Michael Geist

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UBC Sets the Record Straight on University Spending on Copyright Materials

UBC President Stephen Toope has written an important letter responding to criticism from the Writers’ Union of Canada over his university’s reliance on fair dealing. Consistent with many universities across the country, UBC has moved away from the Access Copyright licence, focusing instead on a combination of fair dealing, open access, and site licences. The Toope letter notes how much the university community still pays for copyright materials and how little course pack sales are in relationship to overall spending:

UBC pays in the neighbourhood of $25 million to publishers and authors every year. In fiscal 2011/12, UBC spent approximately $2 million on book acquisitions, $2 million on print serials, and $10 million on digitally licensed subscriptions for students and faculty to access through its library system. UBC also sold approximately $14 million of books directly to students and faculty (for which UBC paid publishers about $10 million). In the same period, total course pack sales were about $1 million, less than 4% of the total spent on learning materials. Responsive to the needs of today’s students, UBC’s faculty members are increasingly utilizing online modes of content delivery, which means that course pack production volumes will form an even smaller percentage over time.

September 16, 2013 — Comments are Disabled — News

Decoding the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Free Speech Implications

Earlier this week, I joined Jesse Brown for an online discussion on the Trans Pacific Partnership. The event, which was hosted by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, focused on the free speech implications from the deal, particularly in light of the copyright and privacy provisions. Moreover, we spent some time […]

September 13, 2013 — 1 comment — News

Canada Facilitated NSA’s Effort To Weaken Encryption Standards

The NY Times reports that Canada played a notable role in assisting the NSA to weaken encryption standards. The Times reports: internal memos leaked by a former N.S.A. contractor, Edward Snowden, suggest that the N.S.A. generated one of the random number generators used in a 2006 N.I.S.T. standard – called […]

September 11, 2013 — 2 comments — News

A Festivus Miracle: Industry Minister James Moore Hosts Roundtable on Anti-Spam Law

For the past two years, I have been describing the government’s long-missing digital economy strategy as the Penske File, a Seinfeld reference to a non-existent work project. The government’s Seinfeldian approach to digital policies continued yesterday, with Industry Minister James Moore hosting a Festivus-like event on Canada’s anti-spam legislation. The anti-spam law was passed in 2010, but intense lobbying has delayed approval of the final regulations that are needed to bring the law into effect.

The by-invitation roundtable featured most of the business associations that have criticized the legislation along with several consumer/public interest representatives. Consistent with the Seinfeld episode on Festivus, the 90-minute event opened with the airing of grievances, providing the critics with an opportunity to deliver their concerns directly to the Minister. The consumer and public interest representatives spoke in favour of the legislation and of the need for the government to move quickly to finalize the regulations. While the government’s plans remain to be seen, Moore is clearly engaged on the issue and, given that the law was passed years ago, will hopefully demonstrate a feat of strength by bringing it into effect.

A draft of my comments (which were changed slightly in delivery) are posted below.

September 11, 2013 — 2 comments — News

Regulated Wireless Roaming Fees May Be on the Way

The Labour Day weekend ended with a bang for telecom watchers as Verizon, the U.S. giant that was contemplating entering the Canadian market, announced that it was no longer interested in moving north. That decision represents a major loss for consumers, who would have benefited from greater choice and increased competition.

Yet days before the Verizon change of heart, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released its own noteworthy announcement, issuing a request for information to all Canadian wireless companies on their roaming pricing. The request, which covers everything from roaming agreements with U.S. companies to roaming revenues and consumer costs, may be the start of a long-overdue effort to reign in Canadian roaming fees that the OECD has reported are amongst the highest in the world.

The Commission acknowledged mounting concern over roaming fees, which kick in whenever Canadians use their wireless devices outside the country (and occasionally within the country when a provider does not offer their own service). After attempts to gather data from publicly available information failed to provide a clear picture, the CRTC initiated the request for information, much of which has never been made publicly available.

Based solely on the readily accessible information, however, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that roaming fees render typical usage of cellphones when out of the country unaffordable for most Canadians.

September 10, 2013 — 9 comments — Columns