Michael Geist

For most of the past hundred years, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the occasional copyright case with significant cases popping up once every ten or twenty years. That started to change in 2001 with a big case reaching Canada’s top court every year or two. While that seemed like a busy schedule, it is nothing compared to the coming week, where the court will hear an unprecedented five copyright cases over the course of two packed days.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the cases feature a who’s who of the Canadian copyright and communications world with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), Canadian Recording Industry Association, Apple, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, and leading copyright collectives such as SOCAN and Access Copyright among the litigants.

The common theme among the cases is that they all originate with the Copyright Board of Canada. Whether the board is asked to establish tariffs for the communication of music or the copying of materials in schools, its decisions have become highly contested and invariably subject to judicial review.  

It is possible that the Supreme Court is chiefly interested in the administrative law issues raised by the board rather than substantive copyright questions. Should it choose to wade into the copyright concerns, however, two issues jump out as the key ones.

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