Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights
 

After less than a month in office the new US Ambassador to Canada wasted little time re-hashing the stereotypical view of Canada and its supposed lax copyright laws. Speaking at a conference in Montreal on Canada-US relations, David Jacobson indicated that Canada deserves its position on the USTR’s Priority Watch List for not legislating copyright reforms dictated by the US (read: lobbyists, corporations).

Considering Mr Jacobson’s litigious past, he spent over 30 years at the prestigious Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, one shouldn’t be too surprised by his rhetorical salvo against Canada and its copyright laws. Canadians can expect more of the same from Mr Jacobson and his office. It just remains to be seen whether the Harper Government will choose to amend Canada’s Copyright Act in a manner consistent with Canadian’s views and ideals or the bullying tactics of US litigators, lobbyists and trade groups.

Sonnenschein’s Intellectual Property & Technology Practice includes an active and extensive international trademark and patent practice. The firm has established a network of foreign counsel—local intellectual property practitioners in countries around the world—who provide vast and wide-ranging expertise in the laws of the countries in which the firm’s clients conduct business, source manufacturing, distribute products or chase infringements and counterfeits.

It seems Mr Jacobson’s message is getting through to Canada’s monopolistic-like media outlets and their mis-informed editors. I would invite Mr McKenna and other interested readers to inform themselves with this well written piece at TechDirt. Or if you prefer a well researched piece containing actual statistics and numbers, read here.

As expected the Office of the United States Trade Representative released its Special 301 Report today however it includes a special twist this year. Canada has been promoted to the “Priority Watch List”. That’s right, when it comes to the protection of Intellectual Property in the eyes of a biased, lobby dependent, cabinet level position of the US Government Canada now joins the ranks of China, Russia, India and Algeria (just to mention a few).

The move is not unexpected, given recent comments from Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Congressional panels as well as the demands from U.S. lobby groups. Those same groups will now dust off their press releases that lament the “embarrassment” of being included on the list (never mind that countries that represent more than 70 percent of the world’s population are on the list) and the failure to introduce U.S.-style reforms (never mind that Canada enacted anti-camcording laws in 2007, introduced C-61 last year, is an original negotiating partner in the ACTA negotiations, joined the U.S. as a third party in the WTO copyright complaint against China, etc.).

Source: Michael Geist

So as things ramp up for E3 the ESA’s propaganda machine kicks into high gear so you of course know they issued a press release applauding this move by the USTR about 3 seconds after the Special 301 Report was released.

Putting Canada on the ‘Priority Watch List’ is a signal of the Obama Administration’s commitment to strengthening global intellectual property protection, and its intent to address this issue firmly with the Canadian government,” said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “Canada’s weak laws and enforcement practices foster game piracy in the Canadian market and pave the way for unlawful imports into the U.S.”

Source: The ESA

Copyright reforms should be handled by sovereign nations in the normal discourse of their legislative assemblies. Canada has made clear its commitment to protect its intellectual properties. It should not stray from this course because a heavily influenced and lobbied report from another country claims its not pulling its weight. The Special 301 Report is entirely driven by the corporate lobbyists and lacks any dissenting voices of reason outside of US copyright special interest groups. Hopefully our Members or Parliament will listen the voices and concerns of their constituents and not the US corporate lobbyists who have the power of the media and press releases at their disposal. Ministers should ask themselves or be told, could a representation of over 2/3 of the world population really be guilty of comprising the USTR’s ‘Axis of Copyright Evil’?