Archive for March, 2005

Canadian MP Says Extended Licensing Proposal Delayed

Marlene Catteral, a Canadian MP and chair of the Canadian Heritage parliamentary committee has told (Quicktime format) a university audience that the government has delayed plans to introduce a much-criticized copyright proposal to establish a extended license for educational institutions. The proposal would have created a license for Internet materials that were not publicly available.

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March 15, 2005 Comments are Disabled News

Time for Canada To Cancel Crown Copyright

My weekly Law Bytes column (full hypertext version with background links or Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on Canadian crown copyright, which provides that the government retains the copyright associated with any work that is prepared or published by or under its direction, creating an enormous and unconscionable barrier to Canadian film making, political advocacy, and free speech.

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March 14, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns

P2P Goes to the Movies

The Vancouver Sun ran a story over the weekend on the growing popularity of downloading movies on P2P networks. The article notes that movie swapping is still tiny in comparison to music, but that it may grow in the future.

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March 14, 2005 1 comment News

Keeping An Eye On A Canadian Prize

Last month, in celebration of Black History Month, thousands of Internet users engaged in a small act of civil disobedience.  They downloaded Eyes on the Prize, the award-winning documentary on Dr. Martin Luther King, which is no longer available for purchase due to the expiry of rights to certain clips […]

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March 13, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Canadian Security Companies, Heritage Committee MP Concerned Over Copyright Reforms

A group of Canadian security firms have released a public letter also expressing concern over potential Canadian copyright reforms. The companies note the negative impact of the DMCA on security research and urge the government to avoid criminalizing technology. I'm quoted in the Toronto Star's coverage of the letter, noting that the potential rules may render illegal what sits the core of legitimate security research.

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March 10, 2005 Comments are Disabled News