Cooperation in the Pacific Rim by Jakob Polacsek, World Economic Forum (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/48179628441

Cooperation in the Pacific Rim by Jakob Polacsek, World Economic Forum (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/48179628441

Digital Trade

Canada – EU Trade Agreement Reached “In Principle”, Part Two: The Intellectual Property Provisions

Intellectual property was one of the most contentious aspects of the CETA negotiations, with copyright, patents, and geographic indications all sources of concern. A summary of the impact of CETA on each is posted below (additional posts on the need to release the text and the telecom and e-commerce provisions).

Copyright

Early CETA drafts included extensive copyright provisions that would have rendered Canadian copyright law virtually unrecognizable from its current state.  The EU position on copyright changed after two developments in 2012. First, Canada passed long-awaited copyright reform that addressed several concerns, most notably legal protection for digital locks and ISP liability. Second, the EU abandoned many of the remaining demands after the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in July 2012 to reject Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, striking a major blow to the hopes of supporters who envisioned a landmark agreement that would set a new standard for intellectual property rights enforcement. â€¨

The resulting copyright provisions appear benign, as the government is claiming that CETA is consistent with current Canadian law:

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October 18, 2013 2 comments News

Canada – EU Trade Agreement Reached “In Principle”, Part One: Now Release the Text

Canada and the European Union this morning formally announced that it they have reached an agreement in principle on the Canada – EU Trade Agreement (CETA) (additional posts on the IP provisions, telecom and e-commerce provisions, and the big win for pharmaceutical companies despite declining Canadian investment in research and […]

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October 18, 2013 Comments are Disabled News

Canadian Government Unveils Its Celebrations-First Agenda

The government’s Speech from the Throne was billed in advance as a “consumers-first” agenda with Industry Minister James Moore talking up initiatives such as tackling wireless roaming fees and the unbundling of cable television packages over the weekend. Yet it turns out the consumers-first agenda is pretty thin: the roaming fee issue may be limited to domestic roaming (an issue that is invisible to many wireless customers), the unbundling will be useful for some though not all television subscribers, and promising enhanced broadband in rural communities is a far cry from committing to universal broadband access for all Canadians by 2015 (other issues such as the anti-digital economy measure of banning extra fees for paper bills is hardly worth mentioning and an airline passenger bill of rights wasn’t mentioned).

Perhaps the real intended focus is a celebration-first agenda as the speech emphasizes that “Canada’s Confederation is worth celebrating.” The government therefore commits to marking the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, to celebrating the 200th birthdays of Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Sir John A. Macdonald, the centennial of the first world war, and the 75th anniversary of the second world war.

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October 17, 2013 5 comments News

Decoding the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Free Speech Implications

Earlier this week, I joined Jesse Brown for an online discussion on the Trans Pacific Partnership. The event, which was hosted by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, focused on the free speech implications from the deal, particularly in light of the copyright and privacy provisions. Moreover, we spent some time […]

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September 13, 2013 1 comment News

Does it Matter Where Your Data Lives?

Does it matter where your computer data such as email, digital photos, personal videos, and documents resides? The Canadian Chamber of Commerce apparently doesn’t think so. It recently joined forces with its U.S. counterpart to argue for new rules in the Trans Pacific Partnership – a proposed new trade agreement that includes Canada, the U.S., Japan, Australia and many other Asian and South American countries – that would create barriers to privacy protections designed to require that personal data be stored locally.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that for many years, the issue was largely irrelevant to most computer users since their data was typically kept on computer hard drives within their own homes or offices. While there was always a security risk associated with malware or hackers, using reasonable security precautions provided some protection and there was little risk of warrantless access to the data.

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August 21, 2013 13 comments Columns