Search Results for "c-11" : 409

The Supreme Court Copyright Hearings, Day One: Fair Dealing Scare Tactics Fall Flat

The Supreme Court of Canada heard three of the five scheduled copyright cases yesterday in the first day of an unprecedented focus on copyright at Canada’s highest court. The hearing drew many of Canada’s top copyright lawyers and featured a court that was highly engaged in the morning session but content to allow the lawyers to make their case with scant interruption in the afternoon. The three cases involved the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (whether downloading a video game involves communication to the public of the music in the game), the large telcos (music downloads), and Bell v. SOCAN (song previews as fair dealing).

There were several notable developments and lines of questioning. First, the fair dealing discussion that dominated the Bell v. SOCAN case would be familiar to anyone who has followed the debate on Bill C-11 as the usual suspects trotted out the usual scare tactics. The arguments included SOCAN likening music previews to ice cream samples (and therefore not worthy of being treated as research for fair dealing purposes), CRIA arguing for a “circumscribed definition of fair dealing”, and CSI claiming that including consumer research within fair dealing could put Canada offside its international obligations.

None of these arguments gained any real traction with the court.

December 7, 2011 — 16 comments — News

Copyright in the Balance This Week at the Supreme Court of Canada

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.

December 5, 2011 — 3 comments — Columns

Copyright in the Balance This Week at the Supreme Court of Canada

Appeared in the Toronto Star on December 4, 2011 as Copyright in the Balance at the Supreme Court 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 […]

December 5, 2011 — 1 comment — Columns Archive

Swiss Government Says Copyright Enforcement Rules Sufficient

Switzerland has completed a major government study on whether new measures are need to address online copyright infringement. The study concludes that no new legislative action is needed, citing the high costs and negative effects of three strikes and you’re out policies. It is noteworthy that Switzerland participated in the […]

December 2, 2011 — 11 comments — News

Entertainment Software Assoc: We’re For Tech Neutral Copyright (Except When We’re Against It)

One of the most frequently cited concerns with Bill C-11’s digital lock rules is that they create a two-tier legal framework that is technologically non-neutral. Where content does not have a lock or is in non-digital form, the usual copyright balance applies including fair dealing and consumer exceptions. However, with Bill C-11, once there is a digital lock included with the content, the balance disappears since the fair dealing and consumer exceptions can be overriden. A description of the situation:

The Bill also favours digital lock business models for the sale and delivery of content over unlocked means of dissemination. In the traditional model, copyright holders control the exclusive right to reproduce content onto CDs or DVDs. Once an unlocked copy is created, rights holders cannot control the application of copyright exceptions such as fair dealing. But the Bill creates a different situation simply because a copy of digital content is delivered with a digital lock. This is an economically inefficient interpretation of an Act that is meant to fairly balance the interests of rights holders and users to further the interests of society as a whole.

While consumer groups have been making this case against technological non-neutral copyright for months (and Charlie Angus raised precisely this point in the House of Commons yesterday expressing concern about a “two-tier set of rights”), the above quote is a slightly modified version of arguments by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, one of the lead proponents of the digital lock rules.

November 25, 2011 — 17 comments — News