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| Dec 5, 2023 | Google Caves In Canada: Agrees To Pay $100m News Bribe To Avoid Direct Link Tax | It seems that every other day or so we get another story of big tech companies tossing principles out the window and caving to ridiculous government demands. The latest is Google, yet again, which has cut a deal with the Canadian government... |
| Apr 4, 2023 | Techdirt Podcast Episode 349: Link Taxes Are Bad, Canada Edition | Legacy media operations really, really want tech companies that send them traffic to pay them as well. From Rupert Murdoch’s link tax in Australia to the very bad JCPA in America, these requirements are nonsensical and run directly counter ... |
| Mar 21, 2023 | Why Link Taxes Like Canada’s C-18 Represent An End To An Open Web | Well, here we go again. For years now, the legacy news industry, often led by lobbyists for Rupert Murdoch, have been pushing a bizarre plan to tax links on the internet. The entire rationale for this plan seems to be “news organizations us... |
| Nov 21, 2022 | Canada Wants To Implement A Link Tax | One chapter of my Walled Culture book (free download available in various formats) looks at how the bad ideas embodied in the EU’s appalling Copyright Directive – the worst copyright law so far – are being taken up elsewhere. One I didn’t i... |
| Jul 21, 2022 | Canadian Government Really Wants People To Ignore The Text Of Its Streaming Regulation Bill | Canada’s Bill C-11, which will hand the country’s broadcast regulator new powers to set rules for all kinds of online video and audio content, was rushed through an undemocratic sham of a “review” and then passed in the House of Commons by ... |
| Apr 14, 2022 | Social Media Regulation, Link Taxes, Copyright Extension, And More: Canada’s Attack On The Internet Has Resumed | Last year, we wrote about the Canadian government’s efforts to push a bill regulating social media content like broadcast television and, soon after, their work on new “Online Harms” legislation that (among many provisions) would require pl... |
| Oct 10, 2021 | Canada's wireless costs 'continue to be the highest or among the highest in the world': Finnish report | Article content
A new report by a Finnish telecom analyst has become the latest piece of evidence to show that Canadians pay more for cellphone service than anyone else. |
| Aug 3, 2021 | Canadian Government Continues Its War On Internet Freedom With New 'Online Harms' Legislation | A few months ago, we wrote about the Canadian government’s attempt to give its broadcast regulators sweeping new powers to regulate social media via Bill C-10 — a massive piece of legislation that seemed to only get worse over time thanks t... |
| Aug 3, 2021 | Canadian Government Continues Its War On Internet Freedom With New 'Online Harms' Legislation | A few months ago, we wrote about the Canadian government's attempt to give its broadcast regulators sweeping new powers to regulate social media via Bill C-10 — a massive piece of legislation that seemed to only get worse over time thanks t... |
| May 10, 2021 | The Stunning Inability Of Canada's Heritage Minister To Answer Questions About His Internet Regulation Bill | We've written about Bill C-10, the Canadian government's attempt to bring online services under the auspices of the country's broadcast regulator, the CRTC, and the way the story about the bill keeps shifting and the promises about what it ... |
| May 10, 2021 | The Stunning Inability Of Canada's Heritage Minister To Answer Questions About His Internet Regulation Bill | We’ve written about Bill C-10, the Canadian government’s attempt to bring online services under the auspices of the country’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, and the way the story about the bill keeps shifting and the promises about what it ... |
| May 10, 2021 | Minister Behind Canada's Social Media Bill Now Says It Will Regulate User Generated Content | Update: The Minister has now attempted to backtrack these latest comments and repeated his insistence that the bill will not apply to social media users, though the impact the regulatory powers — which he says will apply to the platforms — ... |
| Apr 30, 2021 | Canadian Government Wants To Regulate Social Media Like Broadcast | It's Canada's turn in the carousel of attempts at terrible internet regulation around the world. The ruling Liberal party, which professor and internet law researcher Michael Geist has called the most anti-internet government in Canadian hi... |
| Apr 30, 2021 | Canadian Government Wants To Regulate Social Media Like Broadcast | It’s Canada’s turn in the carousel of attempts at terrible internet regulation around the world. The ruling Liberal party, which professor and internet law researcher Michael Geist has called the most anti-internet government in Canadian hi... |
| Apr 23, 2021 | Content Moderation Case Study: Google Refuses To Honor Questionable Requests For Removal Of 'Defamatory' Content (2019) | Summary: Google has long been responsive to court orders demanding the removal of content, if they’re justified. Google has fought back against dubious orders originating from “right to be forgotten” demands from outside the US, and has met... |
