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Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, More Fair Use Before SCOTUS
All eyes were on SCOTUS yesterday as the court heard arguments in the Warhol Prince case. I always look forward to copyright judgments from this court. This is another case on the application of the fair use doctrine or what I endearingly call, the “whatever-you-can-get-away-with doctrine”. Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith is a copyright dispute over a photograph of the musician Prince. The issue before the court is to decide whether a work of art is “transformative” when it conveys a different meaning or message from its source material (as the Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and other courts of…
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Facebook Hit With $175M Patent Infringement Verdict In Instagram Live
The $175M verdict awarded yesterday by an Austin, TX jury in favor of walkie-talkie company Voxer is the latest in the IP infringement portfolio of Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, this time for using communications technology patented by Voxer in its Facebook Live and Instagram Live features. Voxer first filed its lawsuit against Facebook in 2020. In its initial 2020 complaint Voxer alleged that its founder, an army veteran named Tom Katis, began developing communications tech in 2006 after witnessing shortcomings in walkie-talkie technology during his service in Afghanistan. The complaint further laid out that the Voxer app was launched in 2011 and that Facebook representatives got in touch with…
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Galaxy Report On NFT Rights; What About Web3 to Web2 User Generated Content
For some reason, many people still believe that buying an NFT gives them ownership over intellectual property in original works. The Galaxy Report may have found the culprit of this widespread misconception: intentional misrepresentation. As if you didn’t know that buying an mp3 doesn’t give you IP rights to the song encoded in it. You know it full well, because when you post the song on Twitch, someone will come and take it down, even though you bought the game that included the song. Right! Why would an NFT be any different? Because it is more expensive? Since when buying an expensive painting gives you the right to reproduce that…
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Miramax and Tarantino Lawsuit To Clarify NFT Rights
Since last year’s NFT craze, it is customary to mint unique NFT’s from original storylines and film characters as cross promotion of new and upcoming films. However, misconceptions around NFT rights (being seen as a new form of intellectual property which they aren’t), has given some individuals impetus to mint pre-existing IP rights that don’t belong to them or that have been assigned to movie studios. This is what Miramax contends Quentin Tarantino did when he launched a series of NFT’s from handwritten portions of his original screenplay, Pulp Fiction. On a first sight, it may seem that Miramax should already have all the rights in any NFT a filmmaker,…
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$23M Royalties Scam On Youtube – Tip of The Iceberg – Reveals Voluntary Blindness
On Youtube, just about anyone can claim copyright in just about any video for the purpose of monetizing, regardless of whether they own a fragment of a copyright or not. You will only hear about it when someone gets too greedy (in the range of $23M) after claiming over 50,000 copyrights, buying a series of very expensive cars, getting noticed and investigated by the IRS and at least one District Attorney, and attracting over 30 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The point is, Youtube knows about it and allows it! Here is how it’s done: If you ever uploaded a video on Youtube, you…
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Metaverse Fashion Week 2022 and What on Earth Are NFT’s?
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Meta v. Meta: Facebook Sued For Trademark Infringement
Earlier this month, we discussed how the name Meta seems like a rather dubious choice for Facebook’s rebrand and how by analogy, precedent informs that the addition of the descriptive term ‘meta‘ has been deemed insufficient to meaningfully distinguish between disputed domain names. Well, it turns out the name Meta was already taken by a VR start-up 12 years prior to FB’s name-change. Consequently, now the first Meta is suing the new Meta for damaging its brand through confusion. Oh the confusion is total! Who will prevail? I already said what I think about Facebook and the myth of it being any kind of leader in the metaverse, so I…
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Metaverse Fashion Week 2022 and What on Earth Are NFT’s?
