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Quebec Author Association Joins Lawsuit Against U.S. Universities

The Union des ecrivaines et des ecrivains quebecois has joined several author groups in filing a lawsuit against several U.S. universities for digitizing orphan works (books out of print and the author cannot be located).

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September 14, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News

Digital Issues Largely Missing From Ontario Election Campaign

The Ontario election campaign kicked off last week with the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and NDP promoting their policy platforms and quickly jumping into debates on the economy, health care and education. While the dominance of those three issues is unsurprising, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes those Ontarians hoping for some discussion of digital policy were bound to be a bit disappointed.

The Liberal platform references the importance of jobs in the technology and media sectors, but offers little else on the digital economy. The Progressive Conservatives are the only party to make a commitment to open government – their platform follows developments in many other jurisdictions that pledge to make government data more readily available for public use – but other digital issues are ignored. The NDP makes no reference to digital policies at all.

The federal government tends to lead on digital policies, though its much-anticipated digital economy strategy is months overdue. Yet for constitutional reasons that grant the provinces jurisdiction over property and civil rights, many important issues fall to the provinces.

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September 13, 2011 — 11 comments — Columns

Hurt Locker File Sharing Suits Come North: Federal Court Orders ISPs to Disclose Subscriber Info

File sharing lawsuits involving the movie the Hurt Locker have been big news in the United States for months as tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed. It now appears that the lawsuits are coming to Canada as the Federal Court of Canada has paved the way for the identification of subscribers at Bell Canada, Cogeco, and Videotron who are alleged to have copied the movie.  Late last month the court ordered the three ISPs to disclose the names and addresses of subscribers linked to IP addresses alleged to have copied the movie. The ISPs were given two weeks to respond and are entitled to be reimbursed for their expenses. In reaching its decision, the court cited the BMG Canada v. Doe case, the last major Canadian case involving peer-to-peer file sharing lawsuits. That case opened the door to further lawsuits, though it established some privacy safeguards. In this instance, the court cited PIPEDA as evidence that the personal information can be disclosed as well as federal court rules for the legitimacy of the claim and the necessity of acquiring the information for the lawsuit to proceed. There is no indication that the ISPs challenged the order or that there was an opportunity for a public interest intervention as was the case in the earlier CRIA lawsuits.

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September 9, 2011 — 72 comments — News

Government to Reintroduce Bill C-32 “In Exactly the Same Form”

Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has told the Canadian Press that the government plans to reintroduce Bill C-32 in “exactly the same form” as the legislation that died on the order paper with the election call earlier this year.  Moore suggested that the government plans to pick up where it […]

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September 9, 2011 — 28 comments — News

AUCC Responds to “Summer Fiction”

AUCC’s Paul Davidson has penned an op-ed in the Globe that responds to the “summer fiction” coming from Access Copyright. The piece sets the record straight on why the collectives one size fits all fee does not represent good value for money any more.

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September 9, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News
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