| Apr 23, 2021 | Content Moderation Case Study: Google Refuses To Honor Questionable Requests For Removal Of 'Defamatory' Content (2019) | Summary: Google has long been responsive to court orders demanding the removal of content, if they're justified. Google has fought back against dubious orders originating from "right to be forgotten" demands from outside the US, a... |
| Dec 11, 2020 | Is Canadian Law Better Equipped to Handle Disinformation? | On Oct. 13, before President Trump—with only falsehoods as ammunition—began live-tweeting his attempt to overturn an election he lost, Emily Bazelon published an article in the New York Times Magazine entitled, “Free Speech Will Save Our De... |
| Dec 12, 2019 | USMCA Trade Deal Keeps DMCA-Style ‘Safe Harbor’ for ISPs | More than a quarter-century after the United States, Canada, and Mexico approved the NAFTA trade agreement, the North American countries have now signed off on a new trade deal.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will accommo... |
| Nov 26, 2019 | TekSavvy Appeals First Canadian Pirate Site Blockade | Two weeks ago Canada’s Federal Court approved the first pirate site blockade in the country.
Following a complaint from major media companies Rogers, Bell and TVA, the Court ordered several major ISPs to block access to domains and IP-addre... |
| Nov 14, 2019 | Canadian Court Rejects Reverse Class Action Against BitTorrent Pirates | Movie studio Voltage Pictures is no stranger to suing BitTorrent users.
The company and its subsidiaries have filed numerous lawsuits against alleged pirates in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, and likely made a lot of money... |
| Oct 28, 2019 | Canadian Wireless Carrier Rogers 'Surprised' That People Like Unlimited Data Plans | Despite industry claims, US wireless is painfully mediocre. US consumers pay some of the highest prices for mobile data in the developed world, thanks to regulatory capture and wireless competitors who embrace "competition theater"... |
| Oct 28, 2019 | Canadian Wireless Carrier Rogers 'Surprised' That People Like Unlimited Data Plans | Despite industry claims, US wireless is painfully mediocre. US consumers pay some of the highest prices for mobile data in the developed world, thanks to regulatory capture and wireless competitors who embrace “competition theater” more tha... |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Canadian Broadcasting Company Hits Conservative Party With Questionable Copyright Infringement Lawsuit | The Canadian Broadcast Company is back on its copyright bullshit. The publicly-funded broadcaster sure seems to enjoy the benefits of fair dealing -- Canada's fair use counterpart -- but it doesn't seem to like others availing themselves of... |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Canadian Broadcasting Company Hits Conservative Party With Questionable Copyright Infringement Lawsuit | The Canadian Broadcast Company is back on its copyright bullshit. The publicly-funded broadcaster sure seems to enjoy the benefits of fair dealing — Canada’s fair use counterpart — but it doesn’t seem to like others availing themselves of s... |
| Jun 4, 2019 | Canadian Copyright Review Rejects Site-Blocking Regime, Keeps Safe Harbors | Late 2017 Canada’s government requested the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) to carry out a thorough review of the Copyright Act.
After dozens of hearings, where it heard hundreds of witnesses and reviewed input... |
| May 30, 2019 | Bell Wants Canada to Criminalize Pirate Streaming Services | To ensure that the Internet is able to function to the benefit of the broader public, the Government of Canada appointed an external panel to review Canada’s communications legislative framework.
The panel is expected to release its finding... |
| May 22, 2019 | DOJ Staffers Think T-Mobile's Merger Benefit Claims Are Nonsense | While the FCC announced this week it would unsurprisingly be a rubber stamp for Sprint and T-Mobile’s proposed $26 billion merger, the DOJ still isn’t buying the companies’ claims that further consolidation of the wireless sector will be wo... |
| May 22, 2019 | Unsurprisingly, Ajit Pai's FCC Thinks The T-Mobile Sprint Merger Will Be Wonderful | For the last year, Sprint and T-Mobile have been pushing a large number of bogus claims justifying their $26 billion competition and job-eroding megamerger. One, that the deal will create jobs (false). Two, that the deal is necessary to dep... |
| May 17, 2019 | Canadian Committee Publishes Ludicrous Fantasy Pretending To Be Copyright Reform Analysis | Oh Canada. Not satisfied with a ridiculous plan to fine social media companies for ill-defined “fake news,” a Canadian Parliamentary Committee has come out with one of the most laughable copyright reform papers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen... |
| May 16, 2019 | Canadian Parliamentary Report Proposes Tough Copyright Measures | The Canadian Government is currently exploring if and how the current Copyright Act should be amended to better fit the present landscape.
