Month: September 2019

My wife and I recently visited Denmark, a country we had only briefly stopped in years ago in order to take our (then) very young daughter to the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. But of course there is so much more to Denmark than Tivoli, or Lego, or Danish pastries, or all of the other clichés that we become used to. While no country is without some problems, Denmark comes across to a visitor as a laid-back, clean, tolerant and efficient country. It consistently ranks as No. 1 or 2 on Transparency International’s anti-corruption index (New Zealand being its main competitor) and honesty is valued. Danes pay some of the highest rate of tax in the world, but seem to feel that they get their money’s worth. In fact, one of the main attributes of “Danishness” is its reputation for happiness. In surveys Denmark is repeatedly found to be one of the world’s happiest countries and the Danes among the world’s happiest people. Various theories have been advanced for this outcome, including relative income equality, a well- structured social safety net (thus a reduction in anxiety levels), a high degree of mutual trust and an innate sense of well-being incorporated in the Danish term “hygge” (pronounced hyügeh, as I learned after initially mangling the word to the incomprehension of my Danish friends). Continue reading “Copyright Governance Danish Style: Is This “Hygge” in Action?”

“The writ has dropped”. I am not sure where that arcane term comes from but in Canada it means that the electoral campaign to decide which party and leader will form the next government has begun. This will not be news to my Canadian readers but may be to those outside Canada, given the paucity of coverage in the foreign media on things Canadian–except perhaps for Bianca Andreescu’s victory over Serena Williams at the US Open. Continue reading “Canada’s General Election: The Copyright Angle”

Maybe you remember the story of the Canadian muralist Michelle Loughery who painted many of the wall murals that adorn the walls of buildings in Merritt, BC, the self-proclaimed “country music capital of Canada”? If you missed it (ICYMI, as they say these days), here is the link to “Mural, Mural on the Wall—Who’s the Owner of Them All?” It is the story of Michelle Loughery, community activist and artist who, with the assistance of local youth, painted most of the murals about a decade ago in cooperation with a local NGO called the “Merritt Walk of Stars Society”. That Society has since been wound up but has been succeeded by another organization, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame (CCMHF). It’s a complicated story but it involves who owns the copyright to the murals, at least some of which are clearly marked with Loughery’s © notification. (see photo above). Continue reading “Mural, Mural on the Wall: Were They Commissioned, One and All?”

Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), a US statute passed in the infancy of the internet, just can’t stay out of the news. Section 230 is the clause inserted into the CDA that, as interpreted by the US courts over the years, has allowed internet intermediaries to avoid liability for content posted by users that is made available on their platforms. (It also allows those platforms to remove content considered to be “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such content is constitutionally protected”, but the focus of the tech community has been on avoiding any liability for doing nothing to restrict offensive user content rather than on its ability to take action against such content). It is highly controversial from many aspects, and can truly be described as a multi-edged sword, a measure that has come under attack primarily in the US, but also elsewhere, for a number of disparate reasons. Continue reading “Section 230 is Dangerous–Keep it Out of Trade Negotiations”