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Canadian law blog awards announced

The 7th annual (2012) Canadian Law Blog Award (ClawBies) winners were announced earlier this evening. My blog came in runner up for Best Canadian Law Blog behind Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog. It was tied with last year’s winner, Erik Magraken’s BC Injury Law Blog and former OBA President Lee Akazaki’s new bilingual blog.

Thanks to Steve Matthews, Jordan Furlong, and Simon Fodden for recognizing my blog and to Bob Tarantino and Garry Wise for nominating it for an award.…

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Industry Canada CASL regulations coming

Andre Leduc of Industry Canada gave a talk yesterday to the Council of Chief Privacy Officers at a Webinar organized by the Conference Board of Canada on the status of Canada’s anti-spam law, CASL. Andre Leduc is a Senior Policy Advisor (Spam, Cryptography and Cybercrime) with Industry Canada and was one of the architects of CASL. He has also been integrally involved in developing the Industry Canada regulations.

Andre Leduc said that CASL is likely to come into force in late 2013 at the earliest and June or July 2014, at the latest.…

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Crown copyright and translations, Keatley Surveying v Teranet

On Friday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a motion for certification of a proposed class by surveyors alleging infringement of copyright. The suit commenced by Keatley Surveying Ltd claims that Teranet Inc, the company that manages Ontario’s electronic land registry system for the Ontario Government, infringes copyright by making and distributing plans of survey in the course of those operations. In giving reasons for dismissing the motion, the court in the Keatley Surveying LTD v Teranet Inc 2102 ONSC 7120 case made a number of important statements concerning the claims for copyright infringement.*…

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Change and the Copyright Modernization Act

Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, with a few exceptions, is now law with the publication of the Governor General Order in Council. The fourth attempt to amend the Copyright Act since 2005 succeeded where Bills C-60 (2005), C-61 (2008), and C-32 (2010) did not.

A lot has changed since 2005 when Bill C-60 was first introduced. That Bill would have made a limited, but important, set of amendments. Its summary reminds us that it would have amended the “Copyright Act to implement the provisions of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, to clarify the liability of network service providers, to facilitate technology-enhanced learning and interlibrary loans, and to update certain other provisions of the Act.” …

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Copyright Modernization Act soon to be law in Canada

The Privy Council has released a copy of notice dated October 25, 2012 (P.C. 2012-1392) setting out when the amendments to the Copyright Act will come into force. The information in the notice, which has been published by some law libraries, provides for the amendments to come into force in three stages.

Most amendments will come into force when the notice is officially published in the Canada Gazette Part II which is expected to take place soon and perhaps as early as November 7, 2012.

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CASL
Privacy

IPC v UFCW Charter/privacy case going to Supreme Court (updated)

If privacy legislation significantly impairs Charter rights do privacy rights or Charter rights prevail? Specifically, does an individual’s right to privacy for publically crossing a picket line under Alberta’s comprehensive privacy legislation Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) have to yield to a union’s right of free expression to film and disseminate that act under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? This question was answered in the affirmative by the Alberta Court of Appeal in United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 v Alberta (Attorney General), 2012 ABCA 130.…

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Canada a country in copyright transition says US Congressional anti-piracy caucus

Last week, The US Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus published its 2012 International Anti-Piracy Caucus Country Watch List. Canada, which had previously been on the watch list, has now been reclassified along with Spain as a country “in transition”. According to the report, “Both Canada and Spain have taken positive steps towards putting in place a stronger legal framework for the protection of copyright, and as such we have included them this year as countries in transition to acknowledge the progress made, while urging both to follow through strongly on their commitments.”…

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Fair use for Australia?

Earlier this week, the Australian Law Reform Commission published an Issues Paper titled Copyright and the Digital Economy. The paper asked 55 questions about copyright and possible reforms to Australia’s copyright laws. The paper discusses many reforms debated in Canada during the 2009 Copyright Consultations and more recently during the debates and examination of The Copyright Modernization Act (Bills C-32 and C-11) in the House of Commons Special Legislation Committee. These include new exceptions to permit copying for private uses such as format and time shifting, online uses for social media, uses by libraries, archives and for education, and safe harbours for Internet intermediaries.…

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The Supreme Court rules on copyright in a pentology of cases

Earlier today, the Supreme Court released reasons in the five copyright appeals heard back to back on December 6 and 7, 2011 in the following cases:[i]

Entertainment Software Association v. Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2012 SCC 34 (ESA v SOCAN)
Rogers Communications Inc. v. Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2012 SCC 35 (Rogers v SOCAN)
Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Bell Canada, 2012 SCC 36 (SOCAN v Bell)
Alberta (Education) v.

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Supreme Court of Canada to release reasons in five copyright cases

The copyright bar has been eagerly awaiting the release of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in the five copyright appeals which were heard on December 6 and 7, 2011. The Court announced earlier today that the decisions will be released this Thursday, July 12, 2012.

The Court published case summaries. I also summarized the main issues in the appeals here. The webcasts of the arguments can also be accessed here.…

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