UBC This Week « UBC Public Affairs

UBC This Week « UBC Public Affairs

"interesting idea -- will it be sustainable?"  HSM

UBC Library gives inaugural award for communicating research The UBC Library will be inaugurating the UBC Library Innovative Dissemination of Research Award, which will honour students, faculty and staff whose creative use of new tools and technologies are expanding the boundaries of research and enhancing the impact of research findings. Faculty, staff and students are eligible to apply to win the certificate of recognition and a $2,000 cash prize. The first winner will be selected by the University Librarian and members of the Librarys Scholarly Communications Committee, and announced during Celebrate Research Week in early March. Deadline for applications is Feb. 1, 2010. For information on submission criteria and procedures, visit http://scholcomm.ubc.ca/award or contact Joy Kirchner at 604-827-3644 or joy.kirchner@ubc.ca.

UBC This Week « UBC Public Affairs

Conference Board report on copyright draws criticism

Conference Board report on copyright draws criticism 

Conference Board report on copyright draws criticism

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | 12:48 PM ET Comments58Recommend65

CBC News

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist has attacked the form and content of a Conference Board of Canada report advocating tighter copyright rules.

Copyright is a contentious issue in the digital universe, and the Conservative government has had a hard time finding a way to update Canada's law without drawing stiff opposition from digital advocates, including Geist.

The last version of the bill, which could have imposed serious penalties for illegal downloading, died when the government dissolved Parliament before the Oct. 14, 2008, election. During the campaign, the Conservatives said they would reintroduce copyright reform.

The Conference Board report, published last week, came out ahead of a board conference on copyright set for Friday.

Land of illegal downloading

The board promoted the report with a news release saying "Canada's failure to strengthen intellectual property rights in the face of digital technology has given it an unwelcome reputation as the file-swapping capital of the world."

Because of "lax regulation and enforcement," internet piracy is rising in Canada, the board said. "The estimated number of illicit downloads (1.3 billion) is 65 times higher than the number legal downloads (20 million), mirroring the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's conclusion that Canada has the highest per capita incidence of unauthorized file-swapping in the world," the board said.

But in a posting on his blog Monday, Geist — a professor who writes frequently about internet copyright issues — said the downloads claim is based on extrapolated data from a 2006 survey, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study "did not reach" the conclusion the board said it did.

Moreover, Geist said the board based its information on material previously published by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, "the primary movie, music, and software lobby in the U.S."

He said the board report was funded by pro-copyright groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network and Copyright Collective of Canada.

He also said the board had copied parts of its report from a property alliance report.

The board responded with a posting on its website Tuesday, saying it "stands behind its findings" and acknowledging a failure to attribute material in one instance. "We have corrected the missing citation in the report and we apologize for the oversight," the board said.

The report was a piece of contract research, and the board "does not disclose the terms of its contracts without permission of the client."

It also acknowledged "that some of the cited paragraphs closely approximate the wording of a source document."

The report's recommendations closely mirrored those advocated by the property alliance.

Both suggested:

• Protecting measures aimed at preventing unauthorized copying.
• Outlawing devices that enable such copying.
• Providing strong civil and criminal penalties for violations.
• Carefully defining exceptions to the rules.

Tougher rules and more enforcement are needed "to protect new knowledge and shore up Canada's poor innovation record," the board said.

Its report "reviewed the full spectrum of arguments surrounding the issue of intellectual property rights in Canada. The final report includes those arguments considered most relevant to the policy under review."

Conference Board report on copyright draws criticism

Independent study fuels debate on copyright report

Independent study fuels debate on copyright report 

Independent study fuels debate on copyright report

By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa CitizenMay 26, 2009Comments (5)

OTTAWA — An independent study, first commissioned and then ignored by the Conference Board of Canada, is fuelling further debate over the research organization's most recent report on copyright in Canada.

University of Ottawa law professor, Jeremy de Beer, was commissioned by the Conference Board last spring to conduct independent research on copyright legislation.

De Beer delivered a working paper to the board in the fall. The working paper was reviewed by researchers at the board while they were compiling data to complete their copyright report.

De Beer's findings ran counter to many of the board's conclusions and was not mentioned in the board's final report called Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy, which was released Friday.

In a statement Tuesday, the Conference Board said:

"In the course of the research, the authors reviewed the full spectrum of arguments surrounding the issue of intellectual property rights in Canada, including Prof. de Beer's study. The final report includes those arguments considered most relevant to the policy under review."

