Peter Clark posts an opinion piece at iPolitics that raises many questions with the Trans Pacific Partnership. Clark notes that “the TPP will not be worth much to Canada” given that we already have trade agreements with the U.S., Mexico, Chile and Peru.
Archive for October, 2012
Are CRIA and the MPA-Canada Now Opposed to Canadian Content Rules?
An additional issue has begun to attract increasing attention as the same lobby groups seeking copyright reforms have also put dismantling Canadian content regulations on the table. The IIPA, the lead lobby group for the movie, music, and software industries, told the U.S. government:
IIPA strongly believes that the TPP market access chapters must be comprehensive in scope, strictly avoiding any sectoral carve outs that preclude the application of free trade disciplines. We note that several market access barriers cited by USTR in its 2012 National Trade Estimate report on Canada involve, for example, content quota requirements for television, radio, cable television, direct-to-home broadcast services, specialty television, and satellite radio services. It should be possible to address such barriers to trade in the TPP, and thus augment consumers’ access to diverse content, while promoting local cultural expressions.
Many concerned with Canadian culture have reacted with alarm as the U.S. government has focused on potential changes to television and radio content requirements, classification systems for movies, and online video.
Why It’s Time for a Canadian Digitization Strategy Based on Fair Dealing
The HDL, a joint project of the University of California, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Cornell University and University of Michigan, used digital copies originally scanned by Google to allow for three purposes: (1) full text searches; (2) preservation; and (3) access for people with print disabilities. The universities implemented access to the database of scanned books in different ways. The full text search functionality enabled users to search through millions of books for particular terms. If the book was not in the public domain or there was no authorization from the copyright owner, searches only indicated the page number where the search term was found with no actual text copied. Students with print disabilities were able to access the full-text through a secure system that was not available to the general public or student body.
CRTC Releases Anti-Spam Regulation Compliance Bulletins
The government continues to drag its feet on bringing forward anti-spam regulations – Canada’s anti-spam law received royal assent in 2010 but won’t take effect until 2013 at the earliest – but the CRTC seems determined to move things forward. Yesterday it released two information bulletins that provide guidelines on […]
Ibbitson on the End of Bill C-30
The Globe’s John Ibbitson has a column on Bill C-30, the lawful access/Internet surveillance bill, that he says dying a quiet death.
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 200: Colin Bennett on the EU’s Surprising Adequacy Finding on Canadian Privacy Law 
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act
