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

Wikileaks on New Zealand Copyright: US Funds IP Enforcement, Offers to Draft Legislation

This week I published multiple posts Wikileaks cables revelations on the U.S. lobbying pressure on Canadian copyright including attempts to embarrass Canada, joint efforts with lobby groups such as CRIA, and secret information disclosures from PCO to U.S. embassy personnel (posts here, here, here, here, here, and here). Wikileaks has also just posted hundreds of cables from U.S. personnel in New Zealand that reveal much the same story including regular government lobbying, offers to draft New Zealand three-strikes and you’re out legislation, and a recommendation to spend over NZ$500,000 to fund a recording industry-backed IP enforcement initiative. Interestingly, the cables regularly recommend against including New Zealand on the Special 301 list, despite the similarities to Canadian copyright law that always garner vocal criticism.

Read more ›

April 30, 2011 — 21 comments — News

A Wikileaks Cable to Call My Own

Among the Wikileaks cables released on Canada, is one devoted to summarizing a meeting I had with embassy officials in April 2007. At the meeting I noted the shift away from DRM, doubts about camcording claims, and calls for fair use.

Read more ›

April 29, 2011 — 9 comments — News

Wikileaks Cable: CMPDA Supports Notice-and-Notice System

A Wikileaks cable from 2005 reveals that the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association, the Canadian arm of the MPAA, told the U.S. embassy that it supports the notice-and-notice approach for ISP liability.  The cable states that “in CMPDA’s view, the advent of peer-to-peer filesharing has lessened the need for notice-and-takedown, […]

Read more ›

April 29, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News

Wikileaks Cables Show Massive U.S. Effort to Establish Canadian DMCA

Wikileaks has released dozens of new U.S. cables that demonstrate years of behind the scenes lobbying by U.S. government officials to pressure Canada into implementing a Canadian DMCA. The cables include confirmation that Prime Minister Harper personally promised U.S. President George Bush at the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec in 2008 that Canada would pass copyright legislation, U.S. government lines on copyright reform that include explicit support for DMCA-style digital lock rules, and the repeated use of the Special 301 process to “embarrass” Canada into action. In fact, cables even reveal Canadian officials encouraging the U.S. to maintain the pressure and disclosing confidential information.

This post highlights some of the key cables. An earlier post discussed confirmation that public pressure delayed the introduction of a copyright bill in 2008 and a parallel post focuses on the linkages between CRIA and the U.S. government lobbying effort.

Read more ›

April 29, 2011 — 32 comments — News

Wikileaks on CRIA and the U.S. Government: How They Combine to Lobby on Canadian Copyright

One of the most interesting revelations in the newly released Wikileaks cables is the close connection between the U.S. government and the Canadian Recording Industry Association on in lobbying the Canadian government on copyright reform.  Several cables reveal private meetings, access to internal documents, and strategy discussions. 

For example, a 2006 cable discusses efforts to convince Canada to join the U.S. WTO complaint against China (I wrote about the case here and here). The cable notes that embassy officials met with CRIA’s Graham Henderson to discuss “the U.S. Government’s role in encouraging the Government of Canada to pass legislation implementing the WIPO Internet Treaties.” Henderson also used the meeting to reveal the results of a private Canadian government consultation meeting on China and provided a private CRIA analysis on the case. The cable concludes that “CRIA is leading the charge to get the GOC to join the US case.”

Read more ›

April 29, 2011 — 1 comment — News
1 … 211 212 213 214 215 … 724