Reports from Geneva, where WIPO is holding its General Assembly, indicate that Canada has come out against a diplomatic conference for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty. The U.S. is now also opposed to the conference, which was seemingly pushed through several weeks ago without consensus support. I wrote about the controversial […]
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Canton on DRM
David Canton, a London, Ontario lawyer who writes a regular technology law column, has a strong piece this week on DRM.
Prey To Thievery
Simon Doyle, the Deputy Editor of the Hill Times, has just published his new book Prey to Thievery , through Lulu.com. The book, which is based on his graduate thesis, is a study of CRIA's lobbying efforts from 1997 through 2005. It provides a remarkable perspective on the power of […]
Industry Minister Should Put Spam Law Back on Agenda
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) highlights the failure of the Canadian government to follow through on a task force report that recommended new anti-spam legislation. Industry Minister Bernier was recently asked about his efforts in combating spam, an ongoing nuisance that costs Canadian business millions of dollars while harming the consumer confidence needed to support emerging businesses. Bernier indicated that he had just received the 2005 National Task Force on Spam report (I was a member of the task force) and would respond to its recommendations in the coming weeks.
While he acknowledged that a "big group of experts" had called on the government to do something, he seemed to foreshadow a rejection of the Task Force's legislative recommendations, commenting that "the question is, what can we do? And I'm not sure right now. Maybe the market will decide in the end." I argue that should the Minister take the time to carefully read the report, he will find that a broad cross-section of Canadians representing Internet service providers, marketers, and the public, do not share his doubts about the role of government.
Moreover, the Minister's claim that he only recently received the Task Force report is contradicted by documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act. They reveal that just days after Bernier was sworn in as Canada’s Industry Minister, department officials delivered a briefing titled "Building Business Confidence and Consumer Trust Online."
Sony Hit With Privacy and Consumer Protection Complaints
As Sony seeks court approval of its class action settlement today (word is that the judge took note of the objections to the settlement and asked the parties to go back and try to address the concerns, likely leading to some modest amendments), CIPPIC has filed an avalanche of complaints […]
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 201: Robert Diab on the Billion Dollar Lawsuits Launched By Ontario School Boards Against Social Media Giants 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 200: Colin Bennett on the EU’s Surprising Adequacy Finding on Canadian Privacy Law 
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions
