Post Tagged with: "canada"

The Canadian Digital Law Decade: The Ten Most Notable Cases, Laws, and Policy Developments

The Canadian Digital Law Decade: The Ten Most Notable Cases, Laws, and Policy Developments

As the decade nears an end, there have been no shortage of decade in review pieces. This post adds to the list with my take on the most notable Canadian digital cases, legislative initiatives, and policies of the past ten years.

1.    The 2012 Copyright Modernization Act

The enactment of the 2012 Copyright Modernization Act in June 2012 brought more than a decade of copyright reform battles to a close and immediately ushered in a new round of debate and lobbying that continues until this day. The reform package was the largest copyright overhaul in years, featuring everything from an expansion of fair dealing (including education as a fair dealing purpose) to protection for non-commercial user generated content to the codification of the notice-and-notice system to legal protection for digital locks. The reforms also legalized longstanding practices such as time shifting, set a cap on liability for non-commercial infringement, and established a new provision to target websites that enable infringement.

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December 19, 2019 1 comment News
Screenshot from Wikipedia’s #FairCopyrightOz campaign, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/2017/05/23/wikipedia-says-time-fair-use-australia/

My ADA Keynote: What the Canadian Experience Teaches About the Future of Copyright Reform

In late March of this year, I travelled to Canberra, Australia to deliver a keynote address at the Australian Digital Alliance’s 2019 Copyright Forum. The ADA is a leading voice on copyright issues in Australia and its annual Copyright Forum brings together government, creators, education, libraries, and the broader public to explore copyright issues. This year’s event included innovative film makers, the President of the Australian Society of Authors, European Parliament MEP Julia Reda, as well as leading academics, trade negotiators, government policy experts, and many others.

My talk focused on the Canadian copyright experience, using real data to dispel the misleading claims about the impact of Canada’s 2012 reforms. A video of the keynote has been posted to YouTube and is embedded below.

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April 17, 2019 1 comment News
Arty Shot #1 by Damien D. (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/75qCg1

World’s Worst Wireless Pricing?: Report Finds Canadian Wireless Broadband Pricing Offers Least Bang for the Buck in Developed World

The sad state of Canadian wireless pricing is old news for consumers and the government, but a new report graphically demonstrates how Canadians face some of the least competitive pricing in the developed world. The Rewheel study measured pricing in EU and OECD markets by examining how many gigabytes of 4G wireless data consumers get for the equivalent of 30 euros. This chart from Rewheel says it all:

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May 4, 2018 7 comments News
Stop the TPP by Backbone Campaign (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/fKgaBo

Canada Successfully Stands Up For Balanced IP and Canadian Culture in TPP Deal

While the NAFTA negotiations in Montreal were expected to be the lead trade story this week, the Trans Pacific Partnership talks in Tokyo have stolen the show with the remaining 11 countries reaching agreement on a deal that is likely to be signed in March. Canada faced intense criticism last year from some TPP partners (particularly Japan and Australia) over its demands to address concerns with the agreement. That sparked some Canadian business groups to quickly call on the government to simply cave in order to conclude a deal. Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne rightly argued that capitulation is not a negotiating strategy and they now come away with an improved (albeit still flawed) agreement.

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January 23, 2018 9 comments News
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Video Press Conference with Geneva Media by United States Mission Geneva (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Canadian Government on U.S. Special 301: We Don’t Recognize Validity of Flawed Report

The U.S. Trade Representative is conducting a hearing today on the Special 301 report, its annual list of countries it claims have inadequate intellectual property protections. Several countries will appear alongside many lobby groups. I’ve previously posted on how the report from the IIPA, which represents the movie, music, software and publishing industries, badly misstates Canadian law.  Indeed, with recent court decisions, Canada now has one of the toughest anti-piracy rules in the world.

I recently obtained documents under the Access to Information Act that confirm the Canadian government’s rejection of the Special 301 process.  Canada will not bother appearing today largely because it rejects the entire process. According to a memorandum drafted for Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly after last years’ report:

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March 8, 2017 8 comments News