At some point along the way, “CLE” (Continuing Legal Education) has morphed into “CPD” (Continuing Professional Development) for reasons which aren’t entirely clear to me. In any event, here are a couple of upcoming events which qualify as either/both and will be of particular interest to Canadian entertainment lawyers: on Thursday, February 6, 2014, as…
As my colleague Monique Ashamalla pointed out over at our sister blog, IP Advocate, the Federal Court of Canada recently handed down a judgment of particular note to content owners: the court awarded $10,000,000 in statutory damages against a defendant who copied and uploaded infringing copies of TV shows The Simpsons and Family Guy. The…
Claude Robinson’s long legal march is over. On December 23, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its unanimous decision in Cinar Corporation v. Robinson (2013 SCC 73). (For reasons too ridiculous to get into here, the style of cause at the Supreme Court is Cinar Corporation v Robinson, which makes it seem like Cinar…
In early November, SOCAN (the Canadian performing rights collective) announced the entering into of a new agreement which probably should have garnered more attention than it did: YouTube earnings unlocked for SOCAN members. The basics of the new arrangement are this: SOCAN has entered into an agreement with Audiam, an organization which licenses “synchronization” right…
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) recently published the first in a series of white papers dedicated to branded entertainment in Canada. The first white paper, released at Merging Media in Vancouver on November 6-7, 2013 focused on The Branded Entertainment Landscape. The second white paper focusing on the issues facing Canadian independent film, TV…