The Japanese media is reporting that the next round of ACTA negotations in Tokyo will be a Vice-Ministerial level meeting, providing further confirmation that countries expect to conclude the agreement at the late September meeting.
Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP
Copyright
“Legislative Guidance” on Fair Dealing: The Plan to Reverse CCH?
In the discussion that has followed, I believe that it has become increasingly clear that the “legislative guidance” is not really about the fair dealing reforms found in C-32, but rather fair dealing more generally. Unfortunately, the writers’ letter only speaks of their concerns and does not provide any specific policy or legislative reform recommendations that would clarify their intentions. However, with the government having opened up the fair dealing provision, those groups may see an opportunity to reverse the Supreme Court of Canada’s CCH decision that characterized fair dealing as a user right and established guidelines for its interpretation.
Why do I arrive at this conclusion?
Has the U.S. Caved on Secondary Liability in ACTA?
Following the ninth round of ACTA negotiations in Lucerne, Switzerland in July, it became apparent (after the updated ACTA leaked) that the U.S. had caved on some of its demands to include DMCA-like anti-circumvention language in ACTA. The ACTA provisions still go further than the WIPO Internet treaties by mandating […]
Estimating the Economic Impact of Google Book Search
A new article forthcoming in the prestigious Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA attempts to estimate the economic impact of Google Book Search on the publishing industry. The study finds no evidence of negative impact and some evidence of a positive impact.
Writers Groups Attack Fair Dealing Reform in Copyright Bill
From our perspective the biggest weakness in the bill is the addition of the word ‘education’ to the purposes of “fair dealing†without clear legislative guidance on how this amended provision of the Copyright Act will work in conjunction with other, more specific exceptions for education. We think that this new fair dealing provision will result in serious damage to the cultural sector and to Canada’s embryonic knowledge economy and, together with other new exceptions, negatively affect Canada’s professional writers.
The letter adds “we see that without further clarification of some provisions there will be unintended consequences and years of costly litigation.”
It is important to emphasize again that this is fear mongering that is simply inaccurate.
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