To this end, Canada’s Heritage Committee organized several hearings on remuneration models for artist... |
| May 2, 2019 | Canadian Billionaire Sues Twitter For Nasty Things Twitter Users Said About Him | A wealthy Canadian businessman dragged into the ridiculous “pizzagate” conspiracy theory — thanks to his ties to the Clinton Foundation — is suing Twitter for harming his reputation. The lawsuit filed by Frank Giustra doesn’t target the use... |
| Feb 20, 2019 | Sprint, T-Mobile Execs Continue To Hallucinate Competitors In Their Post-Merger Dreamscape | Both Sprint and T-Mobile have been pushing a large number of bogus claims justifying their competition and job-eroding megamerger. One, that the deal will create jobs (false). Two, that the deal is necessary to deploy fifth-gen (5G) wireles... |
| Feb 15, 2019 | 5G Has Become The Magic Pixie Dust Of Tech Policy Conversations | Fifth generation wireless (5G) has quickly become a sort of magical carrot on a stick in tech and telecom policy circles. Telecom lobbyists and the Ajit Pai FCC have spent the better part of the last two years trying to claim that unless we... |
| Feb 1, 2019 | Canada's Bell Tried To Have VPNs Banned During NAFTA Negotiations | Countries around the world continue to wage a not particularly subtle war on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and encryption. In Russia, the government has all but banned the use of VPNs by layering all manner of obnoxious restric... |
| Jan 29, 2019 | Bell Asked Canadian Government to Ban Certain VPNs | Last year a coalition of Canadian ISPs and movie industry companies called for a Canadian site-blocking regime. This plan triggered a fair amount of pushback.
Law professor Michael Geist was among the most vocal opponents. He warned of pote... |
| Jan 28, 2019 | Canadians Pay The Highest Rates For Wireless Data, And The US Is About To Follow Suit | However bad American broadband and wireless service can be, generally speaking Canadians have it worse. Plagued by the same sort of revolving door regulator approach taken in the US, Canada pretty routinely makes an even poorer showing than... |
| Dec 27, 2018 | Bryan Adams: Longer Copyright Term Enriches Intermediaries, Not Creators | After long negotiations, the Canadian Government agreed earlier this year that the country’s current copyright term will be extended by 20 years.
This change was part of the trade deal negotiations with the US and Mexico. By extending copyr... |
| Dec 18, 2018 | Canada Prohibits Piracy Settlement Demands in ISP Copyright Notices | In several countries around the world, notably the United States, Canada, and the UK, rightsholders and their agents send copyright notices to alleged infringers.
In most cases, recipients are accused of downloading and sharing copyright-in... |
| Oct 30, 2018 | Canada Introduces Bill to Ban Piracy Settlement Notices | Following an update of Canada’s copyright law in 2015, ISPs are required to forward copyright infringement notices to their customers.
As a result of this “notice and notice scheme,” millions of Internet subscribers have received warnings i... |
| Oct 24, 2018 | T-Mobile CEO Insists New Merger Will Create Jobs, Competition. Wall Street, History Disagree. | Historically, large telecom mergers don’t end well for consumers or employees. Usually in the wake of these megadeals nothing much happens for about a year, after which the acquiring company begins trimming back redundant positions and offi... |
| Oct 6, 2018 | Canadian Music Group Proposes ‘Copyright Tax’ on Internet Use | When CD copying was all the rage in the late 1990s, many countries started to levy a tax on blank media.
This meant that consumers had to pay an extra fee on every recordable disc, because these can be used to duplicate copyrighted content.... |
| Oct 2, 2018 | A Mix Of Good And Bad Ideas In NAFTA Replacement | Let’s start with the simple concept that it’s not at all clear why intellectual property and intermediary liability issues should even be in various free trade agreements, other than to acknowledge that the legacy copyright industry has spe... |
| Sep 20, 2018 | Canada’s Supreme Court Offers Hope to Falsely Accused File-Sharers | Last week the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are entitled to compensation for looking up the details of alleged copyright infringers.
