Speeches by Chairman of Copyright Board Now Posted

The Copyright Board has recently posted on its useful website three 2008 speeches by its Chairman, Justice William Vancise. These are as follows:

Ottawa, January 18, 2008 The Law Society of Upper Canada,12th Annual Intellectual Property Law Year in Review in which Justice Vancise:
• comments on several decisions of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada dealing with “standard of review”. Note that this paper was given a few weeks before the important decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick 2008 SCC 9, which is noted in a footnote.
• comments on the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in CAB v. SOCAN 2006 FCA 337 involving the radio tariffs wherein the Board was criticized for the inadequacy of its reasons.
• comments on challenging by way of judicial review positions conceded by counsel before the Board. (This is clearly a reference the Ringtones case, wherein the objectors conceded “that downloading a ringtone is a communication by telecommunication”)

New York, March 28, 2008 Fordham Intellectual Property Law Institute Annual Conference in which Justice Vancise:
• considers the potential impact of the SCC’s Dunsmuir decision.
• comments further on the issue of adequacy of reasons and in particular on the Federal Court of Appeal’s reasoning in CAB v. SOCAN 2006 FCA 337 and Apple, Retail Council, et al v. CCPC 2008 FCA 9 heard on January 9, 2008 with reasons delivered the next day that quashed the Board’s decision to proceed with a hearing for a tariff on digital audio recorders.

Cambridge, Ontario, June 20, 2008 Broadcasting Invitational Summit in which Justice Vancise:
• comments on broadcasters’ concerns about “excessive multiple tariffs” and compares the Board with the CRTC.

These speeches by Justice Vancise are unusually frank and, frankly, unusual with respect to comments on certain decisions of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada, which are the Courts that review the Copyright Board’s decisions. Accordingly, these papers are not only very interesting and important reading but are a “must” for all who need to know about the work of the Copyright Board and how its decisions are reviewed.

HK