Post Tagged with: "canada"

OECD Report Finds Canadian Broadband Slow, Expensive

In recent months, much of the discussion about high-speed Internet service in Canada has focused on two key issues – net neutrality and the need to bring broadband access to the remaining underserved areas in rural Canada. Both of these issues are now squarely on the public agenda with the CRTC conducting hearings on net neutrality next month and the government committing millions toward rural broadband initiatives in this year's budget.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that issing is a third, fast-growing concern, however. According to a new OECD report, Canada has one of the slowest and most expensive consumer broadband networks in the developed world. The OECD report, widely viewed as the leading global benchmark on broadband networks, compared Canada with 29 other countries on a range of metrics. These included broadband availability, pricing, speed, and bandwidth caps.

At first glance, the numbers do not seem that bad, with Canada ranking ninth out of 30 countries for broadband penetration. While that represents a sharp decline from years ago when Canada prided itself in standing second worldwide, its current position is unchanged from last year. Yet the situation becomes far more troubling once the OECD delves deeper into Canadian broadband pricing and speed.

June 1, 2009 — 18 comments — Columns

BSA Admits Canadian Software Piracy Rates Estimated; Canada Viewed as Low Piracy Country

As part of the attempt to characterize Canada as a "piracy haven," the Business Software Alliance's annual Global Piracy Report plays a lead role. The Conference Board of Canada references the findings, as do their funders in their reports on the state of Canadian intellectual property laws (Chamber of Commerce, CACN). Moreover, the report always generates considerable media interest, with coverage this year in the Globe and Mail and Canwest papers. For example, the Globe cited the data directly in the Download Decade series stating that "about 32 per cent of the computer software in Canada is pirated, contributing to losses of $1.2-billion (U.S.) in 2008 alone, according to a report from the Business Software Alliance."

This year the BSA reported that Canada declined from 33 to 32 percent. Michael Murphy, chair of the BSA Canada Committee claimed that "despite the slight decline, Canada’s software piracy rate is nowhere near where it should be compared to other advanced economy countries. We stand a better chance of reducing it significantly with stronger copyright legislation that strikes the appropriate balance between the rights of consumers and copyright holders."

Yet what the BSA did not disclose is that the 2009 report on Canada were guesses since Canadian firms and users were not surveyed. While the study makes seemingly authoritative claims about the state of Canadian piracy, the reality is that IDC, which conducts the study for BSA, did not bother to survey in Canada. After learning that Sweden was also not surveyed, I asked the Canadian BSA media contact about the approach in Canada. They replied that Canada was not included in the survey portion of the study, explaining that:

May 27, 2009 — 24 comments — News

DFAIT Posts Questionnaire on Canada – EU Economic Agreement

The Department of Foreign Affairs has posted a questionnaire that seeks Canadian perspectives on the doing business in Europe. It seeks to identify potential impediments, which could include copyright issues (longer copyright term as arose in the IMSLP case, restrictive anti-circumvention rules) for some businesses. The deadline for submission is […]

May 25, 2009 — 1 comment — News

U.S. Congressional Caucus Places Canada On Another Watch List

Because one unfounded and unsupportable designation as a pirate nation is never enough, the U.S. Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus has placed Canada on a watch list alongside China, Mexico, Russia and Spain. This is a separate list from the USTR Special 301 list.

May 20, 2009 — 5 comments — News