Articles by: Michael Geist

Bell request email, obtained under FIPPA from Brock University

Bell Backroom Pressure: Internal Documents Reveal How a Brock University Executive Came to Provide Support for Website Blocking

Among the thousands of interventions at the CRTC to the Bell coalition website blocking plan, one of the submissions that stands out comes from Brian Hutchings, Brock University’s Vice-President, Administration. The submission claims that “Brock ardently supports the FairPlay Canada coalition” adding that “we are committed to assist the members of the coalition and the CRTC in eliminating the theft of digital content.” The submission sparked an immediate campus backlash. The Brock University Faculty Association filed a submission with the CRTC noting:

we stand in opposition to the intervention by Vice President, Administration on behalf of Brock University. Vice-President Hutching’s intervention was undertaken without consultation with the wider Brock University community, including faculty, librarians, and Senate; therefore, his submission should not be seen as indicative of the views of Brock University as a whole.

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May 9, 2018 — 35 comments — News
Springer Nature - London Book Fair 2018 by ActuaLitté (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/24REax4

Springer Nature Opens Up on Educational Publishing: “E-Piracy” Sites Do Not Replace Traditional Subscription Services, Business Risks Primarily Stem from Marketplace Changes

Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of journals and electronic books has filed a prospectus for the purposes of an initial public offering. The prospectus is a fascinating read as it eschews the usual lobbying talking points in favour of legally required frank disclosure. For example, the document provides considerable insights into the continuing emergence of open access, noting that 27% of all research articles published by Springer Nature in 2017 was published on an open access basis.

The prospectus contains several discussions that are directly relevant to the Canadian copyright review.

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May 8, 2018 — 1 comment — News
Toronto: book stacks at Toronto Reference Library by The City of Toronto (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/gjDrZY

Canadian Publisher on the Term of Copyright: Life Plus 50 Years is “Already Too Long”

Broadview Press, an independent Canadian publisher with hundreds of books in print, has called on the government to ensure that there is no extension from the current term of life of the author plus 50 years. I previously noted the Broadview Press submission in a post on the tiny impact of reduced royalties from Access Copyright. The submission also focuses on copyright term:

Another vitally important copyright issue that has been on the table in recent TTP and NAFTA trade negotiations is the international pressure Canada is faced with to increase the length of the copyright term from 50 years after the death of the author (already too long, in our opinion) to a full 70 years after the death of the author, thereby preventing for an additional generation the publication of competing editions of literary classics—editions that can often be of immense cultural and pedagogical value.

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May 7, 2018 — 15 comments — News
Arty Shot #1 by Damien D. (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/75qCg1

World’s Worst Wireless Pricing?: Report Finds Canadian Wireless Broadband Pricing Offers Least Bang for the Buck in Developed World

The sad state of Canadian wireless pricing is old news for consumers and the government, but a new report graphically demonstrates how Canadians face some of the least competitive pricing in the developed world. The Rewheel study measured pricing in EU and OECD markets by examining how many gigabytes of 4G wireless data consumers get for the equivalent of 30 euros. This chart from Rewheel says it all:

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May 4, 2018 — 7 comments — News
Mark Zuckerberg F8 2018 Keynote by Anthony Quintano (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/25Dx2mG

Facebook Canada’s Hard Questions Series Turns to Privacy

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit down with Rob Sherman, Facebook’s Deputy Chief Privacy Officer, for a discussion co-hosted by the Centre for Law, Technology and Society on the many privacy issues facing the company. The conversation, part of Facebook Canada’s hard questions series, touched on applying Canadian privacy law, Facebook’s terms of use, and the desire for greater control over the use of personal data. The full discussion is embedded below.

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May 3, 2018 — Comments are Disabled — News
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