Archive for June, 2012

Bill C-11 Receives Royal Assent

Bill C-11, the copyright reform bill, passed third reading at the Senate and received royal assent today. The bill is now S.C. 2012, c.20. The reforms do not take effect yet, however. The bill must go through an order-in-council process with a series of new regulations first, a process that […]

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June 29, 2012 23 comments News

Canada’s Notice-and-Notice vs. U.S.’s Notice-and-Takedown

Bob Tarantino has a good primer on the differences between Canada’s notice-and-notice system that will take effect with Bill C-11 and the U.S. notice-and-takedown approach.

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June 29, 2012 1 comment News

System Access Fee Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed

The Supreme Court of Canada has allowed a class action lawsuit against the major telecom companies to stand, paving the way for the $19 billion case to continue.

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June 29, 2012 19 comments News

Liberal Senators Take Last Shot At Copyright Bill’s Digital Lock Rules

The Senate is expected to conclude its debate on Bill C-11 with a vote later today. Yesterday, Liberal Senators who heard testimony at the Banking, Trade and Commerce committee brought forward a motion for three amendments to the bill. Senator Wilfrid Moore raises several concerns during debate, but brought a […]

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June 29, 2012 35 comments News

What’s Behind Canada’s Entry to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks?

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama formally extended an invitation to Canada to join the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, a proposed trade deal that includes the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam (Mexico was also added last week). Supporters have lauded the TPP as potentially the world’s most important trade pact and the Canadian government spent months crossing the globe to lobby for an invitation.

Yet dig beneath the heady promises and my weekly technology law column (homepage version, Toronto Star version) notes that the benefits for Canada are hard to identify. The price of admission was very steep – Canada appears to have agreed to conditions that grant it second-tier status – and the economic benefits from improved access to TPP economies are likely to be relatively minor since we already have free trade agreements with four of the ten participants.

Given those conditions, why aggressively pursue entry into the negotiations?

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June 28, 2012 10 comments Columns