The Canadian Heritage Parliamentary Committee has received two briefings on copyright from department officials in recent weeks. The first briefing was "copyright 101" briefing. The second briefing, focusing on future reform plans, was more interesting. The officials did their best to say as little as possible – when questioned about timing or specific issues, they found multiple ways to avoid directly answering the question. There were, however, several noteworthy exchanges including a moment when Charlie Angus (NDP) noted that many countries have yet to ratify WIPO (as opposed to the "coalition of the digital willing" that includes Azerbaijan and Botswana), and Danielle Bouvet from Heritage responded with obligatory "Canada is trying to have its own made-in-Canada legislation on copyright." Further, Mauril Belanger (Liberal) spent a lot of time asking about the lobby groups who are asking questions about copyright and asked for a list of all groups that have met with Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada since January.
More troubling were two exchanges that may not have provided the MPs with a fully accurate sense of the law.
