindy Lee Garcia’s request for an injunction barring YouTube or any other Google website from hosting a trailer for the controversial film Innocence of Muslims, in which Garcia appears for five seconds. The following can be…

Fifteen months after it issued an extraordinary order requiring Google to take down a controversial video, based entirely on a specious copyright claim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has seen the light and rescinded that order. Quick background: The video in question, called “Innocence of Muslims,” is an anti-Islam polemic that sparked outrage around the world. Actress Cindy Lee…

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an order that YouTube take down the infamous video “Innocence of Muslims,” rejecting an actress’ claim that her brief and unwitting appearance in the film gave her a copyright in her performance that allowed her to prevent its distribution. The decision overturned a February 2014 ruling from a three-judge panel of…