This verdict, a result of a dispute between Rogers and movie company Voltage Pictures, can have fa... |
| Jul 9, 2018 | Sprint, T-Mobile Execs Bullshit Congress On The Benefits Of Merger Mania | Sprint and T-Mobile last week went before Congress to literally argue that fewer competitors in the wireless space will magically result in… more competition in the wireless space. The two companies are trying to gain regulatory approval fo... |
| Jun 14, 2018 | Canadian Music Industry Pitches 'You Must Be A Pirate' Tax On Smartphones | Every electronic device capable of storing data is just another tool in the pirate’s chest. If you think your phone or mp3 player or hard drive is just something for storing data and perhaps even purchased software, movies, and music, think... |
| May 20, 2018 | Fairplay Canada Discredits “Pro-Piracy” TorrentFreak News, Then Cites Us | At TorrentFreak we do our best to keep readers updated on the latest copyright and piracy news, highlighting issues from different points of view.
We report on the opinions and efforts of copyright holders when it comes to online piracy and... |
| May 17, 2018 | ‘Blocking Pirate Sites Through Court is Uncertain, Slow and Expensive’ | FairPlay Canada, a coalition of copyright holders and major players in the telco industry, wants to institute a national pirate site blocking scheme.
The group submitted its plan to the Canadian telecoms regulator CRTC earlier this year, wh... |
| May 14, 2018 | Pirate Site Blocking Threatens Canada’s Net Neutrality, House of Commons Committee Says | Earlier this year several of the largest telcos in Canada teamed up with copyright holders to present their plan to tackle online piracy.
United in the Fairplay Canada coalition, Bell, Rogers, and others urged telecoms regulator CRTC to ins... |
| May 10, 2018 | Bell/TSN Letter to University Connects Site-Blocking Support to Students’ Futures | In January, a coalition of Canadian companies called on local telecoms regulator CRTC to implement a website-blocking regime in Canada.
The coalition, Fairplay Canada, is a collection of organizations and companies with ties to the entertai... |
| Apr 6, 2018 | Not All Canadian ISPs Are Pro Site Blocking | Earlier this year several of the largest telcos in Canada teamed up with copyright holders to present their plan to tackle online piracy.
United in the Fairplay coalition, Bell, Rogers, and others urged telecoms regulator CRTC to institute ... |
| Feb 25, 2018 | When a Pro-Copyright Rant Goes Wrong…. | At TorrentFreak, we keep a close eye on copyright debates and discussions. This includes the opinion pieces of musician and industry activist David Lowery at The Trichordist
While we don’t agree with his general style, which doesn’t shun ra... |
| Feb 22, 2018 | Bell Asks Employees to Back Pirate Site Blocking Plan | Last month, a coalition of Canadian companies called on the local telecom regulator CRTC to establish a local pirate site blocking program, which would be the first of its kind in North America.
The Canadian deal is supported by Fairplay Ca... |
| Feb 19, 2018 | Canadian Pirate Site Blocks Could Spread to VPNs, Professor Warns | ISP blocking has become a prime measure for the entertainment industry to target pirate sites on the Internet.
In recent years sites have been blocked throughout Europe, in Asia, and even Down Under.
Last month, a coalition of Canadian comp... |
| Feb 6, 2018 | Canadian Privacy Commissioner Report Says Existing Law Already Gives Canadians A Right To Be Forgotten | The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is proposing something dangerous. Given the Canadian Supreme Court’s ruling in the Equustek case — which basically said Canada’s laws are now everybody’s laws — a recent report issued by the Commissioner t... |
| Jan 25, 2018 | TPP Is Back, Minus Copyright Provisions And Pharma Patent Extensions, In A Clear Snub To Trump And The US | As Techdirt noted back in November, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was not killed by Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the deal. Instead, something rather interesting happened: one of the TPP’s worst chapters, dea... |
| Dec 14, 2017 | Canadian Government Triggers Major Copyright Review | The Copyright Act of Canada was first passed in 1921 and in the decades that followed has undergone considerable amendment.
Between 2005 and 2010, several bills failed to gain traction due to opposition but in 2011 the Copyright Modernizati... |
| Dec 5, 2017 | ISPs and Movie Industry Prepare Canadian Pirate Site Blocking Deal | ISP blocking has become a prime measure for the entertainment industry to target pirate sites on the Internet.
