Canada’s last three copyright bills, C-60, C-61 and C-32, attempted to curb illegal online file sharing by requiring ISPs to forward notices of claimed infringements to customers. Canada’s ISPs had advocated for this “notice and notice” process claiming it was effective. However, they never produced any empirical evidence or studies to back up their claims.
Posts Tagged ‘copyright reform’
Rethinking notice and notice after C-32
April 4th, 2011C-60, C-61, C-32?
March 25th, 2011We will likely know later today whether Bill C-32 will suffer the same fate as its predecessors. A vote of non-confidence will kill C-32.
* Its now official. Liberal non-confidence vote passes 156-145. That’s it for C-32 and other Bills such as lawful access and the amendments to PIPEDA.
Posted in Copyright, c-32, copyright reform
Tags: barry sookman Bil C-61 Bill C-11 Bill C-32 Copyright copyright reform
What art copyrights and sandwhiches have in common
March 21st, 2011Here is a video included in a blog How copyright infringement is like stealing my sandwhich. It is by an artist “to put copyright infringement into terms the average person can understand: lunch”. It is an interesting perspective given the recent testimony of Margaret Atwood at the Parliamentary Committee on Bill C-32.
Posted in Bill C-28, Piracy, c-32, copyright reform, p2p piracy
Tags: barry sookman Copyright copyright reform fair dealing Piracy theft
Margaret Atwood at the Parliamentary Committee on Bill C-32
March 18th, 2011Margaret Atwood appeared before the Parliamentary Committee reviewing Bill C-32 on March 10. Participating by teleconference she told the Committee why she was against expanding fair dealing to include education and why she thought doing so was unfair.
Howard Knopf, in a recent blog, To Margaret Atwood: Copyright and Cars Cannot Conflate, accuses Ms Atwood of not understanding what fair dealing is. He further accuses her of getting basic facts about law and economics wrong when said that depriving creators of their rights to authorize the uses of their works is akin to theft. Mr. Knopf’s accusations are both unfair and unfounded.
Are Canada’s copyright laws friendly or unfriendly towards wealth destroyers according to Prof. Geist?
March 9th, 2011In the last few weeks Prof. Geist has been writing, blogging, tweeting, speaking and even testifying to a Parliamentary Committee about the IsoHunt case and whether there is a need for an amendment to the Copyright Act to create a new cause of action to make online pirate sites and services liable for enabling copyright infringement. His ostensible claim is that representatives of the recording industry secretly filed a copyright infringement claim against IsoHunt three weeks before Bill C-32 was tabled in the House of Commons; kept the suit secret to improve their chances of getting copyright reforms needed to shut the site down – all the while not needing the amendments because they already have the legal tools necessary to put IsoHunt out of business. These claims were made here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others, and were widely disseminated and syndicated by Prof. Geist including here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Canada: online piracy a problem hurting artists, creators and the economy
February 28th, 2011The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released a report that spotlighted Internet and physical markets that exemplify key challenges in the global struggle against piracy and counterfeiting. Not surprisingly, Canada-based IsoHunt was identified as a major piracy site which “recently ranked among the top 300 websites in global traffic and among the top 600 in U.S. traffic.”
The report follows on the heels of last week’s submission by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) to the USTR recommending that Canada be maintained on the Special 301 Priority Watch List in 2011. The IIPA submission extensively analyzed the piracy and counterfeiting problems in Canada. The rational for its recommendation was summarized as follows:
En réponse à «Pour démêler la confusion à l’égard du droit d’auteur» (Clearing Up the Copyright Confusion), du Professeur Michael Geist
January 26th, 2011Par Dan Glover,* 9 janvier 2011 (version originale en Anglais)
Résumé
- La création d’œuvres protégées par le droit d’auteur pour fins pédagogiques est une entreprise importante et complexe, particulièrement dans un pays aussi vaste, diversifié et peu peuplé comme l’est le Canada. Il faudrait mener une réflexion approfondie avant d’instituer des règles d’utilisation équitable qui menaceraient l’édition pédagogique.
- L’équité est un concept subjectif qui doit être examiné au cas par cas. Six ans seulement après la décision historique de la Cour suprême dans la cause CCH concernant l’utilisation équitable, la voici saisie à nouveau !
A Response to Professor Michael Geist’s Clearing Up the Copyright Confusion
January 9th, 2011Abstract*
· The creation of copyright works for educational uses is a complex and substantial endeavour, particular in a country as large, diverse and sparsely populated as Canada. Careful thought should be given before adopting fair dealing rules that threaten the health of educational publishing.
· “Fairness” is an eye-of-the-beholder concept that must be revisited on the facts of every new case. Only six years after the landmark CCH case on “fair dealing”, this issue is returning to the Supreme Court for a second review!
EU highlights role of ISPs, damages and trade agreements in reducing IP infringements
January 9th, 2011The EU just published a report reviewing the effectiveness of the EU Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. That Directive, which recognized that effective means of enforcing intellectual property rights are essential for promoting innovation and creativity, harmonized the minimum means available to right holders and public authorities for fighting infringements of intellectual property rights in the EU. It also established a general framework for exchanging information and administrative co-operation between national authorities and with the Commission.
Liberals announce proposals to amend Bill C-32
December 16th, 2010The Liberal Party announced today a proposal to amend Bill C-32.
It intends to introduce a new Private Copying Compensation Payment of $35 million to be transferred to Canadian artists each year through the CPCC.
The Liberal Party also announced it intends to amend C-32 in order to:
“Restrict the education exemption by clearly defining “education” and inserting a clear and strict test for “fair” use for education purposes;
Re-insert the right of ephemeral recordings;
Restrict and tighten the language for “mash-ups”;
Remove the arbitrary 1988 statute on public expositions;
Introduce a new resale right on art, similar to European laws;
Posted in Copyright, c-32, copyright reform
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