The SEC yesterday stopped trading in 35 companies that had been the target of regular spam touting campaigns. Paul Kedrosky notes that eight of the companies have a Canadian connection.
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Signing vs. Ratifying
With the Canadian media continuing to cover the U.S. interest in Canadian copyright law (CBC, National Post) and the Globe publishing a pair of notable responses to yesterday's Ibbitson column (CMCC members, MP Charlie Angus), it is worth expanding on one issue that I flagged in my response to the Ibbitson piece. I commented that he had incorrectly equated signing a treaty (which represents only a supportive gesture) vs. ratifying a treaty (which creates new legal obligations). Howard Knopf neatly characterized it as the difference between dating and marriage.
It should be noted that many countries sign but do not ratify treaties.
The Tyee on Project Cleanfeed
Project Cleanfeed is now up and running and the Tyee does a nice job of canvassing the issues.
Apple’s DRM Dilemma
This is a terrific article on how Apple's DRM works and where its pressure points lie in dealing with regulators, consumers, and music industry.
Canada’s Copyright Kyoto
John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail has a column today (unfortunately behind a paywall) on the copyright issue. The column gets many of the issues right – the complexity of the file, the likelihood of greater U.S. pressure, and the fact that Canada is a net importer of cultural goods. The piece also contains a couple of newsworthy tidbids including word that Industry Minister Bernier and Canadian Heritage Minister Oda met last week to work out a final agreement on a copyright bill but failed to do so. It also confirms that U.S. Ambassador Wilkins recently sent a "stern letter" to Prime Minister Harper on intellectual property enforcement.
That said, it gets several things wrong. First, Ibbitson says the issue boils down to:
Copyright owners, from garage bands to Disney, want strict prohibitions on practices and technologies that allow people to record, copy and download copyrighted works without paying for them. Their champion is the Heritage Minister. The Industry Minister, however, represents the ordinary user, the educator, the entrepreneur, who wants the greatest possible latitude in exploiting the knowledge and information available on discs, the Web and in databases.
Ibbitson gets it half-right.
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