Teresa Scassa - Blog

Technology has enabled the collection and sharing of personal information on a massive scale, and governments have been almost as quick as the private sector to hoover up as much of it as they can. They have also been as fallible as the private sector – Canada’s federal government, for example, has a substantial number of data breaches in the last few years. What has not kept pace with technology has been the legislation in…

The Fédération Étudiante Collégiale du Québec has succeeded in its opposition to a Quebec entrepreneur’s attempt to register its symbol of protest, the carré rouge (which means “red square”), as a trademark for use in association with T-shirts, posters, cups, wristbands, and other paraphernalia. While this decision offers some protection from the appropriation and commercialization of a protest symbol, it also reveals the limits of such protection. The carré rouge – essentially a small square…