The Conference Board report calls Canada "the file-swapping capital of the world" and calls for strict new copyright legislation as well as new power for border guards to deal with counterfeit and pirated goods.

The report is largely based on the findings of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) 2008 Special 301 Report.

De Beer's research debunks the 301 Report by stating, "such sources have been exposed as lacking creditability," in the working paper provided to the board called Copyright and Innovation in the Networked Information Economy.

"For example, a Canadian Government official has debunked the 'Special 301 Reports' . . . as driven entirely by U.S. Industry and lacking reliable and objective analysis," the report adds.

De Beer called the omission of his research in the board's final report "strange."

"I would have thought that they would have more carefully weighed the various perspectives that they solicited," said de Beer. "I'm not interested in picking a fight with them. If they want to commission research from me and then ignore it, that's their prerogative."

On Monday, University of Ottawa professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law Michael Geist accused the board of plagiarism and questioned the sponsors behind the Conference Board's report.

The board has admitted the copyright report was produced as "contract research," adding: "The Conference Board regularly produces custom research. Our guidelines for financed research require the design and method of research, as well as the content of the report, to be determined solely by the Conference Board."

According to the Conference Board, the report was funded by the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, the Canadian Intellectual Property Council, the Copyright Collective of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation as well as other lobby groups who are pushing for stronger Canadian copyright legislation.

The board would not detail financial commitments from the report's backers, citing client confidentiality, but it did say that the financial backers have no say over the report's editorial content.

The board's reassurance was of little comfort to Geist, who said the revelation that the organization ignored independent research "raises even further troubling questions about the objectivity of the survey."

He is calling for the research organization to recall the report.

"The right thing to do is to say, 'this report does not meet the standards of the Conference Board of Canada," he said. "The right thing to do is to pull it. They seem to be operating on completely the opposite tack."

Geist believes the controversy surrounding the board's report has damaged its reputation. The board describes itself as "the foremost, independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada. Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests."

"It calls into question a lot of their research and significantly damages their claims that they are somehow independent," he said.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Independent study fuels debate on copyright report

Zeropaid.com -- Is Putting Canada on a Priority Watchlist Going to Backfire?

 Is Putting Canada on a Priority Watchlist Going to Backfire?

Is Putting Canada on a Priority Watchlist Going to Backfire?

"Wanted to include as an endorsement of Zeropaid.com as the article only repeats what most people think -- the listing only (regrettably) foreshadows the Obama's undemocratic stance on the issue and the power of lobbyists not on Canada -- HSM"

A few days ago, we highlighted the USTR Special 301 report and briefly mentioned how Canada was put on a priority watchlist. Now, it’s starting to look like putting the country on the priority watchlist could backfire.

If there’s any indication on what the intention is putting Canada on a priority watchlist, one doesn’t have to look much further than a copyright industry press release mentioning the news. In short, the idea is to shame Canada into importing draconian copyright laws to have their name cleared. Unfortunately for the copyright industry, as brilliantly highlighted by one columnist, it seems to be having the opposite effect.

“The latest Obama administration move against Canada is to designate us among the world’s worst offenders in failing to crack down on those ripping off movie and music artists through wide-open illegal copying.” Writes Don Martin.

“That’s ridiculous. Anyone who has trolled the markets of other blacklist members such as Indonesia,” Martin adds, “Pakistan or China knows full well their very public piracy epidemic is simply not matched in Canada, the only Western country on the U.S. list.”

He also says that the current US administration is becoming a big threat to Canada - particularly with the latest move of putting Canada on a priority watchlist. Though, it should be noted that the copyright industry have huge lobbying power in things such as who gets put on a watchlist for copyright infringement.

“I have the sense” Michael Geist commented, “that the decision to include Canada in a group with China, Russia, etc. may ultimately backfire as it undermines whatever credibility the report might have had.”

Is Putting Canada on a Priority Watchlist Going to Backfire?

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » New Presentation: Open Access in Canada - Overview and Update

 ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » New Presentation: Open Access in Canada - Overview and Update

New Presentation: Open Access in Canada - Overview and Update

Direct to PDF Files

From the Abstract:

An overview of open access around the world, and in Canada in particular. There are more than 100 fully open access, peer reviewed journals published in Canada, and more than 2 have been added to DOAJ each month so far in 2009. Presents examples of the journals. Research funding agency open access policies are discussed, and university perspectives on OA. Early announcement of a new OA policy by and for University of Calgary library faculty is featured. The unique perspective of the health sector on OA is discussed.

