Post Tagged with: "c-32"

Putting Copyright Statutory Damages In Perspective

One of the more interesting exchanges during Wednesday’s C-32 Legislative Committee hearing involved questions on the bill’s reforms to statutory damages. The bill proposes to establish a maximum statutory damages penalty of $5,000 for infringement that the court considers to be non-commercial. That contrasts with commercial infringement, which carries a $20,000 per infringement maximum. Note that the minimums are roughly the same – non-commercial infringement has a $100 minimum, while commercial infringement’s minimum is $200.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague questioned the change, suggesting that it could send the wrong message about infringement and be viewed as a licence to steal. I disagreed with his position, pointing out that $5,000 was still enormous cost for most Canadians and that it is potential multi-million dollar liability for non-commercial file sharing that sends a bad message about Canadian justice.

I also made the point that statutory damages are relatively rare on the international scene, a point that I think is worth expanding upon. Perhaps because both Canada and the U.S. have statutory damages, many MPs might be under the mistaken impression that most countries have them. In fact, the opposite is the case.

December 3, 2010 — 68 comments — News

NDP MP Angus Calls For Compromise on Bill C-32

NDP MP Charlie Angus has publicly called out the Conservatives on Bill C-32, calling for compromise on the copyright bill. Angus says the bill ignores the needs of consumers and is attack on artists. He indicates the NDP plans to bring forward amendments on artists’ royalties and to develop a […]

December 3, 2010 — 25 comments — News

The Bill C-32 Legislative Committee: My Opening Statement

I appeared before the Bill C-32 legislative committee as part of a hearing that addressed a wide range of issues including digital locks, fair dealing, and statutory damages. I’ll post the full transcript once available, but in the meantime, the video can be streamed from the Parliamentary site and my opening statement can be found below.

Appearance before the Bill C-32 Legislative Committee, December 1, 2010

Good afternoon. My name is Michael Geist. I am a law professor at the University of Ottawa. As many of you know, I have been very active on copyright policy issues for many years. In 2007, I launched the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group that grew to over 92,000 members with local chapters across the country. Earlier this year, I edited â€œFrom Radical Extremism to Balanced Copyright: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agendaâ€, the largest academic study on Bill C-32 to-date, with peer reviewed contributions from 20 leading Canadian experts.

That said, I appear before this committee today in a personal capacity representing only my own views.

While I am sometimes characterized as a copyright critic, the reality is that I am supportive of much of Bill C-32. When the bill was first tabled, I described it as flawed but fixable, with strong support for many of the compromises found in the legislation. That remains my view and I’m happy to talk about any aspect of the bill but want to focus my opening remarks on two issues â€“ fair dealing and digital locks.