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May 28, 2008 Canada is under significant pressure from the U.S. government and the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), among other business groups, to reform its copyright legislation. International documents leaked to the press last week indicate that the Harper government is preparing to sidestep Parliament by signing a NAFTA-like international treaty that would radically change what types of currently legal activity will be cracked down on and by whom. “The Canadian government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make information on iPods, laptops and other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices,” reported the Ottawa Citizen on May 24, based on leaked documents reported to have emerged from the Office of the United States Trade Representative. According to the article, if Canada were to sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), it would be joining the United States, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and members of the European Union in a NAFTA-type international agreement on copyright infringement that would:
David Fewer, a staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, explained ACTA this way: "If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close.” Well, Hollywood is apparently making the policy, which was included into the SPP discussions during the Montebello summit last August, where leaders announced an Intellectual Property Action Plan that was immediately praised by the NACC. Just this week, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, a major SPP-booster, announced the creation of a new Canadian Intellectual Property Council, which will be “pressing the case that harsher action against violators of copyright and trademark rights is needed to protect innovation and Canadian competitiveness,” according to the Toronto Star. According to Matthew Ingram in his Globe and Mail blog, “Past attempts by the Canadian record industry to compel ISPs to produce such information failed when the courts ruled that the Canadian Recording Industry Association didn't have the authority to request that kind of private personal data.” Ingram explains that the ACTA agreement is separate from new federal copyright legislation, which Michael Geist, also at the University of Ottawa, predicts will be announced by Industry Minister Jim Prentice as early as next week, “and is also expected to clamp down on a wide range of behaviour involving digital content – in much the same way that the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA does.” Geist, who is the most prominent member of a powerful citizens movement against stricter copyright in Canada, told the Ottawa Citizen that, “The lack of consultation, the secrecy behind it and the speculation that [the ACTA talks] will be concluded within a matter of months without any real public input is deeply troubling.” .
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