A presentation by Heather Morrison, Donald Taylor, Andrew Waller, and Devon Greyson. It was delivered at the British Columbia Library Conference in April, 2009.

Source: E-LIS

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » New Presentation: Open Access in Canada - Overview and Update

globeandmail.com: Canada placed on copyright blacklist

globeandmail.com: Canada placed on copyright blacklist 

Canada placed on copyright blacklist

PAUL KORING

Globe and Mail Update

April 30, 2009 at 3:56 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration added Canada Thursday to a notorious blacklist of countries where Internet piracy flourishes, reflecting a new, tougher line in Washington over the Harper government's chronic failure to deliver on promises of new copyright laws.

“Canada has never been put on the priority watch list before,” said Stanford McCoy, assistant U.S. trade representative for intellectual property and innovation as he released Washington's annual report or offenders.

Canada now joins a group of countries designated as being especially lax in protecting intellectual property, including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela. No other advanced Western democracy is on the list and Canada is regarded as a lawless hub for bootleg movies, ripped-off software and pirated chips that bypass copyright protections.

“The decision was not an easy one but we believed that high standards are appropriate in Canada,” Mr. McCoy said. It was clear that Washington's patience with Ottawa's repeatedly broken promises has run out, perhaps also a reflection of the greater status and power of the digital and entertainment sectors in the era of the net-savvy Obama administration.

 

'This administration will protect American innovations and creativity by negotiating and enforcing strong and effective intellectual property protections,' U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said this week.

“We would like to see them follow through on that commitment,” Mr. McCoy said, referring to a succession of unfulfilled Throne speech promises that new copyright law would be forthcoming.

‘The United States continues to have serious concerns with Canada's failure to accede to and implement the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Internet treaties which Canada signed in 1997,” the report said.

For years, the powerful International Intellectual Property Alliance – a group that includes companies such as Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corp. – pressed the previous Bush administration to get tough with what it regarded as Canada's chronic failure to enforce intellectual property laws. But the Bush administration was content to leave Canada among the larger and less-serious group of offenders on the ordinary watch list.

The alliance cheered Canada's blacklisting Thursday. “We commend [the U.S. Trade Representative] for the decision to elevate Canada to the priority watch list,” it said. “Canada remains woefully behind the rest of the developed world (and many countries in the developing world as well) in adopting critical legislation that will facilitate the development of a healthy online marketplace for copyright materials,” said Eric Smith, an alliance spokesman.

“More than a decade has passed since the global community agreed to two international treaties providing minimum standards for protecting copyright in the digital age, but Canada has yet to join these treaties or to implement their obligations in domestic law.”

This week, Trade Minister Stockwell Day warned that the blacklist was coming.

Whether U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk gave Mr. Day a last chance to stay off the list remains unclear.

“They talked about the situation but I can't say that there were any particular commitments,” Mr. McCoy said Thursday.

President Barack Obama has signalled he intends to take a much harder stance with offenders who are lax about Internet piracy and fail to protect copyright.

“In the President's trade policy agenda, we noted that this administration will protect American innovations and creativity by negotiating and enforcing strong and effective intellectual property protections,” Mr. Kirk said this week.

Washington also wants Canada to put an end to the flow of pirated and counterfeit movies and DVDs that cross its porous borders. In particular, Washington wants Canadian customs officers to be given the authority to seize pirated materials rather than have to seek a court order each time they suspect a shipment. The flow of pirated and counterfeit material not only enters Canada from abroad but much of it winds up crossing into the United States.

“Canada's weak border measures continue to be a serious concern for intellectual property owners,” said the annual report issued Thursday by the U.S. Trade Representative.

Canada was singled out and is “being elevated to the priority watch list for the first time, reflecting increasing concern about the continuing need for copyright reform as well as continuing concern about weak border enforcement,” the report said.

Mr. Kirk said “even our closest allies and neighbours such as Canada” must understand that failure to protect intellectual property poses a threat to “one of America's great strengths in the global economy, our innovation and creativity.”

Thursday's blacklisting over Canada's lax copyright laws is only the latest shot in a swelling trans-border crossfire.

