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

Copyright

Bogus Claims: Google Submission Points to Massive Fraud in Search Index Takedown Notices

The U.S. DMCA notice-and-takedown system has generated heated debate for many years with supporters arguing that the safe harbour is essential, while rights holder critics countering that the growing number of takedown notices sent to Google illustrates mounting piracy concerns. In recent months, there have been several reports that raise questions about the reliability of takedown notices. A study released last year by the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University found that approximately 30% of notices were questionable, while TorrentFreak report this week identified tens of millions of fake DMCA takedown notices sent to Google on a website with virtually no traffic. An earlier report also raised questions about dubious takedown practices.

Yet those reports pale in comparison to data just released by Google in its submission to the Register of Copyrights as part of the review of the DMCA notice-and-takedown system. Google reports that the overwhelming majority of takedown notices sent to Google Search through its Trusted Copyright Removal Program do not involve pages that are actually in its search index. The submission states:

February 22, 2017 — 17 comments — News

Final Result by Graham Ballantyne (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ixNpk

The Shattered Mirror, Part Two: The Underwhelming Recommendation for Open Licensing at the CBC

My review of the The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age, the Public Policy Forum’s report on the future of media continues with a comment on long-overdue recommendation that unfortunately falls short of the mark (my first post on copyright reform recommendation is here). The report tackles the future of the CBC with three recommendations: increasing the emphasis of the CBC’s mandate on news, moving to an ad-free approach online, and adopting a Creative Commons licence for news content to help broaden distribution.

The recommendation of increased emphasis on news is a good one as is the call for an ad-free CBC online. I wrote in support of the CBC becoming an ad-free digital news competitor last year and while Ken Whyte offered up arguments against it (noting that the Canadian market needs more ad choices, not less), the online advertising competition has been a longstanding source of frustration for online media competitors who resent public support for CBC’s online presence.

The recommendation that I would like to like is the adoption of a Creative Commons licence for CBC news content. I have similarly argued for open licensing of CBC content for many years as part of its role as a public broadcaster. In 2014, I noted:

February 2, 2017 — 4 comments — News

copies by russell davies https://flic.kr/p/4zSZQ4 (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Fairness Confirmed Again: Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Copyright Board’s Fair Dealing Ruling

The Federal Court of Appeal has issued its ruling in the judicial review of the Copyright Board’s ruling involving copying in Canadian K-12 schools. The decision is the latest in a growing number of decisions that have all adopted the same, flexible approach to fair dealing. Access Copyright has spent years (and millions of dollars) losing challenges on what was readily apparent from the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2012 copyright pentalogy: the value of the Access Copyright licence is very limited in light of authorized copying and fair dealing.

The Copyright Board of Canada decision on the application of fair dealing to educational copying, granted a tariff of $2.46 per student for 2010-2012 and $2.41 for 2013-2015. That rate is not only far lower than Access Copyright had demanded, but is nearly half of what was previously certified for the period from 2005-2009 (which was set at $4.81). The Board minced no words in explaining the reduction:

February 1, 2017 — 6 comments — News

Only in Canada. by David Sifry (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/9WTo5

The Shattered Mirror, Part One: Fair Dealing Reform Isn’t the Answer for News in the Digital Age

The Public Policy Forum released its much anticipated report on the future of Canadian media yesterday. The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age garnered considerable attention and may influence policy discussions over what – if anything – to do about the struggling media industry. I tweeted some initial responses to the report and plan several posts to examine some of the recommendations more closely.

This post starts with one of the worst (if unsurprising) recommendations: copyright reform. For the better part of two decades, business sectors facing digital challenges invariably think that copyright law offers a solution. It rarely does and definitely does not in the case. In fact, the proposed copyright reform to fair dealing would cause considerable harm to freedom of expression and the practice of news reporting with little likelihood of economic benefit.

January 27, 2017 — 8 comments — News

Protesting against C-61 and lining up for breakfast by Kempton (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/52hHGm

Canadian Copyright Reform Requires Fix to the Fair Dealing Gap

In the decade of lobbying leading up to the reform of Canadian copyright law in 2012, copyright lobby groups had one core message: Canada needed to implement and ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties. While many education, consumer, and business groups expressed concern that the digital lock rules in the treaties would harm innovation, the industry was insistent that the treaties represented an essential component of digital copyright reform.

My op-ed for the Hill Times notes that the lobbying campaign was successful as Canada proceeded to implement and ratify the treaties. The legislation is still relatively new, but in a stunning reversal, one of the leading lobby groups now says that the drafters of the WIPO Internet Treaties were just guessing and suggests that they guessed wrong.

December 9, 2016 — 5 comments — Columns