Archive for September 17th, 2010

BSA’s Latest Study on Piracy and Economic Benefits “Shockingly Misleading”

This week the Business Software Alliance published a new study which purports to estimate the economic gain from a ten percent reduction in piracy of business software.  For Canada, the BSA claims that the reduction would create over 6,000 new jobs and generate billions in GDP and tax revenue.  Given […]

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September 17, 2010 42 comments News

Millions at Stake in Education Copyright Battle

Thousands of Canadian students headed back to school this month with many facing rising loans to pay for tuition, books, and accommodation.  My technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that as students struggle to make ends meet, significant new costs loom on the horizon as a result of a battle brewing over copying in universities and colleges.  Indeed, the University of Western Ontario has increased its student copying fee this year by over 500% in anticipation of the new fees.  The column – posted below – notes the many ways that universities access materials in ways that do not rely on the Access Copyright tariff yet still yield compensation for creators (or reflect their choice in making works freely available). That point seems to have been missed in this response from Alan Cumyn of the Writers’ Union of Canada.

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September 17, 2010 16 comments Columns

The Digital TV Transition – A Spark Interview

I participated in an interview on the Canadian digital tv transition together with Bill St. Arnaud for CBC’s Spark.  The full podcast interview is available here.

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September 17, 2010 1 comment News, News Interviews, Podcasts, Tv / Radio

ACTA Negotiations – Start September 23rd, No Firm End Date

Open Rights Group met with UK officials on ACTA this week and reports that negotiations on the next round will begin next week in Tokyo. Officials say that the negotiations will begin on September 23rd and that the U.S. hopes to keep talking until a deal is done.

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September 17, 2010 3 comments News