Appeared in the Toronto Star on May 10, 2010 as Software Piracy Charges Against Canada Are Unfair In the wake of the Toronto Star reports exposing the activities of former MP Rahim Jaffer, lobbying has been the talk of Ottawa for the past month. The incident has had an immediate […]
Post Tagged with: "iipa"
Canada Leads U.S. in International Property Rights Index
Barry Sookman tweeted yesterday about a new study analyzing data on 125 countries to establish a property rights index. The Index focuses on three areas: Legal and Political Environment, Physical Property Rights, and Intellectual Property Rights, and is being to used to promote the importance of intellectual property. Looking at the data, Canada's overall ranking is ahead of the U.S. (Canada is 12th, the U.S. is 15th).
The specific intellectual property rankings are also notable as they highlight the absurdity of the IIPA's ongoing campaign characterizing Canada as weak on IP. Canada's ranks 13th in the survey for intellectual property rights, tied with countries such as France, the UK, and New Zealand (Canada is 17th in copyright protection). The ranking is all the more remarkable since one of the primary data sources for the ranking is the IIPA itself. In other words, even after using IIPA data, Canada ranks alongside many other countries that are typically applauded by the IIPA for their IP policies.
The IIPA’s Opposition to Open Source Software
Digital Copyright Canada does a nice job of reviewing the IIPA's submissions to the USTR Special 301 process, noting its criticisms of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam for supporting open source software. The posting notes "the fact the IIPA is encouraging countries to have policies which increase infringement […]
Canadian Software Piracy Rate Drops 2% To Record Low
The IIPA has published its usual criticism of Canada, but buried within the submission is a preliminary report that Canada's business software piracy rate has declined yet again. The report indicates there is a 2% to decline, to 30%, a record low.
Conference Board of Canada Responds, Stands By Its Report
The Conference Board of Canada has issued a response to my posting on its Digital Economy report. The organization defends the report, arguing that there was only one case of a missed citation (which it has corrected) and acknowledging that "some of the cited paragraphs closely approximate the wording of […]
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