Posts under ‘infringement’

In earlier posts we have written about the continuing battle between file sharing members of the public and the record and film industries, covering their attempts to discouraging infringement through legal action, and digital rights management technology.  We have also reported on the seizure of domain names pointing to websites that encourage infringement.  Despite these [...]

As more of us buy E-readers to read books digitally, the much discussed “death of the book” debate resurfaces.  Will digital books replace actual physical copies? Reportedly, on Amazon more people are buying digital versions of stories than hard bound or paper back copies. Piracy of films and music has been around for years.  Now, [...]

In their article earlier this year, the Ipkat drew attention to the fact that there is a marked separation between the worlds of trade marks and branding. More often than not the two are not addressed collectively, but are rather dealt with by completely separate teams, or even distinct organisations.  A creative team might deal [...]

Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes comprise a wide range of techniques used to restrict the use of hardware, software and media – allowing publishers broad control over how the software is used by licensees.   Game publishers are increasingly making use of these schemes in their attempts to combat videogame piracy.  However, these efforts have significant [...]

Since the release of the latest generation of consoles, the gaming industry has undergone considerable growth.  No longer seen as a niche, antisocial pastime, the marketing strategies and innovative approaches to game design employed by companies like Nintendo have brought Gaming into the mainstream.  Platforms such as the Wii, and the DS, have spawned a [...]

In view of the controversy surrounding not only its contents, but the way in which it was passed, we had written on the recent Digital Economy Act in an earlier post.  In this post I would like to focus not on the broader policy considerations that have been dominating discussion, but on some of the [...]

Last week nine websites that allowed people to download or stream TV programmes and films for free were closed down (see here), their domains seized by the US federal government.  These sites included tvshack.net, Movies-Links.tv, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.coms along with five others. These sites were  targeted as part of a new initiative, aimed at combating Internet [...]

In business, as in life, we are constantly assessing and managing risks.  One of the most important risks to avoid is that of choosing your brand name without doing some very careful searches.  I know this from personal experience. When I started up my law firm I named it A1 Law, having done a brief [...]

Should fan fiction be permitted by copyright law?  Roland Barthes, a literary theorist set out in his essay ‘Death of the Author’ his belief that once a text has been written by an author it no longer belongs to them, but to those who read it.  As he puts it: “to give a text an [...]

A controversial subject for some, copyright infringement has become a more common conversation topic as peer-to-peer networks, and widespread high speed broadband, have made it easy for members of the public to find, download, and share copyrighted material without seeking permission from the owner.  At the same time, copyright owners are finding more effective methods [...]