Canadian Bar Association ("CBA") Brief on Bill C-32 Now Available

The Canadian Bar Association ("CBA") National Intellectual Property & National Privacy and Access Law Sections Canadian Bar Association has released its brief on Bill C-32, available here.

Its format seeks to balance the views of owners/creators on the one hand and users on the other, and to indicate where there is some common ground. It uses charts to set forth a summary of the competing views on the key issues. There is also some extensive discussion.

It begins as follows and is well worth reading:

Copyright is a controversial subject, which engages the interests of a wide cross-section of Canadians. The copyright bar, similarly, holds a multiplicity of perspectives on copyright. Because of the diversity of perspectives, the CBA Intellectual Property Section and Privacy and Access Law Section (CBA Sections) have chosen, in their submission, to summarize the legal contours of the various policy perspectives on copyright, to assist Parliamentarians in their study of Bill C-32. The goal of any new copyright legislation must be to strike the appropriate balance in the rights of all parties, while recognizing the value of the intellectual property in copyright. 

In reviewing Bill C-32, the CBA Sections assembled a working group of CBA members with expertise in copyright law and privacy law to develop the submission (the Working Group). The Working Group was often unable to agree upon an assessment of specific provisions from a policy perspective. Therefore, in lieu of specific recommendations, it adopted a format wherein it identified potential issues with each provision, noted the diversity of perspectives with respect to these issues, and developed a chart summarizing relevant commentary from creators/owners’ and users’ perspectives.

The Working Group produced commentary under the headings: Technological Protection Measures, Exceptions to Copyright Infringement, ISP and Search Engine Liability, Making Available and Distribution Rights, and Statutory Damages, and ends each section with the aforementioned chart.

HK