If, as seems increasingly likely, the so-called “YouTube” exception contemplated by Bill C-11 (formally, and boringly, entitled “Non-commercial User Generated Content”) is enacted into law (the section will become new section 29.21 of the Copyright Act (Canada)), Canadian copyright and entertainment lawyers will need to wrestle with an innovative new mechanism which carves out a potentially wide range of online activity from liability for copyright infringement. We have tried to highlight previously some worthy articles which address the potential (and problems) of the new provision (here and here) – and this third installment in the series catches us up with some (relatively) recent notable writings on the topic.
- Len Glickman and Jessica Fingerhut’s “User-generated content: Recent developments in Canada and the U.S.” was published in Internet and e-Commerce Law in Canada (2011-12) 11 IECLC 12:6
- for a US-based perspective on “mashups”, see Elina Lae’s “Mashups − A Protected Form of Appropriation Art or a Blatant Copyright Infringement?”
- for another US-based perspective, this time incorporating a parody analysis (also to be of imminent interest for Canadian lawyers) see Aaron Schwabach’s “Reclaiming Copyright From the Outside In: What the Downfall Hitler Meme Means for Transformative Works, Fair Use, and Parody“