CRTC clarifies questions about CASL

December 11th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Earlier today, Andrea Rosen, Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer at the CRTC and Lynne Perrault, Director – Electronic Commerce Enforcement Division, Compliance and Enforcement Sector of the CRTC, gave a talk to the ITAC Legal Affairs Forum in Toronto. The subject was the Commission’s plans for enforcement of CASL. Ryan Caron, manager of e-commerce enforcement from the CRTC participated by phone.

The following are some highlights from the talk.

  • The CRTC has hired staff and has the capability to engage in computer forensics and cyber investigations. It is establishing a lab to aid in enforcement. The SPAM reporting centre will also be run out of the CRTC.
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Posted in CASL, CRTC, E-commerce, spam, spyware

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Copyright Board to construe the making available right

December 7th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

In the ESA v. SOCAN, 2012 SCC 34 case, the Supreme Court decided by a 5 to 4 majority that the transmission of a copy of a musical work to members of the public is not a communication to the public within the meaning of Section 3(1)(f) of the Copyright Act. When the Copyright Modernization Act was enacted the communication to the public right was expanded to expressly confer on copyright holders making available rights required by the WIPO Treaties. This was accomplished, inter alia, by the inclusion of Section 2.4(1.1) which provides that:

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Posted in C-11, communication to the public, Copyright

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Flexible exceptions to copyright have negative economic costs, says study

December 4th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

For years, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA ), an organization that represents Google, Yahoo and other companies in the computer, Internet, information technology, and telecommunications industries, have advocated for broad copyright exceptions arguing that they substantially contribute to economic growth. In a series of studies culminating in a 2011 paper published by the CCIA titled Fair Use in the U.S. Economy, the claim was made that a group of identifiable industries called the “fair use industries” accounted, in 2008 and 2009, for an average of $4.6 billion in revenues in the U.S. In a similar paper published by the CCIA in 2010 titled Economic contribution of EU industries relying on exceptions and limitations to copyright, the claim was made that the value added generated by industries in the EU relying on exceptions and limitations to copyright amounted to $1.1 trillion or 9.3% of GDP in 2007.

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Posted in Copyright, copyright reform

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Search engines liability for defamation – Trkulja v Google

November 28th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Is a search engine liable for publishing defamatory materials that are assembled for the first time in an automated manner by its programmed computers? In the recent Australian case Trkulja v Google Inc LLC & Anor (No 5) [2012] VSC 533 (12 November 2012), a jury found Google liable. The trial judge confirmed the jury’s ruling holding that search engines are publishers for the purposes of defamation law when their computers produce and put together search results in accordance with their intended operation.

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Posted in Copyright, defamation, innocent disseminator, Internet defamation

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SOCAN sued for $15 million refund of ringtones payments

November 14th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Yesterday, Rogers, Telus, Bell and Quebecor commenced an action against the copyright collective SOCAN. In the Federal Court suit Canada’s leading carriers are claiming a refund of all royalties paid to SOCAN under its Tariff 24 (Ringtone) tariffs since November, 2006.

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Posted in communication to the public, Copyright, Online music services

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Making European copyright fit for purpose in the age of the internet

November 9th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Earlier this week Michael Barnier, a Member of the European Commission responsible for Internal Market and Services, gave a speech, Making European copyright fit for purpose in the age of internet. In it he discussed whether the EU legal framework related to copyright was “fit for the digital age”.  He said that although “it remains largely valid today”, it does require some recallibration so that it remains “a modern and effective tool”.

He outlined four principles to be kept in mind in formulating changes that may be necessary.

First, the copyright framework must facilitate the access of all Europeans to their heritage.

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Posted in Copyright, copyright reform

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Viagra patent declared invalid by Supreme Court of Canada

November 8th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

In an important case released today, Teva Canada Ltd. v. Pfizer Canada Inc. 2012 SCC 60, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Pfizer’s patent for its popular drug Viagra used for treating erectile dysfunction  was void for not meeting the disclosure requirements in s. 27(3) of the Patent Act.

To satisfy the disclosure requirements, the inventor must disclose his/her invention and describe how it works in the specification. In addition, the inventor must disclose in the specification  how “to make the same successful use of the invention as the inventor could at the time of his application”. These disclosure obligations are the quid pro quo for obtaining the monopoly right to make, use and sell the invention for the term of the patent.

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Posted in Patents

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Change and the Copyright Modernization Act

November 7th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, with a few exceptions, is now law with the publication of the Governor General Order in Council. The fourth attempt to amend the Copyright Act since 2005 succeeded where Bills C-60 (2005), C-61 (2008), and C-32 (2010) did not.

A lot has changed since 2005 when Bill C-60 was first introduced. That Bill would have made a limited, but important, set of amendments. Its summary reminds us that it would have amended the “Copyright Act to implement the provisions of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, to clarify the liability of network service providers, to facilitate technology-enhanced learning and interlibrary loans, and to update certain other provisions of the Act.”  Bill C-11 addresses far more than this.

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Posted in C-11, c-32, Copyright, copyright reform, DMCA safe harbor, DRMs, enablement, Fair Use, Geist, Graduated Response, infringment, ISP exceptions, ISP Liability, making available right, notice and notice, Piracy, TPMs, WIPO Treaties

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Technology challenges law

November 3rd, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Earlier today, I gave a talk at the Ryerson University Information Technology (RUIT) 2012 Conference. My topic was how technology challenges the law. My slides from the talk are set out below.

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Posted in Copyright, Presentations

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Copyright Modernization Act soon to be law in Canada

October 30th, 2012 by Barry Sookman No comments »

The Privy Council has released a copy of notice dated October 25, 2012 (P.C. 2012-1392) setting out when the amendments to the Copyright Act will come into force. The information in the notice, which has been published by some law libraries, provides for the amendments to come into force in three stages.

  1. Most amendments will come into force when the notice is officially published in the Canada Gazette Part II which is expected to take place soon and perhaps as early as November 7, 2012.
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Posted in C-11, Copyright, copyright reform, WIPO Treaties

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