Archive for May 1st, 2012

Stop Being Poor: U.S. Piracy Watch List Hits A New Low With 2012 Report

The U.S. Trade Representative released its annual Special 301 Report yesterday, unsurprisingly including Canada on the Priority Watch list. While inclusion on the list is designed to generate embarrassment in target countries, this year’s report should elicit outrage. Not only is the report lacking in objective analysis, it targets some of the world’s poorest countries with no evidence of legal inadequacies and picks fights with any country that dare adopt a contrary view on intellectual property issues.

The inclusion of Canada on the priority watch list is so lacking in objective analysis as to completely undermine the credibility of the report. The Canadian “analysis” amounts to 173 words that hits on the usual dubious complaints (and given criticism of countries such as Chile for their notice-and-notice system, Israel for their statutory damages rules, and many countries on border enforcement, the Canadian criticism will clearly not end with the enactment of Bill C-11). By comparison, China is treated as equivalent to Canada on the priority watch list, yet garners over 4,600 words.

Earlier this year, I completed a submission with Public Knowledge to the USTR Special 301 process that examined current Canadian law as well as Bill C-11. It concluded:

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May 1, 2012 21 comments News

Search Engine on the Access Copyright – AUCC Agreement

TVO’s Search Engine spoke with me this week on the Access Copyright – AUCC agreement, open access, the implications for education, and the broader copyright implications.

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May 1, 2012 Comments are Disabled News

CETA’s Constitutional Problem

My colleague Jeremy deBeer has published an article on the constitutional challenges posed by the intellectual property provisions in the Canada – EU Trade Agreement.

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May 1, 2012 Comments are Disabled News

Brazilian Copyright Collectives Indicted for Fraud

Brazil has been hit with a major copyright scandal as 15 directors of a local copyright collective have been indicted for fraud. The Brazilian Senate has proposed changes to the legal regulation of copyright collectives wth an emphasis on increased transparency.

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May 1, 2012 Comments are Disabled News

Is the TPP Foundering?

Foreign Policy reports that the Trans Pacific Partnership may be foundering with growing opposition in countries such as Chile and Malaysia as well as exclusion of Canada, Mexico, and Japan.

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May 1, 2012 1 comment News