It was all quiet on the trade front when the year began, but the arrival of President Barrack Obama changed that. The new president's “Buy America” restrictions in his country's massive stimulus package sent shudders through Canadian manufacturers, the long-dormant softwood lumber dispute has been rekindled and then Ottawa announced it was hauling the United States off to the World Trade Organization in a nasty spat over new food labelling requirements that could throttle Canada's hog and cattle exports.

globeandmail.com: Canada placed on copyright blacklist

Recording industry slams Canada's 'out of date' laws

Recording industry slams Canada's 'out of date' laws 

Recording industry slams Canada's 'out of date' laws

By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa CitizenMarch 18, 2009

OTTAWA — Severely outdated copyright laws have opened the door for frivolous lawsuits in Canada, the Canadian Recording Industry Association says.

The association is responding to a recent petition in the British Columbia Supreme Court, in which a private company asked the court to decide whether search engines should be held accountable for the copy-protected content they find online.

The association, which represents the country's major record labels, was named in the petition, marking the first time a peer-to-peer file-sharing network has hauled a rights-holder into court.

"This is man bites dog," said Richard Pfohl, general counsel for the recording industry association.

"Our laws are so out of date and there is such uncertainty in our laws here in Canada that no one knows what the law is," he said. "Canada is the only jurisdiction in the world where the operator of the file-sharing service has sued the rights-holders."

The petition was filed by isoHunt Web Technologies Inc., a search engine for BitTorrent files, in September. The motion was struck down last Wednesday. The judge hearing the petition said such a ruling can only be made after a formal trial.

The ball is now in isoHunt's court and the company must decide whether to move forward with a full-blown court case against the recording industry association.

Its search engine, ranked among the top five most popular for BitTorrent, digs through more than 44 million music, movie and software files available online to help people find free content.

Last year, the association sent isoHunt legal notices informing the company that some content available through its search engine infringed on various copyrights.

The search engine filed its petition to obtain a legal opinion about whether it was breaking the law.

A lawyer representing isoHunt argued last week that the content available through the search engine can also be found through such other popular search engines as Google. He contended isoHunt is no different than Google and should be free from legal ramifications.

Association president Graham Henderson said the Google defence has been heard and dismissed in jurisdictions around the world. He is sure a court case with isoHunt would end in its favour.

However, Henderson believes if Canada's copyright laws reflected the current state of technology, isoHunt's legal arguments would have fallen on deaf ears.

"If Canada's laws were on par with those of Europe, the U.S., Japan and everywhere else I can think of, then (isoHunt) would have no doubt received advice from their lawyers that they would be insane to bring an action like this," said Henderson. "In the absence, in a vacuum, you have this kind of man-bites-dog story possible and, frankly, it starts to make us look like the laughingstock of the world."

Daniel J. Gervais, university research chairman in intellectual property and professor of law at the University of Ottawa, disagrees. While he believes that Canada needs copyright reform, he said stricter copyright laws would not guarantee fewer lawsuits.

"Canada hasn't done any of these changes to its copyright law and we are stuck with the old laws and the old principles. It doesn't mean it's inadequate, it means they are more vague and therefore it's to be expected that things might end up in court," said Gervais. "Even with more specific legislation you could have questions about what is the specific scope?"

The U.S. and its Digital Millennium Copyright Act is widely regarded as having some of the world's toughest copyright legislation.

The Canadian Copyright Act has not been amended since 1997, two years before Napster changed the way people obtain music and movies online. An attempt to update the act was made in 2005 but was abandoned. Another attempt was made in June last year, but the federal election in October stalled the amendments.

Charlie Angus, MP for the riding of Timmins-James Bay and NDP critic for copyright reform, argues it's not a lack of copyright reform that's making Canada a laughingstock, but rather the way new legislation has been treated as a hot potato by politicians.

"That's what makes this look embarrassing to the world. It looks pretty silly every time we come forward with copyright legislation that government panics and backs off. There needs to be political will to get the job done."

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Recording industry slams Canada's 'out of date' laws

New legislation to crack down on digital copyright infringement

 

New legislation to crack down on digital copyright infringement

New legislation to crack down on digital copyright infringement

Sarah Schmidt

Canwest News Service

Sunday, June 08, 2008

OTTAWA - The federal government's new copyright legislation is expected to take a hard line on the use of circumvention devices that could mean consumers are effectively locked out of digital content they have already purchased.

