Post Tagged with: "copyright"

CMEC Visits Ottawa

CMEC, which represents provincial ministers of education, was in Ottawa today to lobby on copyright. Jamie Muir, the Nova Scotia Minister of Education, is quoted extensively in the release on the visit (which interestingly contains several references to the recent CMCC effort to bring the views of Canadian musicians to […]

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May 30, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Podcasts and Broadcasts

I recently spent about 40 minutes chatting with Amber MacArthur for the Inside the Net podcast program. You can listen to the discussion (which suffer from some poor Skype audio quality) on music and the law, the clip culture, and net neutrality here.  Meanwhile, TVO is broadcasting my Hart House […]

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May 26, 2006 4 comments News

Sound Numbers

A special edition of my Law Bytes column (Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) reports on a recent Canadian Heritage commissioned study on the economic impact of the copyright industries. The Connectus Consulting report, entitled The Economic Impact of Canadian Copyright Industries – Sectoral Analysis, has yet to be publicly released.  However, I recently obtained a copy of the final report dated March 31, 2006, under an Access to Information Act request.

The report, which spans 1997 to 2004, finds that the copyright industries comprise 4.5 percent of the Canadian economy and contribute 5.5 percent of total Canadian employment.  While that is expected to increase in the coming years (the copyright industries are growing at a faster rate than the overall economy), it pales in comparison to sectors such as finance, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and health care.

More interesting is a case study on the sound recording industry that contradicts both the industry claims and the expectations of the report's authors.

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May 25, 2006 10 comments Columns

European Commission Online Film Charter

The European Commission has released an online film charter to coincide with the Cannes Film Festival.  The Charter makes for an interesting read as it includes supportive comments for P2P distribution and non-commercial initiatives such as the BBC Creative Archive.

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May 24, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Andrew Cash on the CMCC

Andrew Cash, one of the CMCC musicians who met with Ministers Bernier and Oda, has chronicled his experience along with his views on finding solutions that meet the needs of the industry, artists, and fans.

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May 19, 2006 Comments are Disabled News