Articles by: Michael Geist

From Deadwood to Opportunity: CRIA Changes Its Tune on the Canadian Online Music Market

For many years, the most prominent critic of the Canadian online music market has been the industry itself. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (now known as Music Canada) has consistently argued that few would want to invest in Canada due to the state of our copyright laws. For example, in 2009, CRIA President Graham Henderson published an op-ed that said our trading partners were racing ahead of Canada, which he argued was a product of Canadian copyright law. A year later, Universal Music Canada appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and told MPs the legal uncertainty meant that the investment was going to other countries.

This week, the industry seemingly decided to change its tune. It released a new guide on licensing digital music in Canada that identifies the key organizations that license music in Canada, including the record labels and several copyright collectives. The report highlights how there are services in Canada in all the major segments, including digital downloads, non-interactive streaming, on-demand streaming, and music videos.

January 26, 2012 — 15 comments — News

Taking Stock of the SOPA Battle

Several excellent pieces assessing the recent battle over SOPA have been posted over the past few days. They include: Larry Downes, has a great piece titled Who Really Stopped SOPA, and Why? Yochai Benkler on Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Megauplaod and Four Proposals on Where We Go From Here The Hollywood […]

January 26, 2012 — 5 comments — News

Bill C-11: Copyright, The Movie

Jesse Brown blogs on the push to introduce SOPA style rules into Canadian copyright reform.

January 26, 2012 — 1 comment — News

Canada Wants Telecom, Culture Off the Table in CETA

Canada’s offer to the Europeans in the Canada-EU Trade Agreement negotiations on several key areas leaked yesterday. The documents reveal that Canada wants both telecom foreign ownership and cultural protections kept out the agreement.

January 26, 2012 — Comments are Disabled — News

Would a SOPA Version of the Canadian Copyright Bill Target Youtube?

My post this week on the behind-the-scenes demands to make Bill C-11, the current copyright bill, more like SOPA has attracted considerable attention with mainstream (National Post, La Presse) and online media (Mashable, Wire Report) covering the story. The music industry alone is seeking over a dozen changes to the bill, including website blocking, Internet termination for alleged repeat infringers, and an expansion of the “enabler” provision that is supposedly designed to target pirate sites. Meanwhile, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada also wants an expansion of the enabler provision along with further tightening of the already-restrictive digital lock rules.

The concern with expanding the enabler provision is that overly broad language could create increased legal risk for legitimate websites. As a result, new online businesses may avoid investing in Canada for fear of potential liability or costly lawsuits. My post cited concerns about SOPA being used to target sites like Youtube and the danger that that could spill over into Canada. Industry lawyer Barry Sookman responds in the National Post article, arguing that it is “inconceivable” and “not remotely possible” that the law could be used to shut down a mainstream site like Youtube.

Millions of Internet users certainly hope Sookman is right, yet recent experience suggests that the content industry is open to using these kinds of provisions in massive lawsuits against sites like Youtube. For example, consider the ongoing Viacom lawsuit against Youtube/Google.

January 25, 2012 — 28 comments — News