Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP

Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP

Copyright

TPP rally. Ottawa, Canada, June 10 2014 by SumofUs (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/o8zuy7

The Price of Admission to the TPP Talks Revealed: U.S. Demanded Canada Pass Anti-Counterfeiting Legislation

In the years leading up to Canada’s entry into the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, there was considerable speculation about demands imposed by the U.S. For example, I wrote in 2012 about two reported demands: that Canada was stuck with any chapters concluded before entry and that it would not have any veto authority. This meant that if all other countries agreed on a particular provision, Canada would be required to accept it.

Yesterday, Industry Minister James Moore provided the first official confirmation of at least one other condition of admission to the talks: anti-counterfeiting legislation. Bill C-8, the anti-counterfeiting bill that focuses on providing new border measures provisions such as enhanced search and seizure powers for customs agents without court oversight, is really a bill about satisfying U.S. demands for TPP entry. According to Moore:

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November 28, 2014 — 3 comments — News
Londres - Omnibus by Aurélie (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dH9VMQ

About That Copyright Exception for Political Advertising. . .Never Mind

Earlier this month, a political storm hit in Canada when it was revealed that the government was considering including a new copyright exception for political advertising in its forthcoming omnibus budget bill. The reports sparked claims of fascism, censorship, expropriation, and more, yet as I argued, the commentary bore almost no relationship to reality. There were legitimate concerns about an exception made solely available to politicians and political parties as well as doubts about the need for such an exception given the breadth of the current fair dealing exception that already permits most uses of video clips.

Yesterday, the government tabled its omnibus budget bill, which contains changes to the Patent Act (to bring Canada into compliance with the Patent Law Treaty), effectively ban paper billing charges for telecom and broadcast services, and grant new enforcement powers to the CRTC. As for the copyright reform provision, perhaps the public outcry had an impact. It is nowhere to be found.

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October 24, 2014 — Comments are Disabled — News
TPP opposition chart By Julian Assange and Sarah Harrison https://wikileaks.org/tpp-ip2/attack-on-affordable-cancer-treatments.html

New TPP Leak: Canada Emerges as Leading Opponent of U.S. Intellectual Property Demands

This morning Wikileaks released an updated leaked version of the draft Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property chapter. The latest leak dates from May 2014 (the previous leak was current to August 2013. I assessed it in posts here, here, here, here and here). The 77-page document provides a detailed look at the proposed chapter, complete with country positions on each issue. While a comprehensive assessment of the chapter will take some time, the immediate takeaway is that the U.S. remains fairly isolated in its efforts to overhaul patent and copyright law around the world with Canada emerging as the leading opponent of its demands.

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October 16, 2014 — 25 comments — News
CBC News advertising board, CBC Broadcast Centre, Toronto, Southern Ontario, Canada by Pranav Bhatt (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/9HBz23

Broadcaster Copyright Misuse and Collusion?: Why Criticism Over the Government’s Political Ad Copyright Exception May Be Pointed in the Wrong Direction

The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend featured escalating rhetoric over the government’s proposed copyright exception for political advertising with claims of fascism, censorship, expropriation, and more. The commentary bears almost no relationship to reality. The truth is that the government and the broadcasters both agree that the current law already permits use without authorization. For all the claims of “theft”, the copyright owner (broadcasters) and user (political parties) both agree that the works can be used without further permission or payment. As Ariel Katz points out this morning, the bigger issue may well be whether Canada’s broadcasters violated the Competition Act by conspiring to not air perfectly lawful political advertisements.

I wrote about the controversy in my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version), but the debate can be boiled down to three issues.

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October 14, 2014 — 22 comments — Columns
New Copyright Exception for Political Advertising, Presentation by Minister of Canadian Heritage

The Government’s Political Advertising Copyright Exception: Fine Print Shows Proposal Privileges Politicians’ Speech Rights Over the Public

Last night I posted on reports that the Canadian government is considering a new copyright exception for political advertising.  While many have been harshly critical of the plans, I’ve noted that political speech is critically important and that copyright law should not be used to stifle it.  My post argues that the law may already cover some of the uses and that if changes are needed, a better approach would be to adopt a fair use provision in Canada.

I have now obtained a copy of the document that was presented by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. The document is obviously consistent with the media reports, but provides significantly more detail and raises several additional questions and concerns.

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October 9, 2014 — 10 comments — News
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