Columns

Canada’s Upcoming Copyright Clash

The Literary Review of Canada's June issue is about to hit the newsstands and it includes The Upcoming Copyright Clash, an essay I wrote on copyright reform in Canada.

The essay brings together several themes that I've written about in the past including the value of the Canadian public domain and the danger associated with potential copyright term extension. It argues for a positive vision of copyright reform incluing the creation of a national digital library and greater usage rights for content created by the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster.

May 25, 2005 — 1 comment — Columns

Task Force Report a Roadmap for Canning Canadian-Based Spam

Lost amidst the high drama on Parliament Hill last week was the release of Stopping Spam, the National Task Force on Spam’s final report.

Given that I was a member of the Task Force I’m biased, but I sincerely think the report provides a valuable contribution to the fight against spam in Canada and it would be shame if it were to get lost in the shuffle.

May 23, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — Columns

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.

May 17, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — Columns

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.

May 16, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — Columns

IP Bullied List Needed To Counter U.S. Trade and IP Linkage

My weekly Law Bytes column (freely available hyperlinked version, Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the recent USTR Special 301 report and its specific criticisms of Canada's copyright plans. The column highlights the gradual escalation of U.S. linkage of trade and intellectual property protection and calls for the creation of new IP Bullied List that would include at least a dozen countries bullied into agreeing to stronger IP laws, along with a Bullied Watch List that would include dozens of countries currently negotiating similar trade agreements.

May 9, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — Columns