The Electronic Commerce Protection Act, Canada's anti-spam bill (Bill C-27) passed through the House of Commons yesterday as a motion to support sending the bill to the Senate received approval. The bill received all-party support but will undoubtedly face an intense lobbying campaign at the Senate. Copyright lobbyists, real estate agents, and marketing survey companies were among the most aggressive lobby groups seeking changes when the bill was considered by the Industry Committee. Clement stood his ground and the resulting bill is a good one. Indeed, the lobbying efforts and attempts to weaken the bill did not go unnoticed. During yesterday's discussion in the House, NDP MP Brian Masse, the party's representative on the Industry Committee, noted "when it gets to the Senate we will see whether or not there is going to be another lobby effort either to kill the bill or to weaken it some more."
Meanwhile, Liberal MPs who failed to garner support for their reforms were still pressing for changes. MP Siobhan Coady stated "while the Liberal Party believes the bill remains unnecessarily restrictive to legitimate business in its approach in many regards, we will support the bill at third reading as action must be taken against spam. We will monitor the legislation closely going forward to ensure that it does not stifle legitimate electronic commerce in Canada." Getting C-27 through the House is a big step, but the lobby attempts to water down the bill will no doubt be back for another round as the bill hits the Senate. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday December 01, 2009 |
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The Canadian Medical Association Journal has announced that it will cease being an open access journal beginning in January 2010 with plans to restrict some content to subscribers. Canadian medical researchers who wish to publish in an open access journal can still publish in Open Medicine, a peer-reviewed, independent open access journal edited by the former CMAJ editorial team. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday December 01, 2009 |
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The latest ACTA leak generated a new round of press coverage, with articles from AOL Daily Finance and Wired. Meanwhile, European ISPs are expressing their concern with ACTA. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday December 01, 2009 |
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Rafael Ruffolo posts an opinion piece for ComputerWorld Canada that focuses on the impact of ACTA on IT industry. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday December 01, 2009 |
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The Canadian Press reports on a new CRTC online consultation site on the fee-for-carriage issue. The online consultation runs until December 21st. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday December 01, 2009 |
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