Archive for July 16th, 2012

Beyond Users’ Rights: Supreme Court Entrenches Technological Neutrality as a New Copyright Principle

Last week, I posted on the significance of the Supreme Court of Canada’s five copyright decisions with an emphasis on the shift from fair dealing to fair use. This week, I have several additional posts planned including one on the implications for Access Copyright as well as a broader examination of how the court has elevated users’ rights within Canadian copyright law. This post focuses on the second major development in the cases: the articulation of technological neutrality as a foundational principle of Canadian copyright. The technological neutrality principle could have an enormous long-term impact on Canadian copyright, posing a threat to some copyright collective tariff proposals and to the newly enacted digital lock rules.

The technological neutrality principle is discussed in several cases, but gets its most important airing in the Entertainment Software Association of Canada v. SOCAN decision. The majority of the court states:

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July 16, 2012 11 comments News

Canada Excluded From Next Round of TPP Negotiations

When the U.S. invited Canada to join the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations last month, there was an agreed upon delay to allow it to complete a domestic approval process. As part of that delay, Canada was to be excluded from the negotiations during the approval period and bound by any […]

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July 16, 2012 19 comments News

UK Government To Mandate Open Access By 2014

The UK government is set to announce that all research funded by the government will be mandated as open access by 2014, ensuring that all taxpayer funded research will be freely available to anyone anywhere in the world.

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July 16, 2012 1 comment News