In recent years sites have been blocked throughout Europe, in Asia, and even Down Under.
In most countries, these blockades are o... |
| Dec 3, 2017 | Could a Single Copyright Complaint Kill Your Domain? | It goes without saying that domain names are a crucial part of any site’s infrastructure. Without domains, sites aren’t easily findable and when things go wrong, the majority of web users could be forgiven for thinking that they no longer e... |
| Nov 13, 2017 | With The US Out, Canada Gets Copyright Out Of TPP And Moves Closer To Agreement | We’ve been talking about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for many, many years. And one point that we’ve made over and over again about the TPP and other trade agreements, is that there actually is a lot of good and important s... |
| Sep 27, 2017 | A Telecom Giant Wants to Block Websites in Canada | Canada had a moment in the Sun in April when its federal telecom regulator declared that it will defend an internet where all content is treated equally by service providers, an idea known as "net neutrality." But rest assured, th... |
| Sep 25, 2017 | Canadian ISP Bell Calls For Pirate Site Blacklist in NAFTA Hearing | Website blocking has become a common tool for copyright holders to target online piracy.
In most countries, these blockades are ordered by local courts, which compel Internet providers to restrict access to certain websites.
While most ISPs... |
| Jul 18, 2017 | Several TVAddons Domains Transferred to Canadian Lawfirm | The last couple of months have been the most chaotic on record for the booming Kodi third-party addon scene. After years of largely interrupted service, a single lawsuit changed the entire landscape.
Last month, TF broke the news that third... |
| Jun 29, 2017 | Canada’s Supreme Court Orders Google to Remove Search Results Worldwide | Back in 2014, the case of Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack saw two Canadian entities battle over stolen intellectual property used to manufacture competing products.
Google had no direct links to the case, yet it became embroiled when Equust... |
| Jun 28, 2017 | Canadian Supreme Court Says It's Fine To Censor The Global Internet; Authoritarians & Hollywood Cheer… | For the past few years, we’ve been covering the worrisome Google v. Equustek Solutions case in Canada. The case started out as a trademark case, in which Equustek claimed that another company was infringing on its trademarks online. That’s ... |
| Mar 10, 2017 | Canada Says It Won't Attend Special 301 Hearing Because USTR Prefers Industry Allegations To Facts And Data | The US Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 Report repeatedly points out how other countries are “failing” US IP industries by not doing enough to prevent piracy. The “name and shame” approach hasn’t done much to curb piracy, although ... |
| Mar 10, 2017 | Canada Rejects Flawed and One-Sided “Piracy” Claims From US Govt. | Every year the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) releases an updated version of its Special 301 Report, calling out other nations for failing to live up to U.S. IP enforcement standards.
In recent years Canada has been placed on ... |
| Mar 7, 2017 | Canadian Court Chips Away At Anti-Circumvention Exceptions In Massive Win For Nintendo | The first major ruling [PDF] by a Canadian court applying the country’s anti-circumvention laws has been handed down and it’s not good news. The law provides for a few exceptions to its broad restrictions on bypassing technological protecti... |
| Feb 23, 2017 | Google Report: 99.95 Percent Of DMCA Takedown Notices Are Bot-Generated Bullshit Buckshot | Google, being the search giant that it is, has been banging the drum for some time about the silly way the DMCA has been abused by those that wield it like a cudgel. Here at Techdirt, we too have described the many ways that the well-intent... |
| Feb 22, 2017 | Google: 99.95% of Recent ‘Trusted’ DMCA Notices Were Bogus | Under current legislation, US-based Internet service providers are not expected to proactively police infringing user content. They are, however, expected to remove it, if a copyright holder complains.
The so-called ‘safe harbor’ that provi... |
| Nov 23, 2016 | TPP Dead, TTIP Dying, But The EU And Canada Seem Determined To Ram Through CETA Deal Without Proper Scrutiny | The death of TPP has now been confirmed by Donald Trump himself in a short video posted to YouTube. As Mike wrote recently, the other huge trade deal, TTIP, is now in limbo, probably dying, and there are rumors that even the low-profile Tra... |
| Oct 5, 2016 | The Canadian Government’s Plan to Sell New Spying Powers to Citizens | Canada's government is taking a forum for citizens to sound off about its spying powers and flipping it into an opportunity to sell Canadians on new and overbroad police capabilities, according to a new watchdog report.
