News

“Slightly Divided We Stand”: The EU Ratification of the WIPO Treaties

The At last … the 1709 Copyright Blog points to the details of the EU ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties and the fact that a number of countries opted out of elements of those treaties by way of declaration.

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January 7, 2010 1 comment News

Pollara Changes Its Tune On Music Downloading

Several years ago, Pollara was the lead polling company for CRIA and it regularly produced reports consistent with its client's view of the world.  In fact, longtime readers may recall that it in March 2006, I posted on a Pollara study that contradicted CRIA's claims.  Then Pollara President Duncan McKie (now President of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association) posted a response calling me impertinent and presumptuous, concluding "all the data that we have collected on this topic over the past 3 years point to a strong negative relationship between downloading and music purchases."

What a difference a few years (and a change in client) makes.  CRIA and Pollara parted ways soon afterward and current Pollara Executive Vice-President Robert Hutton offers a decidedly different take on the issue.  In this comment on Zeropaid, Hutton notes that relying on 2006 research is "dubious at best."  Of course, it is 2006 Pollara data that served as the basis for the Conference Board of Canada's press release on file sharing last year.  He then continues:

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January 6, 2010 85 comments News

Canadian Writers Petition Against Google Book Search Settlement

Canadian writers have banded together to protest against the Google Book Search settlement.  The signatories reject the settlement "in its entirety."

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January 6, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Do Patents Impede Medical Care and Innovation?

PLOS Medicine publishes a series of short pieces on the impact of patents on medical care and innovation, drawn in part from Canadians Richard Gold, James Obinski, and Sevil N-Marandi.

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January 6, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

UK Gov’t On ACTA: Lack of Transparency Not In the Public Interest

The UK Government discusses the lack of transparency in an EU access to information request: "More broadly with respect to ACTA the UK considers that transparency is crucial to ensure the legitimacy of the agreement and to stop the spread of rumours. We believe the lack of transparency is unhelpful […]

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January 4, 2010 3 comments News