Not surprisingly, the media jumped all over yesterday's file sharing decision. Among the stories:
Blog
Federal Appeals Court Upholds File Sharing Decision
This morning the Federal Court of Appeal issued its much-anticipated decision on music file sharing. The court upheld the lower court decision by denying CRIA's request for the identities of the 29 alleged file sharers. The reason for upholding the decision was straightforward – CRIA's evidence contained a wide variety of shortcomings and the appellate court was not about to issue a disclosure order in the face of bad evidence.
Culture Imports and Exports
Statistics Canada this morning released its annual report on Canada’s culture goods trade balance. This data covers cultural goods such as books, CDs, films, and art (royalty payments are included in the numbers).
Spam Task Force Delivers Report to Government
Canada’s national spam task force today delivered its report to Industry Minister David Emerson. I was a member of the task force and served as the co-chair of the law and regulatory working group.
The Wrong Analogy, More on the CRTC VoIP Decision
My regular Law Bytes column (freely available linked version, Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the CRTC’s VoIP decision. I begin by noting that when the Internet burst onto the public stage in the mid 1990s, legal scholars initially relied on analogies to identify an appropriate legal framework. Likening the Internet to the "Law of the Sea" or the "Law of Outer Space, their hope was that an existing body of law would provide a ready made solution to the Internet’s inevitable legal challenges. The approach failed, however, as the complexity of the Internet, as well as the genuinely novel issues it raised, rendered each successive proposal unsatisfactory.
Recent Posts
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 
Tweets Are Not Enough: Why Combatting Relentless Antisemitism in Canada Requires Real Leadership and Action
