Blacklock's Sues the Government of Canada - Again

Blacklock's has sued the Government of Canada once again - this time with respect to alleged breach of the Copyright Act and alleged breach of contract by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Here, without specific comment, is the latest Statement of Claim in Simplified Action #T-20142-16.

This is now the 11th case in what I have called the "litany of litigation" against the Government of Canada and some of its agencies.  Except for the case referred to below that Blacklock's resoundingly lost, the other nine cases were stayed until 45 days after the judgement below.

It will be recalled that Blacklock's lost it first Federal Court case to go to trial in a judgment issued on November 10, 2016 which included the following language:

[45]           Blacklock’s maintains that this case challenges the viability of its business model including its right to protect news copy behind a subscription-based paywall. The suggestion that Blacklock’s business cannot survive in the face of the minor and discrete use that took place here is essentially an admission that the market places little value on Blacklock’s work-product. All subscription-based news agencies suffer from work-product leakage. But to customers who value easy, timely and unfettered access to news that may not be readily available from other sources, the price of a subscription is worth paying. It also goes without saying that whatever business model Blacklock’s employs it is always subject to the fair dealing rights of third parties. To put it another way, Blacklock’s is not entitled to special treatment because its financial interests may be adversely affected by the fair use of its material. Nothing in these reasons should however be taken as an endorsement of arguably blameworthy conduct in the form of unlawful technological breaches of a paywall, misuse of passwords or the widespread exploitation of copyrighted material to obtain a commercial or business advantage.

(highlight added)

We shall know on or before December 12, 2016 whether Blacklock's intends to appeal the above ruling.

HK

Google Settlement

Big news from the USA - re the Google Books litigation.

There is a big settlement. Here are some links:

Some details about the agreement is now online here.

A summary of the agreement is available here.

The agreement can be found here.

Those who own or think they may own a U.S. copyright interest
implicated by the agreement may wish to look here.

As for Canada, Google advises:

International Impact

Copyright holders - located in the US and internationally - may have their books included in this agreement. As part of a worldwide notice program, the settlement administrator will be reaching out to authors and publishers around the world to tell them about their rights under the settlement, which include the right not to have the settlement apply to them and the ability to register with the Book Rights Registry to control and profit from online access to their books.

However, because this agreement is the result of a US lawsuit, it only affects the Book Search experience for users accessing the site in the US. Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.

More to come when more is known...

HK

Locks, Levies and Litigation - My First Take on Bill C-61

OK.

Better late than never, I hope.

Here's my Power Point presentation (with a couple of updates arising from discussion) based upon my presentation at the University of Ottawa on June 18, 2008.

Lots to think about.

HK