Canada And Mexico Not Allowed To Observe TPP Negotations, Even Though They're Joining Them

from the shut-out dept

Filed Under: canada, darrell issa, mexico, san diego, tpp

Canada's Own Justice Department Worried That Digital Locks Provision Is Not Constitutional

from the open-to-challenge dept

Filed Under: anti-circumvention, c-11, canada, digital locks, dmca, drm

Canadian Court Issues Triple-Whammy Ruling In Favor Of Free Speech And Commentary Online

from the fair-dealing dept

Close on the heels of Canada's recent copyright reform bill (which despite significant problems also contains some fantastic language that carves out important new exceptions to copyright) the Federal Court of Canada has issued a significant ruling that answers some key questions about copyright online. The decision is in a lawsuit filed by Richard Warman and the National Post against the operator of a forum, and looks at two main points: the right to quote news articles, and the right to link to a photo. On the first question, the court made it clear that even a several-paragraph quote is protected, on not just one but two levels:

While the first claim (Warman's article) was dismissed on the basis that it took too long to file the lawsuit, the legal analysis on the National Post claim involving an article by Jonathan Kay assesses the copyright implications of posting several paragraphs from an article online. In this case, the article was 11 paragraphs long. The reproduction on the Free Dominion site included the headline, three complete paragraphs and part of a fourth. The court ruled that this amount of copying did not constitute a "substantial part" of the work and therefore there was no infringement. The court added that in the alternative, the reproduction of the work was covered by fair dealing, concluding that a large and liberal interpretation of news reporting would include posts to the discussion forum. The decision then includes an analysis of the six factor test and concludes that the use was fair.

Both aspects of that part of the ruling are clear and could have a huge impact on copyright licensing in Canada. Perhaps most notably, as Michael Geist also points out, it raises even more serious questions about the disastrous situation surrounding Access Copyright negotiations at Canadian colleges and universities, and makes the already terrible deal (which many schools are signing on to) look even worse. Unfortunately, since the AUCC all but abandoned its members in those negotiations, many schools will have a hard time benefitting from this ruling—but for those universities that have decided to reject the deal and fight the good fight, the ruling represents a substantial boon to their position.

On the subject of linking to a photo, the decision lays down a third important standard, and is again unequivocal about doing so:

The third claim involved a link to a photograph posted on the photographer's site. The court had no trouble concluding that the link was not copyright infringement, rightly noting that the photographer authorized the communication of the work by posting it on his website. This finding should put an end to claims that linking to copyright materials somehow raises potential legal risks. The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled against attributing defamation to such links and now the Federal Court has concluded that links cannot be said to constitute unauthorized communication and therefore infringement.

To many of us, that's just common sense: putting something on the internet constitutes a public invitation to link to it. But for years, time and time again we've seen courts and companies around the world attempt to claim that linking is infringement, or otherwise not allowed. And, indeed, this also has serious implications for the Access Copyright agreement, which has schools paying licensing fees and obeying rules for linking to material, despite it becoming clearer and clearer that copyright does not cover these activities.

All told, this is an excellent decision, and offers further proof that Canada has the very real potential to move copyright law in a positive direction. There are still lots of battles to be fought, but there's also a genuine emphasis on the rights of users (especially in the courts) that can hopefully be harnessed and nurtured more and more over time.

Filed Under: canada, fair dealing, jonathan kay, linking, richard warman
Companies: access copyright, national post

A Postgame On Canada's Copyright Reform

from the mixed-bag dept

On Monday, after multiple attempts over several years, Canada's House of Commons passed Bill C-11 (previously known by other names), a sweeping copyright reform bill. Senate approval is all but assured, and the bill is essentially certain to become law in the near future. Luckily, unlike SOPA/PIPA in the States, C-11 is not a ridiculous, draconian internet lockdown bill. In fact, there's a lot to celebrate in the bill, though that celebration is marred by one significant problem: the digital locks portion, which is similar to the DMCA's anti-circumvention rules.

But first, the good stuff. Michael Geist has an excellent summary of C-11 with a comparison to previous phases of copyright law in Canada. The victories for smarter copyright law in C-11 sound almost like fantasy when compared to the American copyright debate. They include:

• New fair dealing provisions (our version of fair use) to cover educational uses, plus parody and satire
• New backup, format-shifting and time-shifting allowances that remove previous restrictions on networked DVRs and internet TV services (similar to those that have suffered in American courts)
• Explicit copyright exceptions for "user-generated content", aimed at protecting non-commercial fan-art and remixes
• A bunch of explicit exceptions for schools, such as the right to stage public performances
• A notice-and-notice system, not a notice-and-takedown system
• A $5,000 cap on statutory damages for all non-commercial infringement

Many of these are, as Geist calls them, "user-focused reforms"—something conspicuously absent from most proposed copyright legislation these days. But the digital locks issue remains a black mark on C-11, as the concerns of groups representing consumers, the blind and visually impaired (who will have a tougher time accessing digital content now), and Canadians in general were all brushed aside in favor of a DMCA-style approach that makes it illegal to circumvent copy protection systems even if it's for the purposes of making a legal copy. This, unfortunately, weakens the impact of all the positive reforms in the bill, because it creates a glaring loophole whereby rightsholders can attempt to block copying even if it's for one of the newly defined legal reasons. It's a real shame, and it also represents a foot-in-the-door for those who want more DMCA-style laws in Canada.

Still, it hardly erases the fact that there's a lot to like in C-11. User rights got more attention and more serious consideration in this bill than they ever did in SOPA/PIPA. Given that American diplomats were (and still are) actively pushing for Canadian versions of the DMCA and SOPA (or even more draconian laws that they can then import back to the U.S.), we came out of this one pretty well.

Filed Under: bill c-11, canada, copyright reform, digital locks, fair dealing

Canada Has Hidden Microphones In Airports Recording Conversations

from the why-that's-not-creepy-at-all dept

“It is important to note that even though audio technology is installed, no audio is recorded at this time. It will become functional at a later date..."

Filed Under: airports, canada, cbsa, ottawa, surveillance

US Invites Mexico, Canada To Join TPP Negotiations But With Less Power

from the take-it-or-leave-it dept

Filed Under: canada, china, japan, mexico, obama, tpp, transparency, ustr

FBI & DEA Warn That IPv6 May Be Too Damn Anonymous

from the they-just-woke-up? dept

FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials have told industry representatives that IPv6 traceability is necessary to identify people suspected of crimes. The FBI has even suggested that a new law may be necessary if the private sector doesn't do enough voluntarily.

ARIN and the other regional registries maintain public Whois databases for IP addresses, meaning that if you type in 64.30.224.118, you can see that it's registered to CNET's publisher. ARIN tries to ensure that Internet providers keep their segments of the Whois database updated, and because it's been handing out IPv4 addresses blocks every few months, it currently enjoys enough leverage to insist on it.

But for IPv6, ARIN will be handing out much larger Internet address blocks only every 10 to 15 years, meaning it loses much of its ability to convince Internet providers to keep their Whois entries up-to-date. That means it may take law enforcement agencies -- presumably armed with court orders -- longer to trace an IPv6 address such as 2001:4860:4860::8888 back to an Internet service provider's customer.

Filed Under: anonymity, canada, dea, fbi, ipv6, rcmp, whois

Google's Latest Transparency Report Shows Increased Censorship From Governments Not Normally Known For Censorship

from the not-cool dept

We noticed that government agencies from different countries would sometimes ask us to remove political content that our users had posted on our services. We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it’s not.

This is the fifth data set that we’ve released. And just like every other time before, we’ve been asked to take down political speech. It’s alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect—Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.

For example, in the second half of last year, Spanish regulators asked us to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and articles in newspapers referencing individuals and public figures, including mayors and public prosecutors. In Poland, we received a request from a public institution to remove links to a site that criticized it. We didn’t comply with either of these requests.

Brazil: In December, we received an electoral court order that resulted in the removal of four orkut profiles for content related to political campaigns.

Canada: We received a request from the Passport Canada office to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. We did not comply with this request.

Pakistan: We received a request from the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to remove six YouTube videos that satirized the Pakistan Army and senior politicians. We did not comply with this request.

Poland: We received a request from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development to remove a search result that criticized the agency as well as eight more that linked to it. We did not comply with this request.

Spain: We received 14 requests from the Spanish Data Protection Authority to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and sites referencing individuals and public figures. The Spanish Data Protection Authority also ordered the removal of three blogs published on Blogger and three videos hosted on YouTube. We did not comply with these requests.

United States: We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a blog because of a post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity. We did not comply with this request, which we have categorized in this Report as a defamation request.

We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. We did not comply with this request. Separately, we received a request from a different local law enforcement agency to remove five user accounts that allegedly contained threatening and/or harassing content. We terminated four of the accounts, which resulted in the removal of approximately 300 videos, but did not remove the remaining account with 54 videos.

We received a court order to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. We removed 25% of the results cited in the request.

Filed Under: brazil, canada, censorship, pakistan, poland, spain, transparency report
Companies: google, youtube

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Doesn't Require Payment Or Permission

from the how-things-work dept

This, of course, reflects a serious misunderstanding. If the copying is “fair dealing”, it is unnecessary to pay Access Copyright or anyone else for copying it.

Filed Under: canada, fair dealing, fair use, permission
Companies: access copyright