FROM THE OFFICES OF LESLEY ELLEN HARRIS
Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News
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Vol. 6, No. 3, August 27, 2002
ISSN 1489-954X
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Contents:
1.. Studies, Legislation and Conventions:
WIPO copyright meeting reports
2.. Legal Cases:
Danish court prohibits deep linking
U.S. Mint settles lawsuit
U.S. Term Extension Act challenge
Thai court rules on cyber-defamation
Canadian Supreme Court rules against creator
Canadian ISPs not liable for copyright royalty payments
Law Society of Upper Canada breached copyright
Australian Federal Court upholds telephone directory copyright
Deep linking violates E.U. law
3.. Of Interest:
Presentation on licensing electronic publications
Mobile phone companies agree to digital copyright protection
Deep linking challenged by Dallas Morning News
University of Alberta guide to cyber-plagiarism
4.. Seminars:
Online Canadian copyright law course
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Copyright, New Media & E-Commerce News is distributed for free by the office
of Lesley Ellen Harris. Information contained herein should not be relied
upon or considered as legal advice. Copyright 2002 Lesley Ellen Harris. This
newsletter may be forwarded, downloaded or reproduced in whole in any print
or electronic format for non-commercial purposes provided that its author is
acknowledged and that you cc: [email protected].
This newsletter is archived with the National Library of Canada at:
http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/202/300/copyright-a/index.html
1.. STUDIES, LEGISLATION AND CONVENTIONS:
WIPO COPYRIGHT MEETING REPORTS - The full report of the 7th meeting of
the WIPO SCCRR held in Geneva in May 2002 is now available at:
http://www.wipo.int/eng/meetings/2002/sccr/index_7.htm. Past meeting reports
are accessible at: http://www.wipo.int/eng/document/index_02.htm.
2.. LEGAL CASES:
DANISH COURT PROHIBITS DEEP-LINKING - A court in Copenhagen has ruled
that an online news clipping service can no longer link to specific articles
on newspaper Web sites. The court held that Newsbooster.com, which allows
subscribers to search for news articles on a specific topic, was in direct
competition with the newspapers, and that the deep linking affected the
value of the newspapers' advertisements.
U.S. MINT SETTLES LAWSUIT - The U.S. Mint has settled a copyright,
trademark and false advertising law suit against Washington Mint, LLC after
three years of litigation. See the U.S. Mint press release at:
http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=382.
U.S. Term Extension Act Challenge - The Sonny Bono Copyright Term
Extension Act, which extended copyright protection by 20 years to existing
and future copyrights, is being challenged on a constitutional basis. On May
20, 2002, opening briefs were filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguments
will be heard in the Fall of 2002. An excellent site with all the
information you'll ever need about this case, including court documents and
briefs, is at: http://eldred.cc.
THAI COURT RULES ON CYBER-DEFAMATION- A court in Thailand found a man
guilty of defamation for posting a note to an Internet bulletin board that
included a woman's phone number and a claim that she was a prostitute. The
case marks the first time a Thai court has ruled on online defamation.
CANADIAN SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST CREATOR - In the case, Theberge v.
Galerie D'Art du Petit Champlain inc., an art gallery purchased posters by
Quebec painter Claude Theberge, then transferred the images on the posters
from the paper to canvas. The transferring process lifted the ink off the
posters and transferred it to the canvasses. Therefore, no reproductions
were actually made since the poster paper was left blank in the end. The
Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Mr. Theberge and for a seizure of
the canvasses. However, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned this
decision, finding that the images were not reproduced under the Canadian
Copyright Act, but were merely transferred from one medium to another. The
decision is at:
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/laroche.en.html.
