Archive for December, 2010

GeistFAQonFairDealing

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December 15, 2010 Comments are Disabled General

Geist FAQ on Fair Dealing

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December 14, 2010 Comments are Disabled General

Geist Fair Dealing FAQ

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December 14, 2010 Comments are Disabled General
The No iPod Tax Press Conference: An Alternative Script

The No iPod Tax Press Conference: An Alternative Script

Clement & Moore on iPod Tax

Earlier today I walked a few blocks from my office to Ottawa’s Rideau Centre to attend a press conference with Industry Minister Tony Clement and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who promised an important announcement.  The two ministers stood in front of an HMV and a group of students wearing t-shirts with No iPod tax logos on the back to declare that they were firmly set against a massive new tax on technology for all the holiday shoppers in the mall.  The Ministers claimed that all three opposition parties supported a tax of up to $75, which (reminiscent of the Dion “tax on everything” campaign) would apply to all technology devices and even cars.

The press conference suggests that opposition to extending the private copying levy may be the key positioning point for the government in support of Bill C-32.  Rather than focusing on the bill’s actual provisions, the government will argue that the bill deserves support from the public because of what isn’t there – the levy extension.  However, an alternate press conference might have featured the following script (the actual script is here):

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December 14, 2010 77 comments News

Australia Government Report Warns Against Including IP In Trade Agreements

The Australian Government’s Productivity Commission, which is the government’s independent research and advisory body on a range of economic, social and environmental issues affecting the welfare of Australians, has released a new report on the impact of bilateral and regional trade agreements.  The report, which contains some key lessons for Canada given our current trade negotiations activities with Europe, India, and South American countries, warns against the inclusion of intellectual property within these trade agreements.  The report concludes:

The Commission considers that Australia should not generally seek to include IP provisions in further BRTAs, and that any IP provisions that are proposed for a particular agreement should only be included after an economic assessment of the impacts, including on consumers, in Australia and partner countries. To safeguard against the prospect that acceptance of ‘negative sum game’ proposals, the assessment would need to find that implementing the provisions would likely generate overall net benefits for members of the agreement.

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December 14, 2010 7 comments News