Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 18, 2014 as How Canadian Business Chilled Patent Troll Reforms The Internet Association, a U.S.-based industry association that counts most of the biggest names in the Internet economy as its members (including Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, and Yahoo), recently released a policy […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
New TPP Leak: Canada Emerges as Leading Opponent of U.S. Intellectual Property Demands
This morning Wikileaks released an updated leaked version of the draft Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property chapter. The latest leak dates from May 2014 (the previous leak was current to August 2013. I assessed it in posts here, here, here, here and here). The 77-page document provides a detailed look at the proposed chapter, complete with country positions on each issue. While a comprehensive assessment of the chapter will take some time, the immediate takeaway is that the U.S. remains fairly isolated in its efforts to overhaul patent and copyright law around the world with Canada emerging as the leading opponent of its demands.
Government Opens Door to Major Changes to Digital Privacy Bill
While it was overshadowed by the headlines over potential copyright reform, Peter Van Loan, the government’s House leader, disclosed last week that the government is planning to send Bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act, to the Industry Committee for review prior to second reading. The bill, which has proven controversial due to a provision that expands the possibility of voluntary disclosure of subscriber information and relatively weak security breach disclosure rules, will be open to more significant reforms that previously thought possible (my remarks before the Senate committee can be found here). Under Parliamentary rules, referring a bill before second reading allows the committee to alter the scope of the bill.
Broadcaster Copyright Misuse and Collusion?: Why Criticism Over the Government’s Political Ad Copyright Exception May Be Pointed in the Wrong Direction
The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend featured escalating rhetoric over the government’s proposed copyright exception for political advertising with claims of fascism, censorship, expropriation, and more. The commentary bears almost no relationship to reality. The truth is that the government and the broadcasters both agree that the current law already permits use without authorization. For all the claims of “theft”, the copyright owner (broadcasters) and user (political parties) both agree that the works can be used without further permission or payment. As Ariel Katz points out this morning, the bigger issue may well be whether Canada’s broadcasters violated the Competition Act by conspiring to not air perfectly lawful political advertisements.
I wrote about the controversy in my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version), but the debate can be boiled down to three issues.
Political Attack Ads May Be Noxious, but Copyright Isn’t the Right Tool to Stop Them
Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 11, 2014 as Federal Proposal to Loosen Copyright Law for Political Advertising Falls Flat Reports surfaced last week that the federal government plans to introduce a new copyright exception for political advertising within a forthcoming budget bill. The provision would allow politicians and […]
Recent Posts
The Sound of Silence: On Being Jewish in Canada in 2025 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 241: Scott Benzie on How Government Policy Has Eroded Big Tech Support for Canadian Culture 
What Is the Canadian Government Doing With Its Incoherent Approach to TikTok? 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 240: Dean Beeby on Why Canada’s Language Laws May Stop Government From Posting Access to Information Records Online 
Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies
