Not in the cards. For now.
Good news for a Friday! Well, unless you’re a fan of media conglomeration I guess. The CRTC has flat out rejected Bell’s request for approval of their planned buyout of Astral. Not hemming and hawing like they usually do, but just stone-cold giving Bell the finger. But Bell won’t take this decision lying down, they’ve got plans! Evil, nefarious plans!
Are you an online consumer of child pornography? Well I have some bad news for you! The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled last week that you really don’t have an expectation of privacy when it comes to your ISP turning over your personal information, Charter of Rights be damned. But what if you are doing something less skeevy than child porn? Maybe you’re a big fan of content from somewhere like https://www.cartoonporno.xxx/. Well that’s a bit trickier. Let’s dive in.
Is your privacy online being shredded to bits? The Office of the Privacy Commissioner sure thinks so! This week, they released the results of a study they did of 25 major Canadian websites, which showed that 11 of them were engaging in “web leakage”. So which companies are leaking your personal information? Let’s find out!
THE FUTURE IS BEING DECIDED THIS WEEK, PEOPLE!!! Ok, that’s a bit hyperbolic, as is my habit. But the CRTC hearings on the Bell purchase of Astral Media that are happening this week in Montreal are extremely important for the future of broadcasting in this country. And more importantly for me, they will undoubtedly have a massive impact on the internet for computers. Let’s break down the hearings with the handy FAQ format that all the kids love.
Well hello there. We’ve come to I guess what would be part 3 of my coverage of the pentalogy of Supreme Court cases on copyright. It will most likely be the final post, as the other two cases deal with non-internet stuff (education and movies, yawn) so really, who gives a crap? But Rogers v. SOCAN is chock full of plump internet juiciness, so let’s dive in!
And we’re back with Part Something in our coverage of the Copyright Pentalogy. Last time we took a look at what I called the most “internet-y” of the cases, SOCAN v. Bell. Today let’s take a look at maybe the second most “internet-y” case, Rogers v. SOCAN. Man, I sense a SOCAN trend. HOLD THE PHONE. I just read the case, and decided we’re going to look at ESA v. SOCAN instead. SOCAN trend indeed. Anyway, let me explain the change of heart.
So you may remember back in December I wrote about the five copyright cases that were being heard in the Supreme Court. Well probably you don’t remember. ANYWAY, the decisions in the five cases (the “Copyright Pentalogy”) came down last week. And what do you know, they were all pretty much a big win for consumers, and for common sense. Yay, Supreme Court!
It’s really fucking hot, and I’ve got summertime to enjoy, so I have no desire right now to read all five cases. So I’ll be covering the cases (some of them?) over the next few weeks. If you just can’t wait, and you want to know about all five right now, go read Geist or Sookman. I’m sure they each have a team of students who read the cases for them. Me, I’m just one man. So let’s dig into one of the two most “internet-y” of the cases, SOCAN v. Bell, and see what rights for consumers have been affirmed by our esteemed judges.
So with all the media whoring over the last couple of weeks, I have neglected to tell you all sorts of interesting stuff. You may have heard that Bill C-11 cruised through the Senate and received Royal Assent. Ugh. When it actually comes into force I’ll write about it again. Oh, and here’s a very interesting article about C-11’s effects on isoHunt.com, with juicy quotes from some internet lawyer guy.
But what I missed that I really wanted to write about was a very interesting and important case that came out of the Federal Court of Canada, that is a real help for bloggers and other online journalists. Better late than never. Let’s take a close look at Warman v. Fournier (PDF), which allows for some significant copying of content on the internet. Yippee!
Here’s my latest for The Montreal Gazette’s Legal Matters. Not a bad little piece about ownership of videos you post online, in light of the Pauline Marois ad business from last week. I talked out of my ass a little bit, but hey, that’s what lawyers do.
I’ll be on CBC Radio Noon today at about 12:10 to discuss the Liberals’ use of Facebook video for their Pauline Marois ad. And possibly taking questions from listeners! There’s a listen live link at the top right of that CBC page. As usual my biggest challenge will be not to swear.
UPDATE – that’s good work CBC getting this online so fast, and embeddable too. Someone understands social media.
UPDATE #2 – nothing pisses me off more than autoplay files on a web page. That’s bad work CBC. I’m removing the embed, here’s a link to go listen. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Oooh boy! Everyone’s favourite bill, Bill C-11 (The Copyright Modernization Act), passed third reading on Monday night this week in the House of Commons. That means it only has to get Senate approval rubber-stamped in the Senate, then get Royal Assent (really a rubber stamp) before becoming the law of the land. It should happen within the month most likely. Democracy in action!
The vote was 158-135. I am too lazy to check every name who voted, but I assume that all the yeas were Conservative. Given that there are 164 Conservative MPs, that’s probably a good assumption.
I was all ready to write a nice long post about the good, the bad, and the ugly of C-11 as it relates to the internet, but it is just too fucking hot and humid for a long post. You need (I need) to get to a swimming pool already. Geist has a good piece on how C-11 has evolved over the years, and IP Osgoode has an outstanding summary of what’s in the bill in a nice neutral way, so go read those if you like. I’ll be busy circumventing digital locks (in the name of education and / or criticism!) while I still can.
Yes this is Stephen Harper. That's the point.
On Friday (news dump day), the Conservative government announced their choice to replace Konrad “The Killer” von Finckenstein as head of the CRTC, starting June 18th. His name is Jean-Pierre Blais, and he’s… some guy. He’s a lawyer (ugh), and he has held high-level government positions at the Treasury Board, Department of Canadian Heritage, and even the CRTC itself. So, lifelong bureaucrat. Here’s the money blockquote from the article linked above:
Telecom insiders predict Mr. Blais, 51, is more likely to anticipate and comply with Conservative government policy leanings.
Looks like Harper got himself a yes-man. Don’t get me wrong, this guy has experience in the CRTC and was its general counsel, so he understands the issues. Doing something about those issues that benefits the people of Canada instead of the giant media corporations? Well, we’re gonna have five years of this guy to answer that question.
I am a lawyer specializing in internet law working out of Montreal, though sometimes I do it in front of the U.S. Capitol. That should tell you what you need to know about internet law in Canada. I also warp young legal minds at the Faculty of Law at McGill.
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