The Jonathan Simkhai Online Store features both virtual and regular designs. My last post on the metaverse turned into a 3000 word paper, but we only covered part of the foundation of the metaverse. I’ll take the opportunity in this post to discuss non fungible tokens (NFT). Take a deep breath. We saw that the metaverse is a spatial environment that mimics the real world by providing virtual social possibilities and simultaneously incorporating some gaming or simulation type of experiences for players to enjoy. Three dimensional shared realities, like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have historically been reserved to the gaming industry. Chasing Pokemons outdoors, dressing up avatars, playing e-sports…
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Meet Me In The Metaverse, Anatomy of WEB 3.0
Being is not what it seems – Nor non-being – The world’s existence is not in the world Rumi Illuminated What is the Metaverse? The metaverse is the next version of the future of computing. It is a story of how we imagine the world The metaverse is a story we are telling of what the future of technical infrastructures might look like where you combine reality and virtual reality, high speed internet, 5G, 6G and some kind of virtual space you might occupy with other people. Facebook has very little to do with the metaverse. The most prevalent myth about the metaverse is that it is about Facebook. However,…
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Bell v. L3d Distributing, 2021 FC 832, Inducement of Copyright Infringement
Inducement of copyright infringement is a novel cause of action recognized for the first time in Bell Canada v. L3d Distributing where the Federal Court awarded a group of media broadcasters over $25M in statutory damages for the streaming of unauthorized content on defendants pre-programmed set-top boxes. In cases of “whack-a-mole” patterns of infringement where an interlocutory injunction is being ignored by a defendant, like in this case the interlocutory injunction was breached over 175 times and resulted in 10 amendments of the statement of claim, inducement is rather obvious and a very welcome cause of action. It is a known pattern (modus operandi) of Canadian copyright infringers to deliberately…
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Brainstorm On Modernizing Copyright Law for AI and the Internet of Things
This is a very interesting reform but it isn’t going anywhere. https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/693.nsf/eng/00316.html AI can’t author anything. It may create random stuff like fractals or replicate things it sees or learns, like text, or social media comments generated by bot farms, but when it comes to independent AI “art” you just know that something is missing, like a robot playing classical composers on the piano, no matter how perfect, it is super boring, unless it is an exact replica of a human virtuoso’s performance. It is called reproducing a sound recording as a robot. I won’t even get into (the mild horror of) musical compositions by robots. The most incompetent human…
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Addiction Prevention Algorithm, Ethical Issues
Wired Magazine, in what’s hands down the most compelling article of this month, exposes a concerning facet of medical sexism where a woman suffering advanced endometriosis is denied pain medication due to algorithmic prescreening for addiction risk. The Pain Was Unbearable, So Why Did the Doctors Turn Her Away? The NarxCare algorithm screens pain patients according to their health data and prescription history, in order to determine who is entitled to pain management and who is supposed to tough it out (for their own good). In this case, the patient had a long history of legally prescribed percocet that prompted the algorithm to flag her as being at risk to…
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Summary Judgments in Copyright Claims: The War Has Changed
Courts are progressively moving away from their passive caution in matters of patent or copyright infringement where serial infringers are thriving on the slowness and inefficiency of the justice system to keep infringing in the course of proceedings. One way to curtail the modus operandi of Canadian infringers who rarely have a valid defence as they don’t need it until a case is heard on the merits, is to cut short litigation by several years and issue summary judgments against such infringers. (see ViiV Healthcare Company v. Gilead Sciences Canada, Inc., 2021 FCA 122) For example, in
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Protected: Smartphones, Data, Wifi, And Electricity Must Be Free Of Charge To Justify Government Intrusion
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Spyware Tracks Journalists And Activists Via Microsoft
This just in. At least 100 activists, journalists and government dissidents across 10 countries were targeted with spyware produced by Candiru, according to cybersecurity researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which tracks illegal hacking and surveillance. https://montrealgazette.com/news/world/activists-journalists-targeted-by-israeli-firms-spyware-researchers-say Using a pair of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows, cyber operatives operating in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Hungary, Indonesia and elsewhere purchased and installed Candiru’s remote spying software. According to Cristin Goodwin, general manager of Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit, the tool was used in “precision attacks” against targets’ computers, phones, network infrastructure and internet-connected devices,” —————– Being a frequent target of cyber-attacks (like any person in the world who needs to get…
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Google Indexing Of Personal Information Is Subject to PIPEDA (2021 FC 723)
Ever since Equustek, Google fails to convince Canadian courts of its “non-commercial” business model and its “freedom of expression” rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike the USA where Google always wins (remember Oracle and fair use not so long ago), Canada maintains a tough stance on the search engine giant. Just out of Federal Court, it was held In the Matter of a Reference pursuant to subsection 18.3(1) of the Federal Courts Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. f-7 of questions or issues of law and jurisdiction concerning the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents act, s.c. 2000, c. 5 that have arisen in the course of an…
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EU: Prohibited Artificial Intelligence Practices
As per Article 5 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act are prohibited the following practices consisting of placing on the market, putting into service or use of AI systems that consist of : 1.a) Subliminal techniques beyond a person’s consciousness designed to materially distort a person’s behaviour in a manner that causes or is likely to cause that person or another person physical or psychological harm b) (algorithmic bias) Exploiting any of the vulnerabilities of a specific group of persons due to their age, physical or mental disability, in order to materially distort the behaviour of a person pertaining to that group in a manner that causes or is likely…
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Sherman Estate and Donovan 2021 SCC 25 – Breakdown
The facts of this case revolve around the unexplained double homicide of a billionaire couple in Toronto. The estate trustees felt uncomfortable to administrate the Sherman estate under intense public scrutiny and incidentally feared for their life due to the perpetrator being unknown and still at large. The application judge sealed the probate files to protect the privacy and safety of the trustees. The Ontario Court of Appeal lifted the sealing orders concluding that the privacy interest advanced lacked a public interest quality and that there was no evidence of a real risk to their physical safety. Finally, Justice Kasirer for a unanimous Supreme Court confirmed the lifting of the…
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Indica Records Zip File Phishing Spam Of The Day
Over the last couple of years, I have received several spammy emails appearing to be sent from a record label employee asking me to open a zip file with my name on it, or a Word doc where I need to activate macros. Today the cyber-fraudster has replaced their name with a bogus email address to hide the actual email address. When isolating the contact, you can see that the domain of the originating email has nothing to do with Indica Records. The ljcvelmonte.cl is likely a domain from South America set up for the purpose of stealing data or attempting ransom.
