Digital Copyright Law

In Digital Copyright Law, Professor Hutchison identifies and analyzes the many novel legal issues that often arise in this area of growing importance. This book assesses the developing law against an interpretive methodology that seeks to rationalize rights, and brings coherence to the Copyright Act, in the face of challenging digital facts. Included in this methodology is a detailed analysis of the meaning and applicability of the principle of technological neutrality.

This comprehensive treatment of Canadian digital copyright law examines the recent digital amendments to the Act in depth — including separate chapters on technological protection measures (digital locks) and the treatment of Internet intermediaries. Detailed consideration is given to developing caselaw on key issues such as the right to copy, the right to communicate a work to the public by telecommunication, the application of fair dealing rules in the digital sphere, and the use of Norwich orders to identify Internet infringers. Other issues not yet addressed in the law, such as the applicability of exhaustion rules to digital goods, and private international law rules for ubiquitous infringement, are also discussed.