In September, Trudea... |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Canada Post Drops Ridiculous Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowdsourced Postal Code | Just over four years ago, Canada Post filed a copyright infringement suit against GeoCoder.ca, which describes itself as follows: |
| Apr 29, 2016 | Canadian Movie Pirates Targeted in Reverse Class Action | When it comes to the business model of turning piracy into profit, the name Voltage Pictures is never far from the action.
The Los Angeles-based movie outfit has tested the legal waters in several jurisdictions in an effort to extract cash ... |
| Apr 9, 2016 | Regulating Blockchain Would Be an Exercise in Futility | Addison Cameron-Huff is an independent technology lawyer who focusses on the bitcoin and Internet startup space. His clients include prominent blockchain businesspeople and developers.
In this opinion piece,Cameron-Huff builds on thoughts v... |
| Mar 16, 2016 | Canadian Cable Companies Make A Mockery Of Government's Push For Cheaper TV | So far, the Canadian government’s attempt to force innovation and lower prices on the Canadian TV industry doesn’t appear to be going so well. As previously noted, the government has demanded that all Canadian cable TV operators begin offer... |
| Jan 15, 2016 | NZ Newspaper: An 'Honor' To Welcome Small Pacific Rim Countries As They Sign Away Much Of Their Sovereignty | As we’ve written recently, a report from the World Bank suggests that the economic benefits from TPP will be slight for the US, Australia and Canada. New Zealand is predicted to do better, but not much: the econometric modelling predicts a ... |
| Jan 6, 2016 | Canada Prepares To Force Cable Companies To Provide Cheaper, A La Carte TV | In March of last year, Canadian regulators announced they were combating high TV prices by trying something new: forcing the country’s cable companies to offer “a la carte” (pick your own individual channels) TV. The CRTC’s full ruling decl... |
| Jan 5, 2016 | How The TPP Is Trouble: Public Interest Explicitly Tossed In Favor Of Corporate Interests | Michael Geist is counting down the days to when the TPP can first be signed in the US (February 4th) by going through and highlighting problematic aspects of the agreement. He’s started with the simple fact that the TPP’s intellectual prope... |
| Dec 10, 2015 | Canadian Govt Eyes VPN Pirates, Netflix Thieves and ISP Blocking | The newly elected Canadian Government has yet to announce how it will tackle online piracy going forward. However, a new Government document highlights some interesting points.
In a briefing Canadian Heritage officials prepared for minister... |
| Dec 2, 2015 | Canadian Supreme Court Says Tech May Advance, But It Will Never Outrun Collection Societies | Michael Geist has a long and detailed post on the Canadian Supreme Court’s finding that broadcaster CBC does owe royalties on incidental copies of content controlled by SODRAC, a Quebec-based copyright collective. |
| Nov 6, 2015 | Full Text Of TPP Released: And It's Really, Really Bad | Yesterday, a month after it was announced that the TPP was “finalized,” the official text was finally released. Immediately after that, USTR (somewhat oddly) reposted the whole thing to Medium — apparently in an effort to appear transparent... |
| Oct 10, 2015 | Leaked TPP Chapter Proposes Drastic Copyright Changes | The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multinational trade agreement aimed at strengthening economic ties between the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and eight other countries.
Earlier this week the participating countries agree... |
| Sep 3, 2015 | How Record Labels Conspired To Kill Off Public Domain Beatles Music In Canada | Earlier this year, we discussed that, thanks to shorter copyright terms in Canada, things like early Beatles recordings and James Bond had entered the public domain up north. It was no secret that the recording industry was totally freaked ... |
| Aug 13, 2015 | Canada Is Still Doing A Half-Assed Job Enforcing Its Net Neutrality Rules, Highlighting Importance of Competition | Back in 2009 when it looked like real net neutrality in the U.S. was all but dead, Canada implemented the country’s first net neutrality rules. The rules were particularly necessary thanks to a laundry list of particularly ham-fisted neutra... |
| Jul 8, 2015 | Quebec Wants ISPs to Block Access to Gambling Sites Competing Against Its Monopoly | Gambling! Photo via Flickr user Michael Dorausch
In its ongoing quest for a balanced budget, Quebec's government has taken on some pretty fierce adversaries. Students, feminists, physicians, and even police have protested the Liberal govern... |
| Jun 12, 2015 | Google Fails to Overturn Worldwide Site-Blocking Order | The prominence of Google in endless Internet-related matters often sees the company get tangled up in the disputes of others. A case from 2014 provides a particularly interesting example.
Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack saw two Canadian ent... |
| Jun 4, 2015 | My Daughter is a Netflix VPN Thief, Media Boss Confesses | While the video entertainment business needs to do better, Netflix is definitely going some way to filling the online movie and TV show streaming void. Nevertheless, even when consumers put their hands in their pockets for the service, elem... |
| May 18, 2015 | While Other Countries Debate Copyright Terms, Canada Just Takes Record Labels' Word That It Needs To Increase | Pretty much since the dawn of copyright, there have been debates about what the proper length of copyright’s term should be. Sometimes these debates can be heated and passionate. Go all the way back to 1841, in the UK, where Thomas Macaulay... |
| May 13, 2015 | Canadian Law Enforcement Complains Child Molesters Are Benefiting Most From ISP Subscriber Data Warrant Requirements | Ever since the Canadian Supreme Court declared law enforcement needed a warrant or court order to obtain ISP subscriber data, Canadian cops have been complaining. What used to be an “informal” process that required “five minutes” of paperwo... |
| Apr 24, 2015 | Canada Extends Copyright Terms, Finally Giving Musicians Who Released Works More Than 50 Years Ago A Reason To Create | For reasons no more sound than it possibly felt a bit inadequate when comparing copyright term length with its next-door-neighbor, Canada has increased the copyright term for sound recordings and performances from 50 years to 70 years. Supp... |
| Mar 30, 2015 | Canada Forces A La Carte Rules On Cable Industry, Bell Pouts By Refusing To Show Regulator On Television | For years, the United States has had an on again off again love affair with the idea of a la carte television — or the ability to purchase only the channels you want to watch. After a ten-year debate, “common wisdom” appears to have largely... |
| Mar 19, 2015 | Voltage Pictures Has To Pay $22k To Canadian ISP If It Wants Names For Its Shakedown Scheme | Voltage Pictures is the fairly successful movie studio that has a side business as a copyright troll — sending angry threat letters demanding cash based on flimsy evidence about people who may have downloaded its films. While it originally ... |
| Mar 11, 2015 | More Copyright Trolls Rushing In To Take Advantage Of Canadian Copyright Notice System Loopholes | Canada’s new copyright notice system is swiftly become a playground for copyright trolls. As Michael Geist reports, Canadian legislators could have baked in a few limitations to curb abuse, but chose instead to ensure the Rightscorps of the... |
| Mar 4, 2015 | Auditor: Canadian Law Enforcement's Statistics On ISP Subscriber Data Requests Completely Unreliable | Intrusive surveillance programs — especially domestic surveillance programs — are sold to wary legislators with promises of stringent oversight and periodic reporting. That’s how they’re sold. The reality is nowhere near as assuring.... |
| Mar 2, 2015 | Rogers Exec Pouts About VPNs, Publicly Dreams Of Canadian Ban | Over the years, many folks in the broadcast and entertainment industries have made it increasingly clear they’d love to see tools like VPNs or proxy services made illegal. Sure, both are perfectly legal and have a myriad of valid purposes, ... |
| Feb 25, 2015 | Explainer: Australia’s ‘three strikes’ plan to curb illegal downloads | Following last week’s release of a draft “three strikes” scheme by Australian ISP and telecommunications industry body Communications Alliance, the issue of online copyright infringement is again up for debate.
The draft proposal was prepar... |
| Jan 29, 2015 | Data caps can’t be used to snuff out competition, Canada ruling says | reader comments 48 with 37 posters participating
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Two wireless carriers in Canada have been ordered to stop exempting their mobile TV services from data caps in a ruling tha... |
| Jan 12, 2015 | Canada's copyright rules explained - A guide to Canada's Internet piracy laws (with video) | Article content
Confused about copyright in Canada? Worried your Netflix account may be nixed because you’re cross-border viewing? |
| Jan 9, 2015 | No Surprise: Rightscorp Already Abusing Canada's Notice & Notice System To Send Bogus Shakedown Letters | While Canada’s new notice and notice copyright notification system has some problems, it’s significantly better than almost every other attempt to do something similar. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t be abused, and apparently the fir... |
