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Canada – US Beyond the Border Deal: IP Enforcement Doesn’t Make the Cut

Canada and the U.S. unveiled a new perimeter agreement on Wednesday that includes new border measures and regulatory cooperation initiatives. While the agreement raises important privacy concerns with respect to information sharing and paves the way for lawful access with a Canadian commitment to accede to the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, the agreement notably does not appear to include anything on intellectual property enforcement.

The omission of IP enforcement is a surprise. An earlier attempt at a Canada – U.S. agreement – the Security and Prosperity Partnership included an Intellectual Property Action Strategy. Moreover, groups like the Canada and U.S. Chambers of Commerce lobbied extensively for IP measures within this deal. The Chambers’ joint document included a full section on the protection of intellectual property rights and recommended new border measures powers. While those measures may yet come – Canada’s participation in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement makes the introduction of new IP enforcement legislation likely next year – it is surprising that similar commitments were not included in this agreement.

4 Comments

  1. Don’t worry…
    …the IP Rights Chapter is included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

  2. Mega Upload vs. Universal Music Group – opening round
    Online storage site Mega Upload was so sick and tired of the Music And Film Industy Associations of America that they enlisted triple-A stars (as in exposure) like Will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys to promote their site using a music video. It was also uploaded on YouTube, but UMG took it down twice using their special Rights Holders tool (!). It can also be found here:

    It will be interesting to keep an eye out on this, given the brand-new SOPA/PIPA takedown rights that are proposed. This example proves it’s not “just a USA thing”; it affects you directly.

    “They may win the battle, but they will never win the war.”

  3. …and more news of the day
    “A pair of senior Hill aides at the center of a brewing battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley are packing their bags for K Street, where they’ll work for two of the entertainment lobby shops trying to influence their former colleagues in Congress on the very same issue.”

    Read here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70149.html
    or here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/10151917022/shockingly-unshocking-two-congressional-staffers-who-helped-write-sopapipa-become-entertainment-industry-lobbyists.shtml

    How long can our government afford to be seen with their fingers in their ears going “La la la la la, I can’t hear you”? The mainstream media are being controlled by same Forces of Evil, so no surprise there.

  4. Why bother with any C-11/SOPA/PIPA? We don’t need them. The music industry needs them because they still think they’re in the 70’s, selling millions of Led Zeppelin albums. The difference between then and now is that people willingly bought entire albums because the music was good. Now, the industry puts out one almost-good song per album (compare any song today to Led Zeppelin) and they say they can’t sell albums because of piracy. Bulls#!t. They can’t sell albums because the music is crap and people don’t want to buy it. One thing that has never been addressed is having already paid for legal copyright. Almost everybody has bought at least one album of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon or The Eagles’ Hotel California. It’s not piracy if those people copy the songs . . . they’ve already paid for the copyrights. But bills like C-11/SOPA/PIPA would squash those user rights