The Author:
James Gannon is a lawyer at the firm McCarthy Tétrault. The views expressed here are his own.
Tag Archives: copyright reform
Bill C-11, “Digital Locks”, and Copyright Reform: What Kind of Business Models Do We Want to Encourage?
Posted by on February 1, 2012
Many arguments over the merits of various copyright reform policies often devolve into a debate over competing “business models”. Copyright reform opponents and abolitionists often argue that amendments to copyright law “preserve outdated business models“, while supporters of progressive reforms argue that they are in fact required to protect emerging models of digital product distribution. [...]
Why the “digital lock” rules in Bill C-11 will not have any impact on fair dealing in the education community
Posted by on December 12, 2011
Technological protection measures (or “TPMs”) are technologies that protect digital media and control how consumers can use digital products that they purchase. For instance, when you buy e-books from Kobo’s online book store, a TPM controls how that e-book can be copied. The TPM allows you to make copies of the e-book between devices that [...]
Canadian BitTorrent Sites Dominate Rogue Website Lists in SOPA Submissions
Posted by on November 17, 2011
Yesterday, hearings began in the United States House of Representatives on H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). Witnesses from the U.S. Library of Congress, Pfizer, the MPAA, MasterCard and the AFL-CIO all voiced support for the Act, which would give judges injunction-granting powers against ISPs to block rogue piracy websites similar to the [...]
5 Steps to Understanding Bill C-11 and “Digital Locks”
Posted by on November 2, 2011
Let’s clear up some of the confusion about copyright law and “digital locks”. If you’ve been reading the press lately on the federal government’s latest attempt to reform Canadian copyright law, then it’s likely you’ve read about the government’s proposed legal protection for “digital locks”. And if you’ve been wondering exactly what a “digital lock” [...]
Hadopi Issues 18 Month Report
Posted by on October 18, 2011
Hadopi, the French independent government authority in charge of administering France’s graduated response law (often referred to also as “Hadopi”) has issued an 18 month report outlining the progress of the organization’s mission of educating French Internet users and diverting them to legal sources of online digital content. Both a long and short version of [...]
Bill C-11, Digital Locks and TPMs: A comprehensive guide for Canadian copyright law
Posted by on September 30, 2011
Once again, it seems that the issue of TPMs (or “digital locks”) has become one of the main focus point of the new copyright bill, Bill C-11. And, once again, the reporting on the TPM provisions of Bill C-11, which like the remainder of the Bill remains unchanged from last year’s Bill C-32, is replete [...]
Copyright and privacy reform bills on Notice Paper
Posted by on September 28, 2011
Tuesday afternoon saw bills to amend both the Copyright Act and PIPEDA appear on Parliament’s Notice Paper as Government bills. It is likely both bills will have first reading on Thursday morning. It has already been announced that the copyright reform bill (Bill C-11?) will be unchanged from last Parliament’s Bill C-32. Will the privacy reform bill (Bill C-12?) [...]
Getting it Right with Cyberlockers and Safe Harbours
Posted by on August 30, 2011
Michael Robertson runs a pair of websites that are clearly designed to help users build libraries of illegally copied music files. Of course, his websites don’t fly pirate flags on the front page or openly mock content owners who ask that their works be taken down like The Pirate Bay, but expert witnesses in his website’s [...]
U.S. Copyright Alert System: What About Cyberlockers?
Posted by on July 14, 2011
The news last week of the framework agreement between the major U.S. ISPs and movie/recording studios was generally well received by bloggers and the media. However, many commentators such as Nate Andersen of Ars Technica have pointed out that a good portion of infringing activity may still go undetected under the agreement as “infringement has already begun its [...]
Government of Ireland Invites Feedback on Draft Copyright Regulations
Posted by on June 23, 2011
The Government of Ireland, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, has published draft regulations to be included in the Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. The regulations, drafted in response to the EMI Records (Ireland) v. UPC Communications Ireland Ltd. decision from last year, would grant copyright holders the ability to apply for injunctions [...]
