Post Tagged with: "piracy"

The SPP on IP

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which brings together the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, concluded this afternoon with a series of new agreements and strategies.  Given the U.S. involvement, it should come as no surprise to find that an Intellectual Property Action Strategy forms a core part of the summit's final documentation.  The document, which focuses on counterfeiting and piracy, includes three broad action items:

  • "Detect and Deter Trade in Pirated and Counterfeit Goods," including developing best practices for enforcement, creating an enforcement network, increase collaboration on IP enforcement, and increased attention on border enforcement.  Note that "digital piracy" is specifically identified as an issue for future work.
  • "Public Awareness and Outreach," which includes greater co-operation between government and industry with increased information sharing.  Lobby groups such as the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network will conduct joint seminars with its US and Mexican counterparts on best practices and enforcement.  The strategy also envisions policy roundtables and public awareness campaigns.  The three countries will combine on a new website that will post articles about IP enforcement around the world, while industry has promised to develop a code of ethics for online transactions as well as a database on the benefits of IP and the dangers of counterfeiting and piracy.
  • "Measuring Piracy and Counterfeiting," which includes developing baseline data on these issues, highlighting the effects of IP in each country's economy, and facilitating the collection of counterfeiting and piracy data.

All of these measures were entirely predictable, given that they are precisely what the North American Competitiveness Council recommended earlier this year.  With that in mind, it bears noting what else the NACC recommended for completion by 2008, since it telegraphs what is on the horizon.  

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August 21, 2007 6 comments News

Putting Canadian “Piracy” in Perspective

Over the past year, Canadians have faced a barrage of claims painting Canada as a "piracy haven."  This video – the second in my collaboration with Daniel Albahary – moves beyond the headlines to demonstrate how the claims do not tell the whole story. Update: Source documents for the film […]

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July 11, 2007 44 comments News

Putting Canadian “Piracy” in Perspective

Video regarding piracy created in collaboration with Daniel Albahary.

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July 11, 2007 Comments are Disabled Video

A Similar Plan

Today business and entertainment groups called on a government to address piracy and counterfeiting claiming that "our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned. If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year."  The groups unveiled a six-point plan that includes:

  • increasing investigative and enforcement resources;
  • strengthening enforcement of counterfeiting laws at borders;
  • increasing penalties for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods;
  • improving federal coordination of IP enforcement efforts;
  • reforming civil and judicial processes to combat organized criminal trafficking; and
  • consumer education.

The country? 

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June 14, 2007 2 comments News

Counterfeit Claims

CRIA's Graham Henderson was back in the spotlight yesterday with a speech delivered on behalf of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network at the Economic Club of Toronto understatedly titled "Canada Awash in Piracy" An Action Plan to Secure Our Prosperity".  The speech, which has yet to be posted online (then again, CRIA has not posted a release or a speech since last September), followed the usual CRIA formula:

  • law firm sponsors to help fill the room (McCarthy Tetrault)
  • a questionable Pollara study (this one focused on Canadians' appetite for counterfeit goods)
  • cracks at law professors ("we don't have a [piracy party] here yet but there are rumours that some law professors are putting one together")
  • an astonishingly critical portrayal of Canada and Canadian policy makers (Canada has "a poorly developed marketplace framework for intellectual property rights", low Canadian attendance at a WIPO counterfeiting conference was "a grievous oversight and it sends a disturbing message", etc.)

There are several issues worth noting about the speech.  First, I don't know many people who are in favour of commercial counterfeiting.  If the allegations regarding organized crime involvement and health and safety issues (counterfeit pharmaceuticals, batteries, toys) are even partially true, Canada should have a legal system to address these concerns. Henderson suggested several reforms (trademark reform, customs powers) that would likely prove relatively uncontroversial in that regard.

The problem with this latest campaign is that it massively overstates the problem and seeks to conflate commercial counterfeiting with other activities that are not nearly as problematic.

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February 28, 2007 10 comments News