The Copyright Board of Canada this morning issued its decision on royalties for music played on commercial radio stations. The decision is a huge win for the copyright collectives (SOCAN and NRCC) and a corresponding loss for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. The Board has ruled that the prior tariffs […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
No Excuse to Delay Number Portability
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, freely available version) focuses on the CRTC’s wireless number portability consultation. I argue that while the industry regularly touts the Canadian wireless environment as a highly competitive, world-class market, the truth is that Canada trails badly on the number portability issue. The […]
No Excuse to Delay Number Portability
Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 10, 2005 as No Excuse to Delay Number Portability The inability to easily switch between wireless providers – a process known as number portability – has long been a source of frustration for Canadian consumers. Many feel "locked in" to a single provider […]
Australia’s High Court Delivers Some Copyright Lessons for Canada
The Australian High Court today delivered a landmark copyright decision involving "mod chips" and Sony PlayStations. The case goes to the heart of anti-circumvention provisions that create very contentious proposals in Bill C-60 here in Canada. At issue in the Australian case was whether mod-chips, used to modify the Sony […]
IFPI Reports Canadian Music Sales Up in 2005
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global recording industry association, has just released its mid-term report for 2005. In addition to the continuing success of the fee-based music download services, the report indicates that Canadian sales are up in 2005. While the increase is not enormous at […]
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