The election of Barack Obama has led to considerable speculation about what the change in administration might mean for U.S. pressure on Canada on intellectual property issues. If the MPAA – the lead Hollywood lobbyist – has anything to say about it, the pressure will only increase. Eighteen months after […]
Latest Posts
Ontario Gov’t Reverses on Young Drivers in Light of Facebook Protests
The Ontario government has dropped plans to create new restrictions on young drivers in light of huge criticism on Facebook. A Facebook group criticizing the plan garnered 150,000 members and Transportation Minister Jim Bradley admitted that the group had an impact on the government's thinking.
Australian Bureau of Statistics Adopts Creative Commons Licence
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has announced that it plans to adopt a Creative Commons licence for the majority of its content posted online.
CRTC New Media Hearing: The Three Battleground Issues [Updated]
Friday was the deadline for written submissions to the CRTC's New Media hearing and the Commission has already posted filings from nearly 100 individuals and organizations [now nearly 150 submissions]. While there are some noteworthy side copyright issues (the CMPDA – the Canadian arm of the MPAA – is concerned that dropping the new media exception would bring back iCraveTV and the legality of Internet retransmission, while CRIA implausibly argues without any evidence that "one of the factors that has significantly restricted legitimate Canadian broadcasting content being delivered and accessed over the Internet is the proliferation of unauthorized file swapping and downloading"), the real fight in the February hearings will come down to three issues:
Internet Video Goes To the Movies
In recent years, much of the interest in online video has focused on its effects on mainstream or conventional television – the emergence of a "clip culture," where popular segments of television programs draw larger audiences on websites like YouTube than on conventional television. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that the shift of conventional broadcast to the Internet is remarkable, but it misses important developments for longer form video.
Recent Posts
Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies 
Another Canadian Digital Policy Own Goal: Corporate TikTok Ban Leads to Millions in Lost Cultural Group Support 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 239: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Digital Services Tax 
Canada’s DST Debacle a Case Study of Digital Strategy Trouble 
Canadian Government Caves on Digital Services Tax After Years of Dismissing the Risks of Trade Retaliation
