Pitblado Lectures Talk

On Friday November 6, 2015 I was honoured to be invited to be on a panel and give a talk at the Pitblado Lectures  in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This 55th edition of the Pitblado Lectures was put on by the Law Society of Manitoba, The Manitoba Bar Association, and The University of Manitoba Faculty of Law (http://www.pitbladolectures.com/). This years theme was “From Blackacre to Blackberry: Redefining Property and Ownership”.

Attached are a set of post-final slides from my presentation as well as a short written piece. Thanks to Professors Doug Harris and Graham Reynolds of the Allard School of Law @UBC  and Professor Katie Sykes of the TRU Faculty of Law for their comments on a draft of the latter.

Both the slides and the short writing take on the utility of defining virtual goods as property, particularly in a “Post I.P.” world effectively ruled by contracts. The slides also go on to explore the contradictions between patent law and copyright law which seem to favour innovators over creators for (IMHO) no particular or particularly good reason. Much of what you will see is consistent with things we have talked about in class but their recasting may prove useful to you in some way.

jon