Copyright - News

  • New CIPPIC Videos: The Impact of the "SCC Pentalogy"
    – 2011-12-05 –

    All too often, the crux of a legal case becomes an argument between large organizations over minute points of law. However, make no mistake about it: the copyright cases before the Supreme Court of Canada tomorrow will directly impact the everyday activities of most Canadians.  Our interns produced several excellent videos to illustrate the ramifications of these appeals:

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  • CIPPIC at the Supreme Court of Canada
    – 2011-12-02 –

    Next Tuesday, CIPPIC will make oral arguments in the "Copyright Pentalogy", a set of five copyright case that the Supreme Court of Canada will hear from December 6-7.  These cases are likely to have a major impact on the scope of your fair dealing rights, as well as on how much you will pay in the future for online music, videos, and video games.  You can watch CIPPIC's oral arguments online on Tuesday at the Supreme Court of Canada's live webcast.

    The Supreme Court already granted CIPPIC leave to make written submissions on these important issues. CIPPIC provided the Court with advice in the following factums...

     

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  • The New Copyright Bill: Some Critical Updates and One Colossal Flaw
    – 2011-09-29 –

    The Government of Canada announced a new copyright bill this morning, entitled the Copyright Modernization Act. The government claims it is identical to Bill C-32, which the Conservative minority tabled last year. This bill proposes many important updates to Canadian copyright law. If passed, it will legalize  activities that Canadians already do on a daily basis: record television, copy songs onto MP3 players, and make backups of DVDs. The bill contains provisions to legalize the ordinary digital activities of many internet services, such as search engines and websites. It also importantly extends fair dealing to include education, parody and satire.

    Unfortunately, the bill also succumbs to U.S. pressure and makes fair dealing -- including the new exceptions for the many ordinary activities of Canadians -- illegal whenever there is a "digital lock" on a work.  A digital lock will trump all other rights, forbidding all fair dealing and keeping a work locked up even after its copyright term expires. Overall, these digital lock provisions are some of the most restrictive in the world.

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  • CIPPIC Seeks Leave to Intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in Rogers v. SOCAN and ESA v. SOCAN
    – 2011-08-16 –

    CIPPIC has filed a motion to intervene in the Supreme Court of Canada case of Rogers v. SOCAN. This follows CIPPIC's filing of a similar motion last week to inteverne in a companion case, ESA v. SOCAN. In these two cases, SOCAN proposes that it should be allowed to levy more fees on online distributors of music and videos games. However, as CIPPIC proposes to argue, these online distributors already pay fair compensation to rights holders. They do so by licensing the right to reproduce and distribute music online, in much the same manner that traditional retail services obtain the rights to sell CDs and sell video game on DVDs. The additional fees that SOCAN proposes will only slow innovation and raise costs to customers.
     

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  • Supreme Court Grants Leave in SOCAN v. Bell
    – 2010-12-23 –

    The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave SOCAN v. Bell, in which the Copyright Board and Federal Court of Appeal had agreed that consumer "previews" of 30 second music clips were fair dealing since they amounted to consumer research.

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  • CIPPIC Participates in Industry Canada Digital Economy Consultation
    – 2010-07-14 –

    As part of its intention to help Canada regain its leadership position in the global digital economy, the government recently concluded a public consultation process which sought submissions from all sectors of the public on who to achieve this objective.

    CIPPIC provided two input streams into the Government's consultaiton process. First, we helped develop and endorsed a consensus subimssion convened by Andrew Clement and Karen Louise Smith of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. In addition, CIPPIC's 2010 summer interns put together a comprehensive submission that set out 36 recommendations. In this submission, CIPPIC calls on the government to encourage the creation of a digital environment that will be better for all Canadians and will serve as a model for other jurisdictions. CIPPIC offers recommendations on issues such as privacy, online file-sharing, and on quality and access to communications that will help the government achieve this objective.

    For more info see: https://cippic.ca/Digital_Economy_Consultation_Canada

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  • CIPPIC Joins Canada's Privacy Community in Copyright Submission
    – 2009-09-13 –

    CIPPIC joined other privacy advocates across Canada in a joint submission promoting respect for privacy interests that will be affected by proposed changes to copyright law.

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  • CIPPIC Offers Submission in Copyright Consultation
    – 2009-09-13 –

    CIPPIC has submitted a letter to the copyright consultations.  CIPPIC's submission cautions policy makers to avoid undermining copyright's policy objectives in revising the law, and warns of the dangers of excessive control over copyrights. 

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  • Copyright Consultations Launch Announced
    – 2009-07-10 –

    Industry Minister Tony Clement and Heritage Minister James Moore have announced the launch of cross-country consultations on copyright law in the form of a series of round tables taking place between July 20 and September 13.  The round tables will be supplemented by an online consultation, open to all Canadians, and also starting July 20.  Anyone may participate in the online discussion forum or post a formal submission.  More information,  including dates, locations and live streaming of hearings is avialable at the government's consultation site.

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  • Michael Geist Releases Film, Why Copyright?, Under CC License
    – 2008-12-01 –

    Professor Michael Geist's film canvases Canadian creators, academics, scientists and businesses to answer the question, Why Copyright?  The film has been made available to the public under a Creative Commons license, and invites the public to comment and remix the film.

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