IT World Canada covers the growing debate over the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, with a mini-debate between Barry Sookman and me over the implications of the bill. Sookman expresses concern that an attempt to buy additional software licences might render the purchaser a spammer (as if the vendor is going […]
News
Conference Board Recalls All Three IP Reports
The Conference Board of Canada has just announced that it is recalling all three IP reports that it issued last week. It says that "an internal review has determined that these reports did not follow the high quality research standards of The Conference Board of Canada." Update: Jesse Brown interviewed […]
Cambridge Study on DRM and Freedom of Expression
Patricia Akester of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge has released a comprehensive empirical study on the effects of DRM on copyright exceptions relied upon by libraries, educators, and consumers. The study is interesting because it includes interviews with all the major players […]
Now on the “Cut and Paste Caper”
Now Toronto has a critical article on the Conference Board of Canada and the "cut and paste" caper, noting that the organization has refused to respond to many of its questions. Meanwhile, Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun covers the BSA's Canadian statistics with the headline "is that a pirate […]
BSA Admits Canadian Software Piracy Rates Estimated; Canada Viewed as Low Piracy Country
As part of the attempt to characterize Canada as a "piracy haven," the Business Software Alliance's annual Global Piracy Report plays a lead role. The Conference Board of Canada references the findings, as do their funders in their reports on the state of Canadian intellectual property laws (Chamber of Commerce, CACN). Moreover, the report always generates considerable media interest, with coverage this year in the Globe and Mail and Canwest papers. For example, the Globe cited the data directly in the Download Decade series stating that "about 32 per cent of the computer software in Canada is pirated, contributing to losses of $1.2-billion (U.S.) in 2008 alone, according to a report from the Business Software Alliance."
This year the BSA reported that Canada declined from 33 to 32 percent. Michael Murphy, chair of the BSA Canada Committee claimed that "despite the slight decline, Canada’s software piracy rate is nowhere near where it should be compared to other advanced economy countries. We stand a better chance of reducing it significantly with stronger copyright legislation that strikes the appropriate balance between the rights of consumers and copyright holders."
Yet what the BSA did not disclose is that the 2009 report on Canada were guesses since Canadian firms and users were not surveyed. While the study makes seemingly authoritative claims about the state of Canadian piracy, the reality is that IDC, which conducts the study for BSA, did not bother to survey in Canada. After learning that Sweden was also not surveyed, I asked the Canadian BSA media contact about the approach in Canada. They replied that Canada was not included in the survey portion of the study, explaining that:
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