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Liberals Try To Resuscitate Big Brother Plan for the Internet

My weekly Law Bytes column (Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) covers the Liberals' introduction of C-416, the return of lawful access legislation.  I note that while  the bill is unlikely to pass – opposition private members bills rarely become law and the current Parliamentary session is likely to end before […]

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March 27, 2007 1 comment Columns

Liberal MP Reintroduces Lawful Access as Private Members Bill

As Liberal leader Stephane Dion promised earlier this month, Liberal MP Marlene Jennings on Friday reintroduced lawful access legislation.  The Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act (MITA) is now Bill C-416, bringing back the controversial provisions last introduced in the fall of 2005 that include the installation of new surveillance capabilities […]

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March 25, 2007 4 comments News

DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach

McGill University hosted an interesting conference today on music and copyright reform.  The conference consisted of two panels plus an afternoon of open dialogue and featured an interesting collection of speakers including Bruce Lehman, the architect of the WIPO Internet Treaties and the DMCA, Ann Chaitovitz of the USPTO, Terry Fisher of Harvard Law School, NDP Heritage critic Charlie Angus, famed music producer Sandy Pearlman, and myself.  A video of the event has been posted in Windows format.

My participation focused on making the case against anti-circumvention legislation in Canada (it starts at about 54:30).  I emphasized the dramatic difference between the Internet of 1997 and today, the harmful effects of the DMCA, the growing movement away from DRM, and the fact that the Canadian market has supported a range of online music services with faster digital music sales growth than either the U.S. or Europe but without anti-circumvention legislation.

The most interesting – and surprising – presentation came from Bruce Lehman, who now heads the International Intellectual Property Institute.  Lehman explained the U.S. perspective in the early 1990s that led to the DMCA (ie. greater control though TPMs), yet when reflecting on the success of the DMCA acknowledged that "our Clinton administration policies didn't work out very well" and "our attempts at copyright control have not been successful" (presentation starts around 11:00).  

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March 23, 2007 18 comments News

The Clinton Ad and Fair Dealing

The hot video of the week is the remarkable mash-up of the Apple 1984 advertisement, which in its new incarnation stars Hillary Clinton and promotes Barack Obama.  The video has been viewed more than two million times and received considerable mainstream media news coverage.  An Associated Press story caught my […]

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March 22, 2007 4 comments News

Russell Smith on Copyright

The Globe and Mail's Russell Smith has a column today that focuses on copyright and growing willingness of creators to adopt more flexible copyright approaches with their work.  The column hits many of the right notes, including the conclusion that "this doesn't mean the end of all intellectual property; it […]

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March 22, 2007 Comments are Disabled News