The Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision today in York University v Access Copyright. The Court agreed with the Federal Court of Appeal that the tariff is not enforceable against York University, saying that a user is entitled to obtain its rights through other means than a tariff, so if the user makes an unauthorized use, the appropriate remedy is an action for infringement. The Court did not endorse the fair dealing analysis conducted by the lower courts and declined to make a decision on fair dealing but did discuss that in the educational context it is not only the institutional perspective that matters.
Tag Archives: Copyright
Consultations
Two consultations were announced today:
- the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board announced a consultation on updated guidance relating to Gap medicines, the references to the comparator countries and the international price tests for Grandfathered medicines and their line extensions, all arising from the six month extension to the coming-into-force of the new Regulations.
- The government announced a consultation on the copyright framework relating to artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, including data mining, authorship and ownership of works created by AI, infringement and liability regarding AI, and repair and interoperability issues related to technological protection measures.
Copyright
The government has launched a consultation on “a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries”, seeking comments until May 31. The consultation includes issues of intermediaries’ safe harbour protections against liability for copyright infringement, how intermediaries’ knowledge of infringement and content-related activities affect their liability as well as their attendant obligations, remuneration of rights holders through collective licensing of their copyright-protected content on certain platforms, transparency in rights holders’ remuneration and online uses of their content; and rights holders’ enforcement tools against intermediaries, including by way of a statutory “website-blocking” and “de-indexing” regime. Continue reading Copyright
Google v Oracle
US Supreme Court yesterday in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.: “Google’s copying of the Java SE API, which included only those lines of code that were needed to allow programmers to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program, was a fair use of that material as a matter of law.”
Copyright
Private Member’s Bill, C-272 was introduced: “An Act to amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance or repair)” would add section 41.121 to the Copyright Act to modify TPMs to allow a person to circumvent “a technological protection measure that controls access to a computer program if the person does so for the sole purpose of diagnosing, maintaining or repairing a product in which the computer program is embedded”.
Copyright
A private members bill, S-225, “An Act to amend the Copyright Act (remuneration for journalistic works)” was introduced today: “If a journalistic work … is reproduced or published on a digital platform that is owned or controlled by a designated digital platform provider, the Canadian journalism organization that owns the copyright in that journalistic work is entitled to remuneration.” Continue reading Copyright
Copyright Term
The government has announced a consultation “to consider whether to adopt accompanying measures to mitigate the potential implications” of extending the general term of copyright from 50 to 70 years after the life of the author as required by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Potential measures include an expanded orphaned works regime or an out-of-commerce regime.
Copyright Board
The Copyright Board has provided various notices (link) on proceedings pending before it under the transitional provisions of the “Time Limits in Respect of Matters Before the Copyright Board Regulations” including for matters awaiting hearing and matters where the 12-month reserve period has already expired.
York/Access Copyright
The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to release its leave decision on Thursday in York University v. Access Copyright on copyright tariffs and fair dealing.
USMCA
Bill C-4, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement implementation legislation received Royal Assent this afternoon. It passed the Senate before parliament suspended its session. As noted in an earlier post, Bill C-4 include a new criminal provisions on trade secrets, trademark changes on importation and in-transit goods, and some changes on copyright term.