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What Is A Honeypot?
The latest buzzword in cybersecurity sounds delicious but it is also a preventive mechanism against hacking and can save time and resources in forensic analysis of cyber-breaches. Honeypots are hacker traps and they come in many forms and sizes adapted to your needs. Our tech expert Roman Blake is developing a comprehensive guide for creators and small businesses on how the strategic deployment of honeypots can place you many steps ahead of potential hackers. I am looking forward to this collaboration. In the meantime I recommend the following draft: https://cybersecuritynews.com/what-is-a-honeypot/
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Vaccine Passports And Privacy
By now we must have read at least three different legal opinions on mandatory vaccination with the same inconclusive results. Not much legal precedent to allow it except in few limited cases, tons of potential liability for employers who embark on forced vaccination journey. Therefore, don’t! As for vaccine passports, here is the joint statement of Canada’s privacy commissioners on the matter. https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/speeches/2021/s-d_20210519/ Again, there are many different ways to say the same thing about vaccine passports. They are not going to happen. At least not under the current privacy framework.
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La protection des données au Québec en danger
La présidente de la Commission de l’accès à l’information, Diane Poitras, vient de déclarer en commission parlementaire qu’elle n’a pas les ressources nécessaires pour répondre aux menaces liées aux nouvelles technologies qui utilisent les données des Québécois. Cet article fait le point sur cette nouvelle alarmante: https://www.journaldequebec.com/2021/04/29/commission-de-lacces-a-linformation–le-pauvre-chien-de-garde-de-nos-donnees Les lois sur l’accès à l’information et la protection des données des Québécois ont connu peu de réformes depuis le debut du millénaire. À lire aussi: J’ai été fraudé à la PCU, et vous?
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Télétravail et géolocalisation des employés
Ce trio d’articles pointe vers un besoin pressant de réformer les lois sur le droit du travail tant provinciales que fédérales afin d’assurer une meilleure sécurité des données personnelles des travailleurs en contexte de télétravail. Une employée de l’Alberta a été congédiée après avoir refusé d’installer une application de géolocalisation sur son téléphone: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1784312/geolocalistion-telephone-mobile-productivite-employes Les lois sur le droit du travail permettent la géolocalisation des employés dans la mesure qu’ils en ont été préalablement informés https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1703181/covid-19-teletravail-surveillance-employes-hubstaff-logiciel Une application de géolocalisation mal sécurisée a laissé fuire les données personnelles et géographiques de plus de 238 000 de ses utilisateurs en les stockant sur un serveur non protégé par un mot de…
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Déverrouillage d’appareils électroniques par les forces de l’ordre; Données conservées chez des tiers états-uniens
De plus en plus de services policiers au Canada, à l’instar de l’Agence des services frontaliers, font l’acquisition de technologies permettant de déverrouiller un téléphone cellulaire ou une tablette protégés par un mot de passe. Pour effectuer ce type de déverrouillage, les agents doivent obtenir une autorisation judiciaire (mandat). Or, ce n’est pas l’autorisation judiciaire qui pose problème en l’espèce, mais un détail beaucoup plus insidieux. Ainsi, on apprend que pour épargner de l’argent sur les licences des logiciels de déverouillage, certaines services policiers ont décidé de stocker les données ainsi obtenues sur des plateformes info-nuagiques (cloud) appartenant à des tiers du secteur privé, situés aux États-Unis. Ce constat oblige…
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Lawyers And Open-Source Software
Here is an excellent article in Canadian Lawyer warning of IP landmines to avoid when using OSS. https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/practice-areas/intellectual-property/in-house-counsel-should-exercise-caution-when-using-open-source-software-dentons-lawyer/333174
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Protected: Queering: From Alt-Art to Mainstream
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Protected: From Fully Remote to Hybrid Work With Significantly Reduced In-Person Hours
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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