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Intellectual Property Law

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Selected Works

2010

Copyright

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

From Music Tracks To Google Maps: Who Owns Computer-Generated Works?, Mark Perry, Thomas Margoni Oct 2010

From Music Tracks To Google Maps: Who Owns Computer-Generated Works?, Mark Perry, Thomas Margoni

Mark Perry

Increasingly the digital content used in everyday life has little or no human intervention in its creation. Typically, when such content is delivered to consumers it comes with attached claims of copyright. However, depending on the jurisdiction, approaches to ownership of computer-generated works vary from legislated to uncertain. In this paper we look at the various approaches taken by the common law, such as in Canada, and the legislative approach taken in the United Kingdom. The options for how computer-generated works may be treated and suggestions for their best placement in copyright are discussed.


Open Content Licensing Of Public Sector Information And The Risk Of Tortious Liability For Australian Governments, Cheryl Foong Dec 2009

Open Content Licensing Of Public Sector Information And The Risk Of Tortious Liability For Australian Governments, Cheryl Foong

Cheryl Foong

There has been an increasing interest by governments worldwide in the potential benefits of open access to public sector information (PSI). However, an important question remains: can a government incur tortious liability for incorrect information released online under an open content licence? This paper argues that the release of PSI online for free under an open content licence, specifically a Creative Commons licence, is within the bounds of an acceptable level of risk to government, especially where users are informed of the limitations of the data and appropriate information management policies and principles are in place to ensure accountability for …


Calibrating Copyright Statutory Damages To Promote Speech, Alan Garfield Dec 2009

Calibrating Copyright Statutory Damages To Promote Speech, Alan Garfield

Alan E Garfield

Copyright and the First Amendment exist in tension. The Supreme Court acknowledges this tension but says that copyright law resolves it with two built-in free speech safeguards: (1) by protecting only the expression of ideas and not the ideas themselves (the idea/expression dichotomy); and (2) by allowing the use of expression under certain circumstances (the fair use doctrine). The problem is that these doctrines are notoriously vague, so users often cannot know ex ante whether their uses will be immune from liability. This unpredictably might be tolerable if users could be confident that, if they were subject to liability, any …