The Globe and Mail's Download Decade turns to the issue of copyright today. The package includes a lengthy article on the issue, a global map of the copyfight, and the launch of a public wiki on copyright reform. The wiki is an interesting initiative - the Globe plans to wrap it up on July 1st and send the results to the government. There is also a video debate (embedded below) on copyright issues between CRIA lawyer Barry Sookman and me in which we were both asked the same questions and the responses run side-by-side.
The Globe and Mail's Download Decade turns to the issue of copyright today. The package includes a lengthy article on the issue, a global map of the copyfight, and the launch of a public wiki on copyright reform. The wiki is an interesting initiative - the Globe plans to wrap it up on July 1st and send the results to the government. There is also a video debate (embedded below) on copyright issues between CRIA lawyer Barry Sookman and me in which we were both asked the same questions and the responses run side-by-side.
A recent issue of Inside US Trade featured a detailed report (sub required) on the European Union positions in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations. The article cites comments from Pedro Velasco Martins, an EU official involved in the ACTA negotiations and points to several areas of disagreement:
The scope of ACTA coverage. The Europeans would like to extend ACTA to patents. Canadian officials are known to want to limit it to copyright and trademark.
Anti-camcording provisions. The Europeans are not supportive of a specific anti-camcording provisions. The U.S. obviously is and pressured Canada to enact such a provision in 2007.
Dispute Resolution. The Europeans prefer a "peer review" approach to review compliance. Other countries are known to support a judicial process complete with penalties for non-compliance.
Internet provisions. The Europeans are not prepared to go beyond existing EU law of any Internet provisions. This potential makes the European Parliament's support to block a three strikes system important.
These divisions point to the value of more countries entering into the negotiations as that will provide a greater diversity of views at the table.
New Zealand has launched its second ACTA consultation. This consultation asks specific questions about border measures, civil enforcement, and criminal enforcement.
The City of Vancouver's City Council will consider a motion next week to become an open city. The motion endorses principles around open and accessible data, open standards, and the use of open source software.
The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics has released its study on privacy and social media.
The report includes recommendations for new Privacy Commissioner
guidelines. The NDP supplemented those recommendations with nine
additional legislative proposals that include mandatory security breach
disclosure, order making power for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,
and the inclusion of privacy issues as part of a national digital
economy strategy.Apr.23/13Comments (1)
The federal government has responded
to a question from MP Charlie Angus on privacy and security breaches by
revealing that there have been thousands of breaches over the past
decade. The stunning response acknowledges over 3,000 breaches that have
affected over a million Canadians.Apr.23/13Comments (0)
The debate over the state of wireless competition in Canada continues to rage. Last week, I appeared on CBC's The Current,
as part of a 30 minute segment devoted to the wireless industry. The
issue was also discussed during Question Period at the House of Commons,
with Industry Minister Christian Paradis focusing on competition and consumers:
We want to enhance competition and investment in this country, and
this is why we adopted this policy back in 2008 for the AWS spectrum.
Let me say that the price went down by an average of 11% since then, and
we will continue this way with the 700 megahertz spectrum. We launched
consultation with the industry to make sure that we enhance competition
and provide better choice and better rates for our consumers.
OpenMedia has an interesting post
that takes a close look at the claim that the large Canadian geography
is responsible for high cell phone prices. The post notes that coverage
actually focuses on as little as 20 percent of the country. Apr.22/13Comments (0)
Ted Menzies, the Minister of State for Finance, yesterday delivered a talk
on the Canada - EU Trade Agreement that marked an important shift in
the government's rhetoric on the agreement. Aside from a bizarre
reference to the value of the agreement being $17 trillion dollars
(total Canadian GDP is $1.8 trillion), the talk is most notable from the
move away from promising swift completion of the agreement. After years
of setting missed deadlines, Menzies now says there is no deadline for
completion, suggesting that the government is beginning to hedge on
whether there even will be a deal. I wrote about the prospect of the agreement dying altogether last month.Apr.11/13Comments (0)
Peter Nowak is back with another thorough debunking of many of the wireless myths about the competitiveness of the Canadian market. Apr.11/13Comments (0)
Peter Nowak has a great post
that takes another look at the state of the Canadian wireless market.
Nowak uses the latest data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wireless
Matrix to find that the Canadian carriers' ARPU ranks as the highest in
the world, that profit margin is the fifth highest in the world, and
that Canada's smartphone penetration is not nearly as strong as some
suggest.Mar.18/13Comments (2)
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has released a report that finds that online music piracy does not harm sales. The report
examined the browsing habits of more than 16,000 European consumers. It
found that an increase in clicks on infringing sites led to a small
increase in clicks on authorized music sales sites.Mar.18/13Comments (2)
The National Post has a disturbing story on a new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada, which appears to muzzle librarians, going so far as to describe teaching or speaking at conferences as "high risk".Mar.18/13Comments (7)
Last week I wrote about the National Post seeking $150 licences for posting short
excerpts online. It appears that the paper has now dropped the system.
