Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights
 

In an move to preserve any shred of credibility it may still have the Conference Board of Canada has decided to recall its Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy report which blatantly copied language from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (software, movie and music lobby in the US).

Conference Board of Canada Statement

The Conference Board of Canada has recalled three reports: Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy; National Innovation Performance and Intellectual Property Rights: A Comparative Analysis; and Intellectual Property Rights–Creating Value and Stimulating Investment. An internal review has determined that these reports did not follow the high quality research standards of The Conference Board of Canada.

Yesterday the Conference Board of Canada was given the opportunity by Professor Michael Geist and the Canadian internet community to restore its integrity by retracting its report entitled Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy which simply regurgitated language from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (software, movie and music lobby in the US). The Conference Board of Canada refused to seize this opportunity and instead chose to stand behind the plagiarized report.

The Conference Board of Canada stands behind the findings of its report, “Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy”.

While Mr. Geist charges the Board with lack of attribution in several instances, in fact, only one citation is missing. We have corrected the missing citation in the report and we apologize for the oversight. All other instances, referred to in the blog, include sources. We also acknowledge that some of the cited paragraphs closely approximate the wording of a source document.

It would seem that a nerve has been struck at the Conference Board of Canada and their attention to this outrage over their plagiaristic actions which were funded by taxpayer money. $15,000.00 of your money to be exact.

“These are serious allegations. We take any charge of plagiarism seriously,” Rivers[Grahame Rivers, press secretary for John Wilkinson, Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation] says. “We will be following up and look forward to hear what they [Conference Board of Canada] have to say about this.”

One can only assume that the shameful report released by the Conference Board of Canada is only a small part of a larger campaign being driven by US and Canadian lobby groups. A campaign intent on making whatever legislation is to follow Bill C-61 more palatable to the masses.

Yet again Michael Geist, seemingly one of Canada’s only voices of reason on copyright related issues, has uncovered a rather shameful piece of plagiarism by the supposedly non partisan, non special interest Conference Board of Canada. The Conference Board of Canada recently published a report entitled Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy and as Geist points out the report is:

a deceptive, plagiarized report on the digital economy that copied text from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (the primary movie, music, and software lobby in the U.S.), at times without full attribution.

As the Conference Board of Canada claims to uphold a standard of accountabilty, Canadians can make their voices heard and let the Conference Board of Canada know just what they think if this plagiarized, inaccurate tripe:

Anne Golden, President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada: golden@conferenceboard.ca
Stephen Toope, Conference Board of Canada board member: presidents.office@ubc.ca
Indira V. Samarasekera, Conference Board of Canada board member: uofapres@ualberta.ca
John Wilkinson, Minister of Research and Innovation: jwilkinson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Although Canada has come to accept this type of blatant and unsubstantiated ridicule from lobby groups and special interest groups alike, it is completely dis-heartening and downright pathetic to see supposed independent, not for profit Canadian entities taken their marching orders from Washington. One wonders, just how independent and not for profit the Conference Board really is now? Even with the profit, the Board is now irrelevant and meaningless. Now, what will be the next step for the Conference Board? Will they go into damage control mode or will they undermine the work of Canada’s foremost copyright voice and for that matter all Canadians, and simply stick their proverbial heads in the sand? Time will tell, however, time will not repair the lack of credibility will that will now be invoked when one speaks of The Conference Board of Canada.