Source: excesscopyright.blogspot.comSimon Doyle at the Hill Times managed to catch Minister Oda right after the throne speech. To her credit, she was gracious enough to give him a brief interview.
Simon Doyle: "Copyright is something that you'll probably be looking at sometime down the road and today they mentioned in the Throne Speech that major treaties will go through Parliament. The copyright treaties, is that something that you might vote on in Parliament?"
Bev Oda: "The three pieces of legislation that were in the Throne Speech were put in the Throne Speech because they will be bills of existing legislation that will be reviewed. Copyright legislation has to be amended to make our copyright laws and ratify the international treaties."
Simon Doyle: Does that mean you would vote on the treaties as well as the..."
Bev Oda: "No, you would have to introduce amendments to the existing copyright legislation. The copyright legislation that was introduced by the previous government, once it was tabled, it did die on the order paper, but once it was tabled created a lot of dissension. There were different views on many elements of that bill. Consequently we are working and we will be introducing a new copyright bill that will expedite meeting our international obligations but also making sure that we have a copyright regime and a copyright framework that's appropriate."
Quoted from the The Hill Times.
Conservative government to introduce copyright bill: Bev Oda
The Conservative government intends to amend the Copyright Act and ratify two internet treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Heritage Minister Bev Oda told the Hill Times last week after the Speech from the Throne.
"Copyright legislation has to be amended to make [compliant] our copyright laws and ratify the international treaties," Ms. Oda (Durham, Ont.) said. "We will be introducing a new copyright bill that will expedite meeting our international obligations but also making sure that we have a copyright regime and a copyright framework that's appropriate."
The WIPO Internet treaties have been a source of some controversy because they give owners of copyrighted works more control over the use and distribution of music, movies, and other content in the digital age. The treaties, adopted in Geneva in 1996, would clarify file-sharing as copyright infringement in Canada, for example, making it easier for the recording industry to sue file-sharers. They would also make it an infringement to crack the technological copy and access controls on digital content.
While the major recording companies, book publishers and other copyright owners support ratifying the treaties, their critics point out that Canada is not under any international obligation to implement their requirements, and should rethink their ratification.
The Liberal government had introduced a bill at the end of the 38th Parliament that, if passed, would have made Canada compliant with the treaties, but it died on the order paper.
Ms. Oda did not say when the legislation would be introduced, but since copyright is not one of the government's much talked-about five priorities, it is not expected to be introduced in the spring session. The Throne Speech also said that major international treaties would be voted on in Parliament, leading some to wonder whether the ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties would come to a vote.
"Let's hope that this Government has not made up its mind already on the WIPO treaties," Ottawa copyright lawyer Howard Knopf, a critic of the treaties, wrote on his blog last week. "Many would consider that to be a less than funny trick."--by Simon Doyle