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Thursday September 29, 2011 |
Later today, the government will table Bill C-11, the latest iteration
of the Canadian copyright reform bill that mirrors the previous Bill
C-32. It was widely reported
this fall that the government would reintroduce the previous bill
unchanged, re-start committee hearings where they left off in
March (with prior witnesses not asked to return), and move to quickly
get the bill passed by the end of the calendar year. That seems to be
what is happening with today's tabling and a new legislative committee
to follow.
Assuming it is the same bill, the government's
talking points remain relevant as does its clause-by-clause
analysis, both of which I obtained under Access to
Information. From
"Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright": Canadian Copyright and the
Digital Agenda,
the book that I edited on Bill C-32 that includes contributions from 19
leading copyright experts from across Canada, is still useful and is
available from Irwin Law in paper or as a Creative
Commons licensed download. For those looking for background
information on key elements of the bill, there is my initial
analysis, a five-part series on the C-32's digital lock provisions
in a single
PDF, a lengthy
post on C-32's fair dealing reforms, data on the effectiveness
of the ISP provisions, and a post that puts statutory
damages into perspective.
When Bill C-32 was introduced in June 2010, I described it as "flawed but
fixable",
noting that there was a lot to like in the bill but that the digital
lock provisions constituted a glaring problem that undermined much of
the attempt to strike a balance. Months later, those remain my views.
The bill has some good provisions, but the unwillingness to budge on
digital locks - even as the U.S. has created new exceptions - is easily
its biggest flaw.
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Wednesday September 28, 2011 |
Two of Canada's largest music copyright collectives warned the Bill
C-32 committee against digital locks, arguing that it was unrealistic
to think that the implementation of digital lock rules would increase
music industry revenues. While there is much to take issue with in the
CMRRA
and SODRAC submission, the following is not among them:
Contrary to the government's public
statements, it is unrealistic to
expect that the other measures contained in Bill C-32 as initiatives to
implement the WIPO treaties would result in an increase in online music
revenues for authors and publishers and musical works that will be
sufficient to offset the revenue losses documented above. In fact,
these measures would be unlikely to result in any substantial increase
at all in legitimate online revenues for the music industry.
This can best be seen by comparing
the growth in sales of legal digital
downloads of music in Canada with the corresponding growth pattern in
the United States, where the WIPO treaties were implemented in 1998.
Apple's iTunes Music Store launched in Canada in December 2004, 18
months later than in the U.S. Since then, the rate of growth of online
sales in Canada has every year been much more rapid than in the United
States. Nielsen SoundScan data show that, between 2005 and 2010 the
sale of paid, legal downloads of individual songs or single tracks
increased by 914% in Canada, compared to 232% in the U.S. Digital album
sales increased 1207% in Canada, compared to 431% in the U.S.
As a result, CSI fundamentally
disagrees with the suggestion that the
"modernization" measures in Bill C-32 are in any way necessary in order
to improve the fortunes of the music industry.
I have been making the case for many years that Canadian digital music
sales have been growing faster than the U.S. It is good to see
that leading Canadian copyright collectives are paying attention.
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Wednesday September 28, 2011 |
The new copyright bill is scheduled to be introduced tomorrow
with the government planning to restart the copyright legislative
committee and pick up where it left off in March when the election call
killed Bill C-32 (talking points,
clause-by-clause
analysis
of the bill). Given the plans to restart the committee, it is worth
asking what the committee actually heard during months of hearings from
November 2010 to March 2011. There are obviously the transcripts of the
various hearings, but the detailed recommendations typically come from
direct submissions to the committee. Those have not been posted online,
but I did obtain copies of all unique submissions (there were hundreds
of letters from individuals) to the C-32 committee. Together with Diana
Cooper, a second year law student at the University of Ottawa, we
reviewed all unique submissions and tried to categorize their
recommendations.
Given the number of submissions, it should come as no surprise to find
that there is at least one group or person who criticizes every
proposed reform and at least one that supports it. In fact, this was
part of the plan. According to documents
obtained under the Access to Information Act, department officials
developed their committee witness list with a requirement that "at
least one witness will strongly support every provision in the Bill"
and a preference for witnesses "that have expressed an overall positive
view"(though it recognized some may have negative views on certain
aspects of the bill).
A full chart of the submissions is posted
below and available for download
here. There is also a second chart that tracks the submissions
based the specific provision available
here.
Digital locks are easily the top issue raised in the submissions with
many submissions calling on the government to ensure that digital locks
do not trump fair dealing or that the prohibition on circumvention
should be linked to infringement. In addition to many individuals,
group submissions supporting this position include:
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Tuesday September 27, 2011 |
Copyright reform is back as the government has placed the copyright
reform bill on the notice
paper. It is scheduled to be introduced on Thursday,
alongside the privacy reform bill that also died with the March
election call.
c-32, copyright, privacy Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday September 27, 2011 |
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