Post Tagged with: "rcmp"

RCMP Says It Doesn’t Target Music Downloaders

Recent comments from the RCMP about their IP enforcement priorities are attracting considerable attention.  The head of federal investigations last week acknowledged that infringement for personal use is no longer targeted (if it ever was). Instead, the RCMP prioritizes health and safety issues such as fake medicines or unsafe electrical […]

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November 12, 2007 4 comments News

Misleading RCMP Data Undermines Counterfeiting Claims

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) focuses on the growing attention paid to counterfeiting and the use of misleading data as part of the debate. The RCMP has been the single most prominent source for claims about the impact of counterfeiting in Canada since its 2005 Economic Crime Report pegged the counterfeiting cost at between $10 to 30 billion dollars annually. The $30 billion figure has assumed a life of its own with groups lobbying for tougher anti-counterfeiting measures regularly raising it as evidence of the dire need for Canadian action.  U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins cited the figure in a March 2007 speech critical of Canadian law, while the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, Canada's leading anti-counterfeiting lobby, reported in April that the "RCMP estimates that the cost to the Canadian economy from counterfeiting and piracy is in the billions."

Yet despite the reliance on this figure – the Industry Committee referenced it in its final report – a closer examination reveals that the RCMP data is fatally flawed.  Responding to an Access to Information Act request for the sources behind the $30 billion claim, Canada's national police force last week admitted that the figures were based on "open source documents found on the Internet." In other words, the RCMP did not conduct any independent research on the scope or impact of counterfeiting in Canada, but rather merely searched for news stories on the Internet and then stood silent while lobby groups trumpeted the figure before Parliament.

A careful examination of the documents relied upon by the RCMP reveal two sources in particular that appear responsible for the $30 billion claim.  

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September 18, 2007 25 comments Columns

Misleading RCMP Data Undermines Counterfeiting Claims

Appeared in the Toronto Star on September 17, 2007 as Misleading Data Undermine Counterfeiting Claims Canadian politicians have paid a great deal attention to counterfeiting over the past year. The issue, which focuses primarily on fake clothing, handbags, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment products, played a prominent role in the recent summit […]

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September 17, 2007 1 comment Columns Archive

RCMP Renews Call for Lawful Access

Canwest is reporting that documents obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the RCMP has renewed calls for lawful access legislation, claiming that its absence has "already had serious consequences for investigations and victims."

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April 9, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

Spam Plans

I have written frequently about the need for Canada to move forward on anti-spam legislation (I was a member of the National Task Force on Spam that unanimously concluded that such laws are needed).  More recently, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada echoed the call for anti-spam legislation.  This week, both […]

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March 15, 2007 6 comments News