LibertyVoice

So asks CCER, which has a post on how the Business News Network appears to have selectively issued notice and takedown notifications on segments involving debate on Canadian copyright.

Update: BNN responds, indicating that the takedown policy is broad-based and not specific to copyright.

With the Pirate Party popularity spreading in Europe, the Canadian Press covers attempts to establish a similar party in Canada.

The latest Search Engine podcast includes an interview with Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan on the lawful access legislation.

Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski have an op-ed in the National Post in the need for a Canadian cyberwar strategy and the potential to establish "a foreign policy that explicitly includes cyberspace as a means for projecting Canadian values."

The Canadian government held an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement consultation meeting today focused on pharmaceutical and access to medicines issues.  The meeting was smaller than the earlier consultation in April, but featured some important new information about the ACTA process including a fuller description of planned negotiating meetings, details on the upcoming Morocco meeting, and confirmation on an inquiry from Brazil about joining the negotiations.

1.   Negotiation schedule

The ACTA partners met on June 11th to discuss ACTA related issues and committed at the meeting to continue with the negotiations.  The next meeting is set for Morocco in July with later meetings currently planned for October (Korea) and December (Mexico).  There are additional tentative plans for meetings in February and April 2010.

2.   The Morocco meeting

Officials advised that the Morocco meeting will be a two-day meeting that focuses on ACTA chapters involving international co-operation, enforcement, and institutional issues.  The meeting will also address some "housekeeping" issues including ongoing transparency concerns.  The Internet-related provisions will not be a focus and the Internet-related issues has not progressed beyond the U.S. non-paper that surveyed other ACTA participants on the state of their digital copyright laws (in other words, there is still no draft text).

3.   New partners

During the meeting, I asked whether ACTA was open to new countries to join the negotiations before they conclude.  Canada hedged, noting that the issue would be discussed at the Morocco meeting and that it would depend upon the country and the context.  The issue has apparently become more urgent since Canadian officials confirmed that Brazil has approached one ACTA participant about the prospect of joining, but have not received an answer.  Moreover, other countries may have made similar inquiries.  I wrote about the desirability of broader participation earlier this year.

4.   The De Minimis Exception

The issue of creating a de minimis exception within ACTA was raised during the discussion.  The exception would be designed to carve out small quantities and personal use issues from border enforcement.  Officials noted that the primary goal is to address large scale counterfeiting and that the treaty should be non-intrusive and practical.  Canada is one of at least three countries that have put forward de minimis language.  Officials said that there was agreement in principle with including some form of de minimis provision in the treaty.

 I have updated and split into 2 the trade-marks guide I created for my clients. 
trade-marks-guide-part-1-registering-a-trade-mark summarizes what one should know before selecting and registering a trade-mark, and the advantages of registering. 
trade-marks-guide-part-2-after-registration summarizes how to properly use and care for a trade-mark after it is registered.

On the day that The Pirate Bay announced that they will be sold to a commercial company for $7.8 million, Tomas Wennström secured an audio interview with TPB spokesman Peter Sunde. The interview is of great interest but raises even more questions as shockwaves continue through the P2P community.

On the day that The Pirate Bay announced that they will be sold to a commercial company for $7.8 million, Tomas Wennström secured an audio interview with TPB spokesman Peter Sunde. The interview is of great interest but raises even more questions as shockwaves continue through the P2P community.

One jurisdiction clause in one of hundreds of pages of documents cannot govern the whole agreement because no company acting in a normal commercial way would think that it would, the Court of Appeal has said.

Alongside the news that The Pirate Bay will sell shares on the Swedish stock market come some other significant changes. The site itself will decentralize and stop hosting and tracking torrents. Instead, The Pirate Bay will use a third party tracker and torrent hosting service to serve its users.

Alongside the news that The Pirate Bay will sell shares on the Swedish stock market come some other significant changes. The site itself will decentralize and stop hosting and tracking torrents. Instead, The Pirate Bay will use a third party tracker and torrent hosting service to serve its users.

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners.

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners.