Ever since Industry Canada released
an independent
study
it sponsored on the impact of peer-to-peer file sharing in late 2007,
the Canadian Recording Industry Association has worked overtime to try
to discredit it. The independent study, completed by two European
economists, reached the following two key conclusions:
When assessing the P2P downloading population, there was "a
strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD
purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P
file
sharing increases CD purchases." The study estimated that 12 additional
P2P downloads per month increases music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year.
When viewed in the aggregate (ie. the entire Canadian
population), there is no direct relationship between P2P file sharing
and CD purchases in Canada. According to the study authors, "the
analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a
positive or negative relationship between the number of files
downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased. That is, we find no
direct evidence to suggest that the net effect of P2P file sharing on
CD purchasing is either positive or negative for Canada as a whole."
In recent years, Warner Music has become infamous
for "muting" the sound on hundreds of YouTube videos that include music
over which they hold copyright. While takedowns of full copies of songs
is their prerogative, the effect of muting user-generated content that
may have a snippet of a song as background for a non-commercial work is
precisely why the Canadian government introduced the so-called YouTube
exception into Bill C-32.
This weekend, Warner Music's policy hit an unlikely target - NDP MP
Charlie Angus. Angus reports
that he tried to post one of his old CBC radio documentaries on Carrie
Chenier, the first woman underground miner in the uranium mines of
Elliot Lake, on Youtube.
She discusses work as a single mother as well as the fight for
compensation for the cancer victims in the uranium industry. At
least that's what Angus says the discusses. Since there is
apparently some Warner Music owned audio in the background, the entire
video has been muted so that it cannot be heard. It is
these kinds of situations - non-commercial new uses of works that do
not have a substantial adverse impact on the underlying work - that
make the UGC provision in Bill C-32 a positive step forward that users
and creators.
Bill C-56, the anti-counterfeiting bill that opens the door the Canadian
implementation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been
referred to the Industry Committee for review. The government imposed
time allocation on the bill to move it to committee. The debate on the bill
yesterday suggested that all parties support the premise of the
legislation, but the opposition wants further study and potential
amendments. Perhaps most troubling was the intervention of the Liberal
party, who are seeking to extend the bill to seizures of in-transit
shipments. In Europe, in-transit shipment seizure provisions have led to
seizures of generic pharmaceuticals, creating a major
access-to-medicines concern.Jun.13/13Comments (0)
Ariel Katz reports that the University of Toronto has notified
Access Copyright that it will not extend the current licence agreement.
It points to a range of factors - the SCC decisions, copyright reform,
and open access among them - to argue that there should be substantial
reductions in the royalty rate. The university is open to negotiating a
new agreement with that in mind. Meanwhile, Western is adopting much the
same position, notifying Access Copyright that it will not be renewing but leaving the door open to a new agreement with reduced fees.Jun.11/13Comments (0)
The Canadian Library Association issued a statement
late last week on the Access Copyright lawsuit filed against York
University, urging it to abandon the lawsuit and pointing to several
legal concerns.May.21/13Comments (0)
The National Post reports
that the Competition Bureau of Canada plans to launch an investigation
into Google Canada. The scope of the investigation is unknown.May.21/13Comments (0)
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)
