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Facing Up to the Generational Privacy Divide

Last week hundreds of privacy regulators, corporate officers, and activists gathered in Jerusalem, Israel for the annual Data Protection and Privacy Commissioner Conference.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the conference theme focused on the perception of a growing privacy divide between generations, with older and younger demographics seemingly adopting sharply different views on the importance of privacy.  

Many acknowledged that longstanding privacy norms are being increasingly challenged by the massive popularity of social networks that encourage users to share information that in a previous generation would have never been made publicly available for all the world to see.  Moreover, rapid technological change and the continuous evolution of online sites and services create enormous difficulty for regulators unaccustomed to moving at Internet speed.

Given these changes, the conference asked participants to question whether privacy norms are at a breaking point with conventional laws, regulations, and principles rendered irrelevant in the face of the generational and technological shift.

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November 4, 2010 21 comments Columns

Nair on Fair Dealing

Meera Nair, who contributed a chapter on fair dealing in From “Radical Extremism” to “Balanced Copyright”: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda, blogs on the debate in the House of Commons on C-32, noting that “the mere mention of education as fair dealing brings out the worst fears of Canadian […]

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November 4, 2010 1 comment News

Copyright Bill is No Ripoff of Textbooks

David Fewer of CIPPIC responds to the misinformation campaign on C-32 and fair dealing.

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November 4, 2010 4 comments News

Spam Bill Passes Industry Committee Review

Bill C-28, the anti-spam bill, has been reported back to the House of Commons by the Standing Committee on Industry.  There were no substantive changes made to the bill.

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November 4, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Where The Parties Stand on C-32’s Digital Lock Provisions

Yesterday’s opening debate on Bill C-32 gave each party the opportunity to outline its specific concerns and perspectives on the copyright reform proposal.  The comments from the lead critic on digital locks provides a good sense of the broad opposition to the current C-32 approach to the issue:

Conservatives (Clement)

During the consultations, creators told us they needed new rights and protections to succeed in a digital environment, and so the bill before us implements those kinds of rights and protections of the WIPO Internet Treaties and paves the way for a future decision on ratification.

(Moore)

Copyright holders told us that their 21st-century business model depends on strong technological protection measures. And we listened: Bill C-32 contains protection measures such as digital locks to protect against piracy and to allow creators to choose how they wish to protect their works.

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November 3, 2010 93 comments News