Lobbyists familiar with the bill, expected to be tabled this week, say those who want the prohibition of circumvention devices to get around digital security to be limited to people who crack locks on copyrighted material to make multiple copies and sell them for commercial profit will be disappointed.

And this broad approach could brand as lawbreakers consumers who use circumvention devices to copy legally purchased material, including music and movies, for personal use.

This includes any attempt to transfer music from a copy-protected CD to a computer or music player, crack a region-coded DVD or video game from Europe or Asia to play on their Canadian DVD player or console, or copy portions of electronic books.

While the new bill will likely be updated to make expressly legal the "time shifting" of television programs through widely used Personal Video Recorders, there will be a catch. The bill's anti-circumvention provisions could also mean that if broadcasters block the ability to digitally record certain shows through broadcast flags, consumers would not be able to get around that digital lock legally.

"There are real incentives for broadcasters to do just that," said Michael Geist, a digital copyright expert at the University of Ottawa. He cited a push by content owners to sell or stream their content online.

"It feels as if the Industry minister gives on one hand and takes away with the other, even on the issue of something like time shifting."

Industry Minister Jim Prentice was set to table the legislation last December, but pulled it at the last minute amid concerns the Canadian legislation too closely resembled the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, recognized as the toughest legislation worldwide. For example, the U.S. law makes all acts of circumvention an infringement unless subject to a specific exception.  

Meanwhile, sources say Internet service providers will get a reprieve in the new legislation, an area where Canada is expected to deviate from provisions under U.S law. The American legislation requires ISPs to block access to allegedly infringing material or remove it from their system when they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or their agent.

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada lobbied the government for liability provisions to force ISPs to stop the download of infringing content and block pirated material from moving freely online using peer-to-peer technology.

But observers say absence of a U.S.-style "notice and takedown" system under Canadian copyright law could be meaningless if Canada signs on to the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), to be tabled next month at the G8 summit in Japan.

Details of the international deal, recently leaked on the Internet, could require ISPs to filter out pirated material, hand over the identities of customers accused of copyright infringement, and restrict the use of online privacy tools.

"ACTA threatens to undermine many of the liability provisions anyway if, internationally, we agree to new surveillance requirements for ISPs," said Geist.

Mark Hayes, a partner in the Intellectual Property Group at the law firm of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, has watched and participated in government consultations on copyright for the past eight years.

Drafting of the new legislation has been complicated by the fact that business groups are divided on the issue. On one side is a recent push by some corporate heavyhitters, under the banner of the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright, to take a more measured approach to copyright than other business groups demanding tough amendments on behalf of copyright holders.

The coalition brings together the largest cable companies, broadcasters, retailers and Internet companies, including_Rogers Communications, Telus Inc., Google and Yahoo! Canada.

"This is one of the more difficult issues the government has had to deal with. It's not the traditional continuum where the government has the recording industry and motion picture industry on one end and some of the user groups at the other end," said Hayes.

All sides have hired politically connected lobbyists to make their case on Parliament Hill.

Barry Sookman, co-chair of the technology law group at the law firm McCarthy Tetrault and a lobbyist for the recording industry, said the polarized debate gives the mistaken impression that "if one side wins, the other side loses."

Paying artists and rewarding creators "that get something to market is somehow seen as bad for consumers. That's just wrong."

A POLLERA poll of 684 Canadian musicians and songwriters, released Friday, commissioned by Canadian music industry organizations in cooperation with the Ontario Media Development Corp., found 71 per cent of the musicians surveyed view unauthorized file sharing as threat to the music industry; 15 per cent said it was not a threat. The poll is considered accurate within 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

© Canwest News Service 2008

p2pnet news » Blog Archive » Canadian copyrights: five myths

"Seems to me that these myths aren't just limited to Canada....."  -- Stephen

Canadian copyrights: five myths

p2pnet news view | Politics:- Last week, James Rajotte, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, told a Public Policy Forum conference on intellectual property that Industry Minister Jim Prentice hopes to introduce the highly contentious copyright bill within the next few weeks.

The announcement, which comes just days after the United States raised copyright with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the SPP meeting in New Orleans, suggests that the concerns of business, education, and consumers may be cast aside in order to pacify U.S. pressure on the file.

