One day after Bill C-59 cleared the House of Commons (it had first reading in the Senate yesterday), Bill C-47, the Olympic marks bill, also received unanimous approval. The final bill includes the parody exception and specific protection for the electronic media. It now moves to the Senate for final […]
Post Tagged with: "c-47"
The New C-47 Provisions
As I blogged earlier this week, the Industry Committee made some noteworthy changes to the Olympic Marks bill. While the posting focused on the inclusion of protection for parody and electronic media, the revised bill also includes a new provision to protect artistic work that is not produced on a commercial scale. The two new provisions are:
Olympic Marks Bill Amended to Protect Bloggers and Parody
The Industry Committee completed its short review of Bill C-47 this morning by approving several amendments to the bill. These notably include amending the exceptions provision (which previously only referred to the use of the Olympic marks for criticism or in the publication or broadcast of a news report) in two important ways. First, parody was added to the list, so that the use of the Olympic marks for parody purposes falls outside the Act. Second, the bill now specifically refers to electronic media as enjoying the same exception as other forms of media.
The importance of these amendments could extend far beyond this particular bill. In the case of the parody exception, it arguably highlights a clear shortcoming in current Canadian law (parody is missing from the Copyright Act as well) – one that ought to be addressed in any future intellectual property reform package. Moreover, providing specific protection for electronic media in this bill may open the door to similar media equality in other legal areas.
While the Committee added several other amendments (including a sunset clause for Schedule 3, which contains many generic words), the other notable occurrence was the submission of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, a leading Canadian IP organization, and its Past-President Cynthia Rowden. IPIC did the profession proud – as the only neutral, non-governmental witness to appear before the committee, it rightly criticized the bill for providing exceptional rights to one specific group.
Industry Committee Hearing on Olympic Marks Bill
The Industry Committee conducted its first hearing yesterday afternoon on Bill C-47, the Olympics marks bill (the second and likely final hearing goes this morning). With the exception of one Conservative MP who raised the prospect of whether the bill should include criminal provisions for ambush marketing, most of the […]
Olympic Marks Bill on the Fast Track
Bill C-47, the government's Olympic marks legislation, has been quietly placed on the fast track. The very fast track. With no warning, the bill heads to committee this week with hearings today (Industry Canada, VANOC) and Tuesday (several Olympic athletes and committees, clause by clause). With clause-by-clause review already on the schedule, the Industry Committee will only conduct a limited review and the bill could head back to the full House of Commons for third and final reading by the end of the week.
I've posted several items about the bill, expressing concern about substantive shortcomings and legislative fairness. Given the government's determination to fast track this bill, the most that can be done is to suggest some modest reforms to the bill (dropping the bill is out of the question and major surgery is not permitted at this stage). With that in mind, the Committee should consider recommending at least two changes: