Appeared in the Toronto Star on November 18, 2012 as Supreme Court Serves Stunning Reminder of the Patent Bargain The House of Commons Committee on Industry, Science and Technology has spent the past few months hearing from a myriad of companies on the Canadian intellectual property system. With few public […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
Canadian Broadcasters Seek Overhaul of Radio Copyright Fees Post-C-11 & Fair Dealing Decisions
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has applied to the Copyright Board of Canada for a radical overhaul of the current fees paid by radio stations for commercial radio reproduction of music. The CAB argues that in light of copyright reforms in Bill C-11 and the Supreme Court of Canada’s rulings on fair dealing, there is no legal basis for several tariffs proposed by CMRRA-SODRAC (CSI), AVLA, and ACTRA and that the rate on earlier approved tariffs should be significantly reduced.
The CAB position on the impact of the law is that:
The result of the changes to the Copyright Act made by the Copyright Modernization Act, when combined with the fair dealing right as applied in ESA, is to eliminate or significantly reduce the liability of radio broadcasters for the reproductions made by them in the course of their broadcasting activities. Even the reproduction collectives agree that the legislative changes alone will eliminate most liability of radio broadcasters for reproductions of music.
U.S. Republican Study Committee Releases Progressive Copyright Document Only To Withdraw Hours Later
The story of the weekend was the publication by the U.S. Republican Study Committee of a progressive report on copyright, only to withdraw the paper hours later (coverage from Techdirt (1, 2), Volokh Conspiracy, the American Conservative, Politico, CNET, and Macleans). The paper – which can still be found online […]
Canada To Support Concept of a WIPO Treaty for the Visually Impaired
Howard Knopf reports that the Canadian delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright, which is meeting in Geneva this week, will endorse the concept of an international treaty for the visually impaired.
AUCC Releases Model Fair Dealing Policy
Last week, I posted on the emerging consensus within the Canadian education on the scope of fair dealing. The AUCC has now become the last major educational association to adopt a fair dealing policy, which largely mirrors the approach of the ACCC and K-12 schools.
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