Industry Canada’s Intellectual Property Policy Directorate recently released a report examining the effects of the current notice-and-notice copyright infringement regime on Internet service providers (ISPs). Once ISPs are notified that infringing activity is taking place through the use of their service, the regime requires that they pass on a notice to the appropriate customer. Excerpts of the report, which was prepared by Paul Chwelos at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, appear below.

Dynasty Gaming Inc. has hired Mark Billings as the company’s chief financial officer as part of a new strategy to expand its reach in the online gaming sector. Billings comes to the Montreal firm from a VP post at Desjardins Securities, where he worked with small-cap companies to both garner financing and take them public. Prior to working for Desjardins, he worked for online casino operator Golden Palace, where he also held the position of CFO. He holds an MBA from Harvard University. With Billings’ arrival, acting CFO Anthony Barbusci returns to his position of VP and corporate secretary. "We are delighted to have an individual with Mark’s experience, vision and skill sets join our team," said Dynasty Gaming CEO Albert Barbusci. "In additional to his financial expertise, he will bring an in-depth knowledge of online gaming industry practices and standards."

Tira Wireless draws US$13M investment
Tira Wireless Inc., a Toronto-based provider of technology that enables mobile content development and deployment, recently announced a US$13-million investment by Lehman Ventures in the firm. With its Series C funding, which will be used to round out the firm’s service portfolio and expand global support and distribution, Lehman Ventures joins Brightspark Ventures, Flagship Ventures and Export Development Canada on the roster of investors in the company. "Tira’s unique approach to content deployment, developed from three years of experience preparing content for major publishers, was critical to our decision to invest," said Lehman Ventures managing director Tom Banahan in a media release. Tira Wireless’ Jump technology allows mobile content developers to design content for more than 500 handsets at one go, and has to date been used by more than 80% of the mobile content developers out there, the company says.

With the fate of proposed amendments to the Copyright Act of 1985 unsure after the Conservative Party of Canada’s recent victory at the polls, a lunchtime panel made up of law academics, rightsholder group members and a Canadian Idol judge examined the likely course of copyright reform in Canada.

What do you do with the empty buildings left behind from government-mandated hospital closures? Well, converting them into artists’ residences seems like a logical, believable choice.

A mobile short-movie competition launched this year may not take its place alongside the Toronto and Montreal international film festivals anytime soon, but if comparable events abroad are any indication it will garner its share of critical acclaim.

Creativity, convergence, copyright and communities were all hot talking points at this week’s first-ever iSummit, an interactive media conference organized by the Toronto-based New Media Busin-ess Alliance.