Archive for February 8th, 2011

CRTC and Shaw Launch UBB Consultations

The CRTC and Shaw have both announced public consultations on usage based billing.  The CRTC notice invites public comment on its UBB policy with a deadline of April 29, 2011 to file comments (earlier if you wish to participate and receive copies of all submissions).  I’ll comment further shortly.  Meanwhile, […]

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February 8, 2011 5 comments News

Canadian Bar Association Speaks Out On Bill C-32

The Canadian Bar Association, which represents 37,000 lawyers, law professors, and students from across the country, has released an important submission on Bill C-32.  The submission, which was approved as a public statement by both the National Intellectual Property and the Privacy and Access Law Sections of the CBA, does a nice job setting out the debate over Bill C-32 (I was once a member of the CBA’s Copyright Policy section but was not involved in the drafting of the Bill C-32 document).

The CBA submission is notable as a strong counter to the frequent attempts to characterize critics of digital lock rules or other elements of the bill as “anti-copyright.” Far from the claims that there is near unanimity in support of DMCA-style reforms, the CBA submission confirms that the legal experts who work on copyright issues on a daily basis are deeply divided on many issues. In fact, the CBA submission opens by noting:

The Intellectual Property and the Privacy and Access Law Sections of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA Sections) are pleased to comment on Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act. Copyright is a controversial subject and engages the interests of a wide cross-section of Canadians. This includes copyright owners, who run the gamut from large entertainment conglomerates to self-employed artists, and copyright users, who include everyone from broadcasting corporations to teenagers downloading music in their parents’ basements. The copyright bar, similarly, holds a multiplicity of perspectives on copyright.

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February 8, 2011 13 comments News

Bell’s Sunny Broadband Claims

Bell offers its perspective on UBB in a debate with TekSavvy in the pages of the National Post (a similar debate occurs in the Globe – Waverman vs. Beers).  The Bell response includes the claim that Canada is a broadband leader: At the same time, Canada has increasingly become a […]

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February 8, 2011 16 comments News

Universities of Ottawa and Haifa Announce LL.M. Exchange

The University of Ottawa and the University of Haifa have announcedan LL.M. exchange that will grant candidates two Master of Laws degrees upon completionafter 12 months.  Candidates spend the first six months at theUniversity of Ottawa, followed by four months at Haifa, and then twomore months working on a major research paper.  […]

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February 8, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

CETA Could Cost Drug Plans Billions

The Globe covers a new report that projects that the proposed Canada – European Union Trade Agreement could add nearly $3 billion in additional costs to provincial drug plans.

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February 8, 2011 1 comment News