Regular readers will recall that last fall Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda was embroiled in a fundraising controversy when it was revealed that a lobbyist for Canwest Global was planning a broadcast fundraiser on her behalf just weeks before a regulatory review. Oda proceeded to cancel the fundraiser. Days later, […]
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MPAA & RIAA Criticize USTR Position on Canada
One of the big surprises in this year's USTR Special 301 Report was the decision to keep Canada at the lowest level of priority (the Watch List) rather than elevate it to the Priority Watch List. Indeed, all the political signs pointed to an elevation – all the major U.S. […]
Law Times on Copyright “Over-Enforcement”
The Law Times with a feature on how copyright over-enforcement could stifle growth.
USTR Releases Special 301 Report
The USTR this morning released the 2007 Special 301 Report, its annual report card that features the U.S. perspective on intellectual property protection in dozens of countries around the world. Despite some thought that the U.S. might elevate Canada from its Watch List to the Priority Watch List, no such […]
Lawsuits Put Online Free Speech At Risk
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the defamation lawsuits launched in British Columbia by Wayne Crookes against a who's who of the Internet, including Yahoo!, MySpace, and Wikipedia. Those companies are accused of defaming Crookes not by virtue of anything they have said, but rather by permitting their users to post or link to articles that are allegedly defamatory.
The lawsuits could prove to be critically important to the Internet in Canada, because they cast the net of liability far wider than just the initial posters. Indeed, the lawsuits seek to hold accountable sites and services that host the articles, feature comments about the articles, include hyperlinks to the articles, fail to actively monitor their content to ensure that allegedly defamatory articles are not reposted after being removed, and even those that implement the domain name registrations of sites that host the articles.
The common link with all of these targets is that none are directly responsible for alleged defamation. Rather, the Crookes lawsuits maintain that Internet intermediaries should be held equally responsible for such content.