In the summer of 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada issued rulings on five copyright cases in a single day. The cases represent a seismic shift in Canadian copyright law, with the Court providing an unequivocal affirmation that copyright exceptions such as fair dealing should be treated as users’ rights, while emphasizing the need for a technology neutral approach to copyright law. The Court’s decisions, which were quickly dubbed the “copyright pentalogy,” included no fees for song previews...

This interdisciplinary edited collection brings together scholars, activists, and policy makers to build consensus around what a connected society means for Canada. The collection offers insight on the state of citizenship in a digital context in Canada and proposes a research and policy agenda for the way forward.Part I examines the current landscape of digital civic participation and highlights some of the missing voices required to ensure an inclusive digital society. Part II ex...

Controversy shrouds sharing economy platforms. It stems partially from the platforms’ economic impact, which is felt most acutely in certain sectors: Uber drivers compete with taxi drivers; Airbnb hosts compete with hotels. Other consequences lie elsewhere: Uber is associated with a trend toward low-paying, precarious work, whereas Airbnb is accused of exacerbating real estate speculation and raising the cost of long-term rental housing.While governments in some jurisdictions have ...

The Future of Open Data est issu d’un projet de recherche en partenariat subventionné pendant plusieurs années par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (CRSH) qui vise à explorer les données gouvernementales géospatiales ouvertes dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Les chercheurs associés à cette subvention ont adopté une perspective critique en sciences sociales basée sur l’impératif voulant que la recherche devrait être pertinente à la fois pour le gouvernement et pour les ...

Years of surveillance-related leaks from US whistleblower Edward Snowden have fuelled an international debate on privacy, spying, and Internet surveillance. Much of the focus has centered on the role of the US National Security Agency, yet there is an important Canadian side to the story. The Communications Security Establishment, the Canadian counterpart to the NSA, has played an active role in surveillance activities both at home and abroad, raising a host of challenging legal and policy...

In the summer of 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada issued rulings on five copyright cases in a single day. The cases represent a seismic shift in Canadian copyright law, with the Court providing an unequivocal affirmation that copyright exceptions such as fair dealing should be treated as users’ rights, while emphasizing the need for a technology neutral approach to copyright law. The Court’s decisions, which were quickly dubbed the “copyright pentalogy,” included no fees for song previews...

#1 New York Times Bestseller“Go Set a Watchman is such an important book, perhaps the most important novel on race to come out of the white South in decades." — New York TimesA landmark novel by Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to ...

Intellectual property rights and their overlaps are considered in light of rights purposes, relying on the concept of a balance of rights as the measuring rod for assessment of the consequences resulting from the exercise of overlapping rights. Identifying the complex interface between different types of intellectual property rights, this book discusses the use of these rights and their effect on a diverse group of stakeholders, from individual users of e-books to large corporations operat...

"Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like."—Nathan Heller, New YorkerHow a new model of democracy that opens up power to ordinary citizens could strengthen inclusiveness, responsiveness, and accountability in modern societiesTo the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy m...

In the age of easily downloadable culture, messages about copyright are ubiquitous. If you’re an artist, consumer, or teacher, copyright is likely a part of your everyday life. Completely updated, this revised edition of Canadian Copyright parses the Copyright Act and explains current Canadian copyright law to ordinary Canadians in accessible language, using recent examples and legal cases.

'Ground-breaking and ambitious' - Nick Srnicek, author of Platform CapitalismWhoever controls the platforms, controls the future. Platform Socialism sets out an alternative vision and concrete proposals for a digital economy that expands our freedom.Powerful tech companies now own the digital infrastructure of twenty-first century social life. Masquerading as global community builders, these companies have developed sophisticated new techniques for extract...

Since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009 several hundred different ‘cryptocurrencies’ have been developed and become accepted for a wide variety of transactions in leading online commercial marketplaces and the ‘sharing economy’, as well as by more traditional retailers, manufacturers, and even by charities and political parties.Bitcoin and its competitors have also garnered attention for their wildly fluctuating values as well as implication in international money laundering, Ponzi sch...