With the appeal of the BMG v. Doe case scheduled for next month, it is interesting to see developments in Europe this week that also seek to protect individual file sharers who download for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Latest Posts
National Digital Libraries
Earlier this year, I wrote a column calling on the Canadian government to create a national digital library. The concept was simple — Canada should become the first country in the world to to create a comprehensive national digital library. The library, which would be fully accessible online, would contain a digitally scanned copy of every book, government report, and legal decision ever published in Canada.
Canadian MP Says Extended Licensing Proposal Delayed
Marlene Catteral, a Canadian MP and chair of the Canadian Heritage parliamentary committee has told (Quicktime format) a university audience that the government has delayed plans to introduce a much-criticized copyright proposal to establish a extended license for educational institutions. The proposal would have created a license for Internet materials that were not publicly available.
Time for Canada To Cancel Crown Copyright
My weekly Law Bytes column (full hypertext version with background links or Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on Canadian crown copyright, which provides that the government retains the copyright associated with any work that is prepared or published by or under its direction, creating an enormous and unconscionable barrier to Canadian film making, political advocacy, and free speech.
P2P Goes to the Movies
The Vancouver Sun ran a story over the weekend on the growing popularity of downloading movies on P2P networks. The article notes that movie swapping is still tiny in comparison to music, but that it may grow in the future.
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
