As the Industry Committee’s copyright review continues to hear from stakeholders from across the spectrum, a recurring theme has been demands that the government create a new, explicit Internet intermediary injunction that would allow for everything from site blocking to search engine result de-indexing to a ban on payment providers offering services to some sites. For example, earlier this week, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce argued before the Industry Committee:
Post Tagged with: "Damages"
Why the Government’s Copyright Board Plans Threaten to Spark Another Lobbying Battle
Copyright reform has long been viewed as one of the more contentious policy issues on the Canadian agenda, pitting creators, education groups, innovative companies, and a growing number of individuals against one another in processes that run for years and leave no one fully satisfied. Indeed, my Hill Times op-ed notes the copyright review currently underway before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology promises to run for months with MPs hearing from a broad range of stakeholders presenting perspectives that will be difficult to reconcile.
The Trouble With the TPP, Day 39: Quiet Expansion of Criminal Copyright Provisions
The past two Trouble with the TPP posts have focused on the disconnect between the TPP and Canadian copyright law which raises the possibility that the Canadian digital lock rules may not be consistent with the TPP. In addition to those concerns, the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently identified a subtle change that was added during the “legal scrub”. The change involved a provision on applying criminal procedures and penalties in cases of willful copyright infringement on a commercial scale. The version released in November stated:
The Trouble With the TPP, Day 37: Breaking Digital Locks For Personal Purposes
The Trouble with the TPP series has featured several posts on the impact of the agreement on copyright law, including copyright term extension and changes to the digital lock rules. The potential changes to Canadian copyright law do not end there, however. For the next three days, I will focus on concerns arising from the TPP’s damages provisions that might restrict future Canadian copyright policies or require legislative change.
The first involves the TPP damages requirements associated with the anti-circumvention rules. As with many aspects of the TPP, the rules get very complicated, very quickly. The analysis starts with the TPP requirements. Article 18.68 establishes the rules for technological protection measures. The mandatory penalties for circumvention can be found in Article 18.84 (17):
Federal Court Awards Minimal Privacy Damages
David Fraser reports on a recent Federal Court of Canada ruling that awarded $4,500 in damages over the Royal Bank of Canada’s disclosure of banking information during a bitter divorce dispute.
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