The past twelve months in law and technology were exceptionally active, with new legislation, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearings, national consultations, and very public battles over digital issues. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) takes a look back at 2009 from A to Z:
A is for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the secret copyright treaty that generated opposition at home and abroad as details on proposed language leaked out.
B is for Chet Baker, the former jazz great and current lead plaintiff in a $6 billion copyright class action lawsuit filed against the Canadian recording industry for its failure to pay artists for the use of their work.
C is for the Conference Board of Canada, which withdrew three intellectual property reports after acknowledging they contained plagiarized material.
D is for drugs for Africa legislation, which unexpectedly passed second reading in the House of Commons and will be considered by a committee next year.
E is for eBay power sellers, who faced an aggressive campaign by the Canada Revenue Agency to collect unpaid GST. The campaign followed a successful legal effort to force eBay to disclose the sellers' identities.
F is for Facebook, which agreed to make significant privacy changes following a well-publicized investigation by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
G is for Google Street View, which launched in Canada this fall, but not before a House of Commons committee probed the likely impact of the new mapping feature.
H is for Louis Rene Hache, who was convicted on charges under the Criminal Code for the illegal reproduction of the film "Dan in Real Life" at a Montreal movie theatre.
I is for i4i, the tiny Toronto firm that scored a big patent victory over software giant Microsoft.
J is for Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement, who presided over Canada's first national copyright consultation since 2001.
K is for CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, who was in the spotlight with hearings on regulation of new media, Internet traffic management, and broadcast fees.
L is for Lawful access legislation introduced by Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan in June. Bills C-46 and C-47 languished, however, and have yet to be discussed at committee.
M is for marketing claims on network speed and reliability, the subject of multiple lawsuits that forced Bell and Rogers to drop claims from their advertising campaigns.
N is for net neutrality, which made regulatory and political progress with the release of new CRTC guidelines as well as garnering political support from both the federal Liberal and NDP parties.
O is for one-click, the controversial Amazon.com business method patent that was denied validity by the Canadian Patent Appeal Board.
P is for Psion, the Toronto-owned firm that threatened Dell over the use of the term “netbook.”
Q is for the Queen v. Vasic, a criminal case in which an Ontario court ruled that combining Internet provider customer name and address information with IP address data could render the information sensitive.
R is for Heather Robertson, the freelance writer whose longstanding copyright class action lawsuit neared a conclusive settlement.
S is for spam legislation that was introduced by Tony Clement in April. Bill C-27 is currently before the Senate.
T is for the TV Tax and Local TV Matters marketing campaigns that irritated Canadians from coast to coast.
U is for unwanted telemarketing calls that kept coming despite the existence of a national do-not-call list.
V is for Joanne Veit, an Alberta judge who ruled that Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work was wrong when he concluded the City of Edmonton can't force pawnshops to upload personal client details to an outside company's database.
W is for WindMobile, the operating name of Globalive, a new wireless carrier that was told by the CRTC that it did not comply with foreign control restrictions, only to have the federal Cabinet overrule the regulator weeks later.
X is for the future “X” on electronic voting technologies, which Elections Canada reported it is considering.
Y is for YouTube, which received a video takedown demand from Canada Post. The crown corporation objected to a union-inspired video about the mail carrier's CEO.
Z is for Zoocasa, the real estate search site that was sued by Century 21 Canada for scraping listings from its website.
The past twelve months in law and technology were exceptionally active, with new legislation, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearings, national consultations, and very public battles over digital issues. A look back at 2009 from A to Z:
A is for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the secret copyright treaty that generated opposition at home and abroad as details on proposed language leaked out.
B is for Chet Baker, the former jazz great and current lead plaintiff in a $6 billion copyright class action lawsuit filed against the Canadian recording industry for its failure to pay artists for the use of their work.
C is for the Conference Board of Canada, which withdrew three intellectual property reports after acknowledging they contained plagiarized material.
D is for drugs for Africa legislation, which unexpectedly passed second reading in the House of Commons and will be considered by a committee next year.
E is for eBay power sellers, who faced an aggressive campaign by the Canada Revenue Agency to collect unpaid GST. The campaign followed a successful legal effort to force eBay to disclose the sellers' identities.
F is for Facebook, which agreed to make significant privacy changes following a well-publicized investigation by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
G is for Google Street View, which launched in Canada this fall, but not before a House of Commons committee probed the likely impact of the new mapping feature.
H is for Louis Rene Hache, who was convicted on charges under the Criminal Code for the illegal reproduction of the film "Dan in Real Life" at a Montreal movie theatre.
