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Stop the TPP by Backbone Campaign (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/fKgaBo

Canada Successfully Stands Up For Balanced IP and Canadian Culture in TPP Deal

While the NAFTA negotiations in Montreal were expected to be the lead trade story this week, the Trans Pacific Partnership talks in Tokyo have stolen the show with the remaining 11 countries reaching agreement on a deal that is likely to be signed in March. Canada faced intense criticism last year from some TPP partners (particularly Japan and Australia) over its demands to address concerns with the agreement. That sparked some Canadian business groups to quickly call on the government to simply cave in order to conclude a deal. Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne rightly argued that capitulation is not a negotiating strategy and they now come away with an improved (albeit still flawed) agreement.

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January 23, 2018 9 comments News
2017 Jumping Happy New Year 2018 New Year Design, http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/2017-Jumping-Happy-New-Year-2018-New-Year-Design-2711676 CC0 Public Domain

Looking Back at 2017: My Top Ten Posts

With 2018 nearly upon us, many sites are taking a moment to reflect back on the past year and the posts and issues that attracted the most attention. On my site, the top issues are easy to spot: net neutrality, privacy, copyright, website blocking and Netflix issues dominate the top ten. My top ten new posts published in 2017:

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December 28, 2017 3 comments News
Flat World Knowledge: Open College Textbooks by opensource.com (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7FkcGW

Finance Committee Recommends Canadian Government Funding for Open Educational Resources

Earlier this year, the Ontario government made a big commitment to open textbooks, investing millions of dollars to create new open texts in fields such as history, finance, politics, the environment, engineering, and the sciences. The resulting open textbook library at ECampusOntario now features hundreds of texts that are free to use for everyone. The Ontario initiative follows leadership in the OER field from BC Campus and its open textbook project. The BC effort has saved students millions of dollars with adoptions by dozens of institutions putting them into use in hundreds of faculties for over 1600 courses.

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December 20, 2017 1 comment News
Kicking Television by Daniel Horacio Agostini (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/8QjVp

Fostering a Vibrant Canadian Programming Market: My CRTC Submission Focusing on Net Neutrality and Rejecting New Taxes, Fees or Content Blocking

Last month I posted on the responses to the CRTC’s consultation on the future of Canadian programming, which yielded over 200 submissions that envision extensive Internet regulation and taxation. The CRTC has published a reference document for the second stage of its consultation that runs until January 31, 2018.  My full submission for the first stage of the consultation can be found here.

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December 19, 2017 1 comment News
IBC CTV Central Equipment Room by Josh Tidsbury (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7E6pXU

Canadian Position on Data Localization Rules in Trade Deals Revealed: Protection for Government Data Only

Data localization rules, which require data to be stored locally, have emerged as an increasingly popular legal method for providing some additional assurances about the privacy protection for personal information. Although heavily criticized by those who fear that it harms the free flow of information, requirements that personal information be stored within the local jurisdiction is an unsurprising reaction to concerns about the lost privacy protections if the data is stored elsewhere. Data localization requirements are popping up around the world with European requirements in countries such as Germany, Russia, and Greece; Asian requirements in Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia; Australian requirements for health records, and Latin America requirements in Brazil. Canada has not been immune to the rules either with both British Columbia and Nova Scotia creating localization requirements for government data.

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December 18, 2017 5 comments News