The U.S. released its annual piracy watch list last week, elevating Canada to the priority watch list alongside countries such as China and Russia. If that sounds implausible, that’s because it is. The U.S. has long used its annual report on IP issues to exert pressure on other countries and this year is no different. Indeed, with the IP chapter still unresolved in the NAFTA negotiations, the decision to elevate Canada appears to be an obvious effort to place negotiators on the defensive. In doing so, the U.S. has further undermined the credibility of a review process that is widely recognized as little more than a lobbying exercise.
News
Canadian Music Industry Seeks New Fees, Content Blocking, and Right to Renegotiate Deals Despite Generating Record Digital Revenues
The global music industry released its annual report this week with data that shows an industry successfully transitioning to digital services. The Canadian market is particularly strong as revenue growth far exceeds global averages. Despite the success, behind the scenes the industry is calling on the government to implement radical copyright reforms that include creating new levies to cover smartphones, requiring Internet providers to block services and report activity back to the industry, and even the power to require renegotiation of commercial deals it no longer thinks are fair.
Quebec Writers Group Calls for an End to Copyright Exceptions: “Only Where Access is Otherwise Impossible”
The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology continues its year-long review of copyright this week with a mix of witnesses from education, libraries, writers, and publishers. The Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois (UNEQ), which represents Quebec-based writers, appeared yesterday and submitted a brief to the committee with its key recommendations. There are several that will attract attention, including increased damages and an expansion of the private copying levy to cover e-readers, hard drives, and USB keys (a recommendation that may stem from a misunderstanding of the levy which is only for music). However, the most troubling is how the group takes aim at copyright user’s rights.
Government Response Suggests No Appetite for Canadian Anti-Spam Law Reform
The government released its response to the House of Commons study on Canada’s anti-spam law this week and while one report suggested that reforms are coming, the reality is that there appears to be little appetite for significant change. I wrote about the law’s effectiveness and appeared before the committee as part of the study. The committee report stopped short of calling for an anti-spam law overhaul, instead recommending clarifications of several provisions in the law.
B.C. Court Leaves Google Global Takedown Order Intact Pending Full Trial
A British Columbia court has denied Google’s request to vary an injunction requiring it to remove search results from its global index, concluding that a U.S. ruling that did not demonstrate that the removal would result in a violation of U.S. law. The Google v. Equustek case has attracted international attention with the Supreme Court of Canada upholding a global takedown order. That decision noted that it was open to Google to raise potential conflict of laws with the B.C. court in the hopes of varying the order:
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