The Author:
James Gannon is a lawyer at the firm McCarthy Tétrault. The views expressed here are his own.
Tag Archives: software
Value of Pirated Software Rose in Canada in 2010: BSA
Posted by on May 12, 2011
The Business Software Alliance has released its 8th annual Global Software Piracy Study covering piracy of commercial software in 116 countries in the year 2010. Some interesting facts raised in the study include that this is the first year where PC shipments to emerging economies was greater than those to emerging markets. However, this only [...]
Sony moves to quickly restrain PS3 circumvention device
Posted by on January 12, 2011
One of the most successful copy-protection technologies in use today is that which is used in Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console. Although many often attempt to depict TPM technologies as ineffective, in over four years since the launch of the PS3, no effective mod chip, hack or other circumvention device has surfaced among the [...]
Bill C-32 – User Exceptions and Digital Locks
Posted by on June 17, 2010
In the past couple of weeks, some news articles and blogs have been highly critical of the proposed amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act found in Bill C-32. Much of the criticism has focussed on the issue of TPMs, or “digital locks”, despite these provisions being almost identical to those that were found in the [...]
Entertainment Software Association of Canada publishes digital strategy report
Posted by on April 15, 2010
The Entertainment Software Association of Canada yesterday published a report titled “Game On, Canada! Playing to win in the digital economy“. The report sets out 10 recommendations for the Government to “support the production and distribution of content and the growth of robust domestic creative and digital media industries”. The recommendations cover a wide range [...]
Captcha hacking found to violate DMCA anti-circumvention laws
Posted by on March 24, 2010
A new copyright case out of the Northern District of California highlights the need for a robust “related acts” implementation of WIPO anti-circumvention provisions. In Craigslist, Inc. v. Naturemarket, Inc, the defendant sold software that would “auto-post” to Craigslist, allowing users of the program to spam the popular classified listings website. In order to do [...]
Microsoft appeals i4i verdict (again)
Posted by on January 11, 2010
Microsoft has once again sought to appeal the $290-million patent infringement verdict against Toronto-based i4i Inc. which was already upheld last month. This time, Microsoft is appealing by alleging a misinterpretation of case law in the appeals court’s ruling in December and errors in establishing the quantum of damages. On a related note, today marks [...]
i4i injunction and damage award upheld against Microsoft
Posted by on December 23, 2009
Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its decision in Microsoft’s appeal against Toronto-based i4i. The Appeals Court upheld the lower court’s finding of infringement, the injunction order and the $240 million damage award that Microsoft must pay i4i. Microsoft will also have to cease shipping MS Word with the [...]
Big victory for Apple over Psystar
Posted by on November 16, 2009
Last Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Apple’s motion for summary judgment against Mac clone manufacturer Psystar. Psystar developed and sold clones of Apple’s Macintosh brand of computers with a modified version of Mac OS X. Apple has taken them to court alleging copyright infringement and breach of license [...]
Punitive damages awarded in Federal Court copyright case
Posted by on October 6, 2009
In Microsoft Corporation v. 1276916 Ontario Ltd. (2009 FC 849) (Sept. 17, 2009), the Federal Court awarded statutory and punitive damages to Microsoft against computer retailer Smart Buy. Microsoft had sent several warnings to Smart Buy, even after the lawsuit had been filed, that the company was selling PCs pre-loaded with infringing copies of Microsoft [...]
GPL upheld by Paris appeals court
Posted by on September 24, 2009
La Cour D’Appel de Paris has just affirmed the ruling of a lower court, which held that the French IT company Edu4 had violated the provisions of the free software/open source General Public License (GPL). The defendants had installed a modified version of the VNC remote desktop client without providing the source code to the [...]
