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

Canada Leads U.S. in International Property Rights Index

Barry Sookman tweeted yesterday about a new study analyzing data on 125 countries to establish a property rights index.  The Index focuses on three areas: Legal and Political Environment, Physical Property Rights, and Intellectual Property Rights, and is being to used to promote the importance of intellectual property.  Looking at the data, Canada's overall ranking is ahead of the U.S. (Canada is 12th, the U.S. is 15th).

The specific intellectual property rankings are also notable as they highlight the absurdity of the IIPA's ongoing campaign characterizing Canada as weak on IP.  Canada's ranks 13th in the survey for intellectual property rights, tied with countries such as France, the UK, and New Zealand (Canada is 17th in copyright protection).  The ranking is all the more remarkable since one of the primary data sources for the ranking is the IIPA itself.  In other words, even after using IIPA data, Canada ranks alongside many other countries that are typically applauded by the IIPA for their IP policies.

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February 24, 2010 21 comments News

MEPs Opposition to ACTA Grows

Four Members of the European Parliament are spearheading an effort to combat the secrecy associated with ACTA. Alexander Alvaro (ALDE), Zuzana Roithova (EPP) and Stavros Lambrinidis (S&D) have tabled a question to Commission and Council requesting full access to documents and asking if the treaty, as some suspect, will extend […]

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February 24, 2010 1 comment News

EuroISPA Warns on ACTA, Again

EuroISPA, the world's largest ISP association, has issued another warning about ACTA, expressing concern that the latest leaked drafts "indicate that the measures under discussion would threaten fundamental rights, damage the European internet sector and put the openness of the Internet at risk."

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February 24, 2010 1 comment News

Search Engine on Canada vs. U.S. on Copyright

TVO's Search Engine devotes its latest episode to a great discussion with Howard Knopf on the many areas where Canadian copyright law is stronger than the U.S.

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February 24, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Technology Giants Defend Canadian Copyright Law

Each April, the United States issues the Special 301 Report, which examines the intellectual property laws of its main trading partners.  For the past 15 years, Canada has been included on the watch list of countries the U.S. believes need reform. As the U.S. prepares its 2010 edition, for the first time it invited the public to provide their comments on the process and the link between intellectual property and trade policy.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that among the hundreds of submissions, one from the Computer and Communications Industry Association stands out as critically important to Canada.

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February 23, 2010 7 comments Columns