Indeed, the decision to press ahead with copyright in a manner that Liberal Industry critic Scott Brison recently labeled as “anything but transparent” is particularly troubling given concerns that the bill may be based on five myths that are frequently raised with respect to Canadian copyright.

1. The Importance of Copyright. In recent months, there have been increasing attempts to link copyright reform with the government’s broader innovation agenda. While copyright and intellectual property policies are unquestionably important in this regard, an innovation strategy depends upon far more than just copyright reform. A vibrant venture capital community, competitive tax structure, highly skilled workforce, and world-class communication infrastructure all play a critical role in investment decisions and the commercialization of new innovation. In fact, the World Economic Forum recently pointed to excessive red tape in establishing a new business and the high costs of Internet and wireless access as the weakest part of Canada’s “network readiness.”

2. Consultation and Reform. Given the slow pace of copyright reform, it is natural for some to mistakenly believe that Canada has widely consulted on reform with little to show for it. In fact, the opposite is true. The last national consultation on digital copyright reform took place in 2001, a time that pre-dates the introduction of the now-ubiquitous Apple iPod and the emergence of popular sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr. Although critics decry Canada’s “outdated” copyright laws, the reality is that there has been a steady stream of reforms over the past two decades. The Copyright Act faced major overhauls in the late 1980s and 1990s, with smaller amendments in 1992. Moreover, Canada passed new copyright laws related to Internet retransmission in 2002 and anti-camcording legislation last year.

3. Canada in the World. A consistent theme in recent years has been the characterization of Canadian copyright law as “outdated, weak, or ineffective” in comparison to the rest of the world. Much of this criticism comes from the U.S., which has consistently placed Canada on its Special 301 list of countries with intellectual property laws that merit “watching.” Yet these inflammatory claims do not withstand even mild scrutiny. The U.S. Special 301 list includes nearly 50 countries representing 4.4 billion people (about 70 percent of the planet) and 13 of the top 20 countries worldwide as measured by GDP. Viewed in that light, Canada is in good company.

Moreover, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s intellectual property protection fourth in G8, ahead of both the U.S. and Japan. That ranking may reflect the fact that there are many areas where Canadian law is actually far stronger than the U.S., including our more limited fair dealing provision, the existence of crown copyright, the significantly higher copyright fees for broadcasters and educators, as well as Canada’s the heavy reliance on copyright collectives.

4. Copyright in the World. Among the most troubling claims associated with copyright are the assertions that Canada must follow the U.S. model in order to comply with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties. Nothing could be further from the truth. In recent months, New Zealand passed copyright legislation that includes far more flexibility that the U.S. model, while Israel - well known for an innovative technology sector - rejected the need for WIPO reforms altogether. Canada has the ability to craft a “made in Canada” solution that meets our needs but rejects reforms that have had negative effects on research, security, and consumer rights in other countries.

5. Copyright Consensus. Advocates of immediate reform argue that copyright is too contentious to achieve a broad consensus and that leadership is therefore needed to push ahead with legislation despite the opposition. However, a closer look at the publicly held positions of many key stakeholders reveals that there is an emerging copyright consensus in Canada. Artists groups (Canadian Music Creators Coalition, Appropriation Art), business groups (Balanced Copyright Business Coalition), education groups (Canadian Association of University Teachers, Canadian Federation of Students), and consumer groups have largely coalesced around principles that include a rejection of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, preservation of user rights, greater flexibility within fair dealing, and the targeting of clear cases of commercial counterfeiting. Such an approach benefits creators, users, and the business community and therefore holds the promise of a consensus-based roadmap for reform.

Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]

p2pnet news » Blog Archive » Canadian copyrights: five myths

CTV.ca | New levies proposed for iPods and memory cards

CTV.ca | New levies proposed for iPods and memory cards 

New levies proposed for iPods and memory cards

Updated Sat. Dec. 22 2007 8:52 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Consumers could potentially be hit by a new tax on electronic storage devices such as iPods and blank memory cards in 2008.

The federal Copyright Board has given its approval for a special levy on iPods and other digital players because they can be used to copy movies and music.

The Canadian Private Copying Collective, the non-profit agency that represents the music industry, wants to make sure that artists get compensated.

Small tariffs are currently in place for such items as rewritable CDs and cassettes. The CPCC first requested a levy on removable electronic memory in its 2003-2004 tariff proposal.

