The Canadian Library Association has released a new position paper on Bill C-11. The CLA directs much of its concern to the digital lock rules: The prohibitions on the circumvention of digital locks in Bill Câ€11 exceed Canada’s obligations under WIPO copyright treaties. Canada agreed to distinctive wording and flexibilities […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
Fair Dealing’s 100 Years of Solitude
Ariel Katz has a must-read post on the history of fair dealing. Katz states “the notion that if a purpose isn’t explicitly enumerated, it is categorically excluded from the purview of fair dealing, is antithetical to the purpose of the Copyright Act. In order to encourage future innovation and creativity […]
The Letters of the Law: The Year in Tech Law from A to Z
Appeared in the Toronto Star on December 18, 2011 as The Year in Tech Law, From A to Z The past 12 months in law and technology were exceptionally active, with legislative battles over privacy and copyright, near-continuous controversy at the CRTC, and an active Supreme Court of Canada docket. […]
CRTC’s Net Neutrality Rules in Action: Bell To Drop P2P Traffic Shaping
Bell advised the CRTC yesterday that it plans to drop all peer-to-peer traffic shaping (often called throttling) as of March 1, 2012. While the decision has been described as surprising or as quid pro quo for the usage based billing ruling, I think it is neither of those. The writing […]
What Happened to the PIPEDA Review?
Section 29 of PIPEDA, Canada’s private sector privacy law, requires Parliament to review the portion that deals with data protection every five years. The first review started in 2006 and led (after considerable delay) to the reforms found in Bill C-12, which is currently languishing in the House of Commons. […]






