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

Copyright

Copyright and Canada’s Trade Agreements: Point of Disagreement Between the Parties?

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Conservatives will announce their commitment to completing new trade agreements with the European Union and India at an event this morning in Halifax. The focus on the EU deal – CETA – is noteworthy because there may be a divide between the […]

March 31, 2011 — 4 comments — News

Another Copyright Bill Hits the Scrap Heap: Taking Stock of Canadian Digital Law and Policy Reform

Later today, it appears certain that the government will lose a non-confidence motion, spelling the end to the current Parliament and sending Canada into yet another election. There have been some legislative and policy successes since 2008 including the Anti-Spam law (C-28), a law involving ISPs and child pornography (C-22), and the recent launch of open government and open data initiatives. In addition, the government re-appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart for another three year term, supported the entry of Globalive into the Canadian wireless market, and pressured the CRTC to revisit its policy on usage based billing.

Notwithstanding these developments, the focus will undoubtedly shine on the bills and policies that were started but not completed. These include:

the digital economy strategy
a policy on foreign investment in telecommunications
a policy on foreign ownership in book publishing and distribution
a policy on the forthcoming wireless spectrum auction
Bill C-29, a bill to reform PIPEDA
Bill C-32, the copyright reform bill
Bills C-50, 51, 52, the lawful access bills
Bill C-393, the private members bill to facilitate access to generic medicines in Africa

The future for each of these initiatives varies.

March 25, 2011 — 19 comments — News

Supreme Court Grants Leave To Copyright, Broadcasting Cases

The Supreme Court of Canada yesterday granted leave to appeal in two notable cases – an appeal of the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision that ISPs are not broadcasters under the Broadcasting Act (I wrote about that decision here) and the never ending saga of Tariff 22, which involves tariffs […]

March 25, 2011 — 4 comments — News

Five Straight Years: Canadian Digital Music Sales Growth Against Beats the U.S.

Nielsen Soundscan releases annual music sales figures for the United States in the first week of the new year and for Canada one month later. This year Nielsen released the U.S. figures, but nearly three months later, there has still not been a public release of the Canadian figures. However, a Globe and Mail story over the weekend included the data, which confirms that the Canadian digital market grew faster than the U.S. market in 2010. Last year, digital music sales grew by 19.8% in Canada, while the U.S. market was basically flat, with just 1% growth. As the chart below demonstrates, this marks five straight years in which the Canadian digital market has grown faster than the U.S.:

Year	Canada	United States
2010	20%	1%
2009	38%	8%
2008	58%	27%
2007	73%	45%
2006	122%	65%

March 24, 2011 — 14 comments — News

Rogers Provides New Evidence on Effectiveness of Notice-and-Notice System

Bill C-32 looks to be headed for the dustbin if Canada heads into an election this week, but the C-32 committee is still ongoing until someone pulls the plug on the current Parlimentary session. Rogers, Telus, and Bell appeared yesterday and the discussion unsurprisingly focused on the notice-and-notice approach currently used by ISPs and codified within the bill. The notice and notice system involves a notification from a copyright holder – often involving movies, software or music – claiming that a subscriber has made available or downloaded content without authorization on file sharing systems. The ISP forwards the notification to the subscriber but takes no other action – it does not pass along the subscriber’s personal information, remove the content from its system, or cancel the subscriber’s service.

While some rights holders (who the committee learned played a role in establishing notice-and-notice in the first place) have claimed the system is ineffective, Rogers came prepared with evidence about how the system functions and on its effectiveness. It reports that it processed 207,000 notices in 2010, sending those notices to about five percent of its customer base. In other words, 95% of its subscribers are not identified by rights holders as copyright infringers – far from the piracy haven that it often claimed. Of the households that receive notices, only 1/3 receive a second notice. Of those that receive a second notice, only 1/3 of those receive a third notice.

March 23, 2011 — 27 comments — News