The Copyright Board initially concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a new tax; however, the CPCC noted the growing popularity of digital memory devices is cause for concern. A hearing in April will reexamine the proposed levies.

"Our surveys show the vast majority of copies that people put on their iPods come from sources other than legitimatly purchased copies," said David Basskin, the Director of the CPCC.

According to a CPCC media release, "During the period from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006, 25 per cent of all the content copied onto electronic memory cards, including cards of all formats and capacities, was music, and 14 per cent of respondents copied only music."

The proposed levies range in price including:

• 85 cents for rewritable CDs and MiniDisc
• $2 for 1 GB removable electronic memory cards
• $25 for a digital audio recorder between 1 and 10 GBs
• $75 for digital audio recorder of more than 30 GBs

Don Butcher, the Canadian Library Association's executive director, says the CLA is concerned over the proposed levies because they assume illegal behaviour on the part of consumers.

"It's almost de facto criminalizing all Canadians. We just don't think that's right. The whole issue of those tariffs on blank media makes an assumption we think is a faulty assumption," he said.

"We don't think Canadians are out there deliberately infringing on people's copy right. We think that in fact Canadians are law-abiding."

John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the measures may be counterproductive.

"Normally, you do the crime and then you do the time. In this case the government is going to hit us first so people will asume it's OK to download music without paying for it," Williamson said.

The surcharge won't come into effect immediately. Retailers are fighting the tax in court, saying the Copyright Board has no right to impose an extra fee on top of the price of iPods and other audio players.

Libraries concerned about new legislation

Meanwhile, the CLA says pending copyright legislation is unbalanced and does not reflect the concerns of some 21 million library users and registered librarians across Canada.

Butcher said that in recent weeks thousands of troubled Canadians have voiced their concerns over proposed legislative reforms to the Copyright Act.

"Whether it is through library blogs, Facebook groups, or at the library front desks, we are getting the message that Canadians want a fair and balanced copyright approach," he said.

"Just one simple Facebook group on copyright gained 30,000 members in a few short weeks with another Canadian joining the group every 30 seconds. There have been public rallies in Calgary and Toronto. The government needs to listen to average Canadians."

The new legislative reforms will likely meet the demands of the Canadian Recording Industry Association by making it illegal to download or share songs on the internet without paying a fee.

Amendments would also apply to the circumvention of technologies that protect against infringement and "persons who, for infringing purposes, enable or facilitate circumvention or who, without authorization, distribute copyright material."

The CLA says these amendments make the same mistakes as the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"American law makes no differentiation in penalty between a counterfeiter circumventing technical protection measures for illegal profit and an individual circumventing technical protection measures to make a single copy," a release from CLA said Friday.

The reforms to the Canadian Copyright Act were promised by the Harper government in the Speech to the Throne.

The new legislation was to be tabled earlier this month; however, the government failed to do so before Parliament took a break for the holidays.

The CLA's main point of contention hinges on user rights to access information as outlined in the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada judgment in CCH Canada Ltd. v. The Law Society of Upper Canada.

The law society was sued for providing a request-based photocopy service for its members. The high court ruled that single copies made by the library did not infringe on copyrights.

"Our challenge is with the Hollywood lobbyists and the recording industry who are trying to take rights away from ordinary Canadians," Butcher told CTV.ca on Friday.

The CLA would like to see the government address illegal behaviour rather than trying to catch up with ever-evolving digital technologies.

"It comes back to intent. When you buy a music CD, copy it six times and give it or sell it to your friends, well that's wrong. That's infringing," Butcher said.

"Downloading a music CD onto your hard drive isn't illegal, it's what you do afterwards that may or may not be illegal."

However, the CRIA says the music industry is being hit hard by the ongoing problem of what they call music piracy, the illegal peer-to-peer sharing of music files.

CRIA's figures show sales of music CDs, DVDs and other formats fell 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period a year earlier.

According to digital media measurer, Big Champagne, more than 1 billion songs are swapped for free every month on file-swapping networks.

Aside from music, Butcher advocates that digital information is essential for people with physical, learning or perceptual disabilities.

"People can take this digital information and they can copy it and manipulate it into alternate forms that people with disabilities can access. It opens up a whole world of information for those three million Canadians who can't access traditional print," he said.

With a report from CTV's Robert Fife

CTV.ca | New levies proposed for iPods and memory cards