News

Assessing ACTA: Video of My Talk at the European Parliament

Yesterday I appeared at the European Parliament’s INTA Workshop on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  I have written a commissioned report for the committee on ACTA that should be released in a few weeks. In the meantime, my prepared remarks provide a good overview of the main arguments and this video […]

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March 2, 2012 17 comments Committees, News, Video

Assessing ACTA: My Appearance Before the European Parliament INTA Workshop on ACTA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has mushroomed into a massive political issue in Europe in recent weeks with protests in hundreds of cities across the continent. Much of the focus has been on whether the European Parliament will give its approval to the agreement. The focal point of attention within the EP has been on the INTA committee, which holds a public workshop on the issue today. Interest in the workshop has been incredible – there are apparently 800 registrants with thousands more expected to watch the live stream.

Several months ago, I was approached to write one of several reports for the ACTA workshop. The report will be made public in the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be on the workshop’s first panel (along with Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Professor Christophe Geiger) to discuss my report and the agreement. The panel starts at 9:15 ET. I only have ten minutes for opening remarks, so the comments target a few of the findings from the report. A transcript of my planned remarks is posted with EP permission below:

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March 1, 2012 9 comments Committees, News

IsoHunt Responds to CRIA’s Copyright Infringement Claims

IsoHunt has submitted its response to CRIA’s copyright infringement claims, arguing that it operates lawfully under Canadian law. The filing helps advance the long-delayed case and confirms yet again that the Canadian music industry legal position in court is that isoHunt is liable for millions in statutory damages under current […]

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March 1, 2012 1 comment News

U.S. Seizes Canadian-Owned and Registered Domain Name

The EasyDNS blog has an excellent – albeit scary – post on the U.S. government seizure of bodog.com, the Canadian-owned online gambling site. The domain was seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security despite the fact that it was Canadian registered. The only U.S. connection is that the dot-com […]

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March 1, 2012 8 comments News

Canadian Music Industry Takes Aim At Google, Facebook, Reddit & Tech Startups With Bill C-11 Demands

The steady procession of Canadian music industry representatives to the Bill C-11 committee continues today with the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) ready to add to an already long list of industry demands to completely overhaul the bill. The music industry demands keep growing, but CIMA’s list is the most radical to date as it would create liability risk for social networking sites, search engines, blogging platforms, video sites, aggregators, and many other websites featuring third party contributions. If that were not enough, the industry is also calling for a new iPod tax, an extension in the term of copyright, a removal of protections for user generated content, parody, and satire, as well as an increase in statutory damage awards. Taken together, the music industry demands make SOPA look like some minor tinkering with the law.

Note that industry had already called for SOPA-style reforms such as website blocking and expanded liability that could extend to sites such as YouTube before the hearings began. This week has seen an industry lawyer inaccurately portray global approaches to digital lock rules and a musician association demand full statutory damages of up to $20,000 per infringement for non-commercial infringements by individuals.

Those demands are nothing compared to what CIMA has in mind, however. Topping the list is a massive expansion of the enabler provision. The music industry wants to remove a requirement that the so-called pirate sites be “designed primarily” to enable copyright infringement. It states:

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February 29, 2012 39 comments News