I is for i4i, the tiny Toronto firm that scored a big patent victory over software giant Microsoft.
J is for Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement, who presided over Canada's first national copyright consultation since 2001.
K is for CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, who was in the spotlight with hearings on regulation of new media, Internet traffic management, and broadcast fees.
L is for Lawful access legislation introduced by Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan in June. Bills C-46 and C-47 languished, however, and have yet to be discussed at committee.
M is for marketing claims on network speed and reliability, the subject of multiple lawsuits that forced Bell and Rogers to drop claims from their advertising campaigns.
N is for net neutrality, which made regulatory and political progress with the release of new CRTC guidelines as well as garnering political support from both the federal Liberal and NDP parties.
O is for one-click, the controversial Amazon.com business method patent that was denied validity by the Canadian Patent Appeal Board.
P is for Psion, the Toronto-owned firm that threatened Dell over the use of the term “netbook.”
Q is for the Queen v. Vasic, a criminal case in which an Ontario court ruled that combining Internet provider customer name and address information with IP address data could render the information sensitive.
R is for Heather Robertson, the freelance writer whose longstanding copyright class action lawsuit neared a conclusive settlement.
S is for spam legislation that was introduced by Tony Clement in April. Bill C-27 is currently before the Senate.
T is for the TV Tax and Local TV Matters marketing campaigns that irritated Canadians from coast to coast.
U is for unwanted telemarketing calls that kept coming despite the existence of a national do-not-call list.
V is for Joanne Veit, an Alberta judge who ruled that Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work was wrong when he concluded the City of Edmonton can't force pawnshops to upload personal client details to an outside company's database.
W is for WindMobile, the operating name of Globalive, a new wireless carrier that was told by the CRTC that it did not comply with foreign control restrictions, only to have the federal Cabinet overrule the regulator weeks later.
X is for the future “X” on electronic voting technologies, which Elections Canada reported it is considering.
Y is for YouTube, which received a video takedown demand from Canada Post. The crown corporation objected to a union-inspired video about the mail carrier's CEO.
Z is for Zoocasa, the real estate search site that was sued by Century 21 Canada for scraping listings from its website.
Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan announced yesterday that the government is imposing time allocation on the second reading debate on Bill C-11. That means debate on the bill should conclude on Friday and the bill will be sent to committee for further hearings and review. While the government's overuse of time allocation is a concern, sending C-11 to committee places the core issues on the table - will it amend the digital lock rules as so many are asking and/or will it cave to copyright lobby pressure and add SOPA-style amendments to the bill? Now is the time to speak out.Feb.08/12Comments (5)
Alexander Furnas explains
in the Atlantic why the broader implications of ACTA may make it as bad
as SOPA. Furnas notes "while many of the alarmists specific claims are
inaccurate, ACTA exposes the systemic danger in how international
intellectual property regulation has evolved over the last 20 years." Feb.07/12Comments (0)
Kris Kotarski writes an opinion
piece in the Calgary Herald that calls attention to the lobby panic
that leads to legislation like SOPA and ACTA.
Feb.07/12Comments (0)
The National Post featured an op-ed
from Jesse Kline
over the weekend that notes "the essential question that must be
addressed going forward is whether government regulation is needed to
protect industries that have failed to innovate." He says the answer is
no.
Feb.07/12Comments (3)
John Ibbitson discusses
the implications
for Canada of joining the Trans Pacific Partnership, noting it would
likely include surrendering Canadian sovereignty over copyright law. A
reminder that the government is currently consulting on the TPP.
Details on the agreement and participating here, here, and
here.
Feb.06/12Comments (0)
Open Media has launched a new
campaign
against copyright reforms that threaten digital rights including the
prospect of website blocking, Internet termination, and digital locks.
Feb.06/12Comments (0)
AccessNow is maintaining an excellent
map
of the protests planned across the continent on February 11th, which
has been designated an international day of action against ACTA. The
issue has attracted mainstream media attention (eg. New
York Times) and questions
emerge about the likelihood the treaty will receive the necessary
approvals for ratification.
Feb.06/12Comments (0)
Entertainment software giant Ubisoft, who the Ontario government gave $263 million in
2009 to create 80 jobs per year over 10 years (or $328,750 per job),
has advised
its customers that its games may not work sometime this week due to its
reliance on digital locks and the migration of data servers. Feb.06/12Comments (4)
Last week Rogers advised
the CRTC that it plans to drop
Internet throttling for all customers by the end of the year. The
move was not unexpected given that its policy was an outlier
among all major Canadian ISPs. I'll have more to say on this
development soon.
Feb.06/12Comments (1)