CANADIAN ISPs NOT LIABLE FOR COPYRIGHT ROYALTY PAYMENTS - On May 2,
2002, the Federal Court of Canada upheld most of the Copyright Board's
ruling (http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca) which held that Internet Service Providers
("ISPs") are not liable for copyright royalty payments where they act
strictly as conduits. However, the Court reversed two other issues decided
by the Board. The court ruled that caching activities should not be treated
as mere conduit activity. In addition, the court ruled that jurisdictional
reach should extend to foreign-based Web sites with a real and substantial
connection to Canada. The court also discussed the appropriate role of
copyright in Canada and referred to the recent Theberge case and stated that
the Canadian Copyright Act "should be interpreted with an eye to striking an
appropriate balance." The decision is at
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/2002/2002fca166.html.
LAW SOCIETY OF UPPER CANADA INFRINGED COPYRIGHT - On May 14, 2002, the
Federal Court of Canada re-affirmed that legal texts, annotated statutes,
case reports and abridgments of court decisions are protected by copyright,
and that permission is required from the appropriate legal publishers for
photocopying services like those of The Law Society of Upper Canada. The
decision is at http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/2002/2002fca187.html.
Australian Federal Court Upholds Telephone Directory Copyright - On May
15, 2002, the Australian Federal Court upheld the Telstra copyright decision
in which Telstra was found to enjoy copyright in its telephone directories.
Telstra is Australia's leading telecommunications provider. The decision is
at:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2002/112.html.
Deep Linking Violates E.U. Law - A Munich (Germany) Upper Court ruled
that using a search engine to locate stories on newspapers' sites violates
EU law. In November 2000, German newspaper Mainpost asserted that German
search service NewsClub violated the law by searching through and linking
directly to Mainpost content. The case was decided under the EU Database
Directive, which grants copyright protection to database creators for
"selecting and arranging" the information contained in a database even if
there is no copyright in the collected information itself. The directive
specifically protects the "unfair extraction" of materials in a database and
specifically mentions downloading or hyperlinking. Deep linking has been the
subject of various out-of-court settlements in the U.S. as well as under the
laws of specific European countries, but not under the EU Directive.
3.. OF INTEREST:
PRESENTATION ON LICENSING ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS - A presentation by
Meg Williams, FEDLINK Network Program Specialist, describes how federal
libraries and information centers can help their patrons and managers
address the use of electronic publications in their agencies. Take a look at
this online presentation at:
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/video/licen/licen.html. The entire presentation is
approximately 50 minutes.
MOBILE PHONE COMPANIES AGREE TO DIGITAL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION - IBM and
Nokia have agreed to design technology that will stop sharing of copyright
protected games, graphics and ring tones by cell phone users. Concern over
copyright violations between mobile phone users is increasing as technology
to play music, video and high-quality games over mobile devices is being
developed.
DEEP LINKING CHALLENGED BY DALLAS MORNING NEWS - The Dallas Morning News
has issued a cease and desist letter
to the owner of Barkingdogs.com, a news site that links to individual
stories on the Dallas Morning News Web site. The Morning News states that it
permits links only to its front page.
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA GUIDE TO CYBER-PLAGIARISM - Whereas copyright
infringement is the unauthorized use of copyright protected materials,
plagiarism is using other peoples' work and claiming it as one's own.
Cyber-plagiarism is becoming more widespread. The University of Alberta
Libraries has created an online publication called A Faculty Guide to
Cyber-Plagiarism. This document explains why students plagiarize, how to
prevent, detect and report cyber-plagiarism, and provides further resources
on this topic. Take a look at:
http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism.
4.. SEMINARS:
ONLINE CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW COURSE - Copyrightlaws.com is once again
offering the first online course on Canadian copyright law. This course has
not only been well received in the past, it also provides an excellent basis
for future copyright courses currently being developed by copyrightlaws.com.
For further information, see: http://copyrightlaws.com or e-mail:
[email protected].
This newsletter is prepared by Lesley Ellen Harris, a Copyright and New
Media Lawyer and Consultant. Lesley is the author of the books Canadian
Copyright Law (McGrawHill) and Digital Property: Currency of the 21st
Century (McGrawHill - see http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/digitalproperty) Lesley
can be reached at [email protected], and at http://copyrightlaws.com.
This LEH-Letter issue was prepared with the help of Beth Davies.
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