The Conservatives released their policy platform this morning and for those hoping to compare their digital economy strategy with the one promoted by the Liberals, they will have to wait. The platform devotes one page to the digital economy strategy, but it primarily re-iterates previously announced policy goals. These include […]
Post Tagged with: "digital economy strategy"
Another Copyright Bill Hits the Scrap Heap: Taking Stock of Canadian Digital Law and Policy Reform
Notwithstanding these developments, the focus will undoubtedly shine on the bills and policies that were started but not completed. These include:
- the digital economy strategy
- a policy on foreign investment in telecommunications
- a policy on foreign ownership in book publishing and distribution
- a policy on the forthcoming wireless spectrum auction
- Bill C-29, a bill to reform PIPEDA
- Bill C-32, the copyright reform bill
- Bills C-50, 51, 52, the lawful access bills
- Bill C-393, the private members bill to facilitate access to generic medicines in Africa
The future for each of these initiatives varies.
Open Access Submission to Digital Economy Strategy Consultation
Heather Morrison provided great leadership on this submission on open access to the digital economy strategy consultation. I was pleased to add my name to it.
The Digital Economy Strategy Consultation: My Submission
Last night I submitted my response to the government’s digital economy strategy consultation. A text version is posted below. A PDF version can be downloaded here.
The submission touches on a wide range of issues, including general concerns such as who leads the strategy, who pays for it, and the value in identifying openness as a general principle. It then discusses specific concerns around infrastructure (broadband networks, net neutrality, digital television transition, foreign investment), capacity to innovate (spam, security breach disclosure, Privacy Act, lawful access), and digital content (copyright reform, open data, open access, digitization, domain names).
Update: The submission has now been posted on the consultation website.
Opening Up Canada’s Digital Economy Strategy
The federal government’s national consultation on a digital economy strategy is now past the half-way mark having generated a somewhat tepid response so far. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) argues the consultation document itself may bear some of the blame for lack of buzz since the government asks many of the right questions, but lacks a clear vision of the principles that would define a Canadian digital strategy.
One missed opportunity was to shine the spotlight on the principle of "openness" as a guiding principle. In recent years, an open approach has found increasing favour for a broad range of technology policy issues and has been incorporated into many strategy documents. For example, New Zealand identified "openness is a central principle of [its] Digital Strategy 2.0."
The consultation document includes a brief reference to open access for government-funded research, but it seemingly ignores the broader potential for a strategy with openness policies as a key foundational principle.
Where might an openness principle make sense?
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