The Toronto Star features a special edition of my Law Bytes column (freely available hyperlinked version; Toronto Star reg. version) reflecting on Monday's Grokster decision. I argue that while the highest court in the U.S. unanimously ruled that two file sharing services, Grokster and Streamcast, can be sued for actively encouraging copyright infringement by their users, the decision is not the clear cut win its supporters suggest.
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The Next Chapter of the WWW
The NY Times runs a noteworthy article on the exceptional growth of user generated content. Described as "the next chapter of the WWW", the article calls attention to the abundance of user-generated content including online games, desktop video and citizen journalism sites.
Industry and Heritage
Question period in the House of Commons today, the last of the session, featured the following exchange:
"Ms. Bev Oda (Durham, CPC): Mr. Speaker, Canada has a world class Internet infrastructure in our schools but the heritage minister's new copyright legislation makes it restrictive, onerous and possibly more costly for schools, teachers and students to download on-line educational material.
This legislation will make routine classroom activities illegal. Why do the government and the minister want to make our students and teachers pay more for materials they are using now or make them criminals under a new copyright law?
Hon. Liza Frulla (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the hon. opposition member knows very well that we promised to table the copyright law in June, which we did. We also said that as far as the education matter is concerned, we will study it and focus on it solely after second reading of the bill. We will study the education matter because it does not have consensus.
I also want to say to my hon. critic that children can be in school but once they become researchers and authors, they also to have their copyrights reserved and paid for."
Canada-U.S.-Mexico Plan Raises IP, Spam and Privacy Issues
The Canadian, U.S., and Mexican government quietly released their Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America today. While the documents contain the usual high level commitments, several elements are worth watching from an technology and privacy law perspective.
Canadian Pay Radio Decision Appealed
As expected, a group of associations have filed a letter requesting that the federal government set aside or refer back to the CRTC the recent pay radio decision. The groups launching the appeal include ACTRA, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the National Campus and Community Radio Association, SOCAN, the Songwriters Association of Canada, and the Writers Guild of Canada.
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 200: Colin Bennett on the EU’s Surprising Adequacy Finding on Canadian Privacy Law 
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act
