Departments had adequate time to study section 31: Canadian Heritage official

Canadian Heritage’s point-man on copyright reform is defending the department’s timeframe to amend section 31 of the Copyright Act, saying it has had enough time to properly evaluate public submissions and draft legislation for introduction this year. In an interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Bruce Stockfish, director general of the copyright policy branch at Heritage, says submissions to a consultation process ongoing since last June have been useful in determining possible directions for the controversial retransmission regime. Stockfish’s comments come in the wake of questions about the appropriateness of legislation so soon after reply comments were due in the public consultation process. On October 29, one week following the close of the reply period, both Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps and Industry Canada minister Brian Tobin told a broadcasters’ convention in Ottawa that they were preparing to close the s. 31 loophole (CNM Update, Oct. 29/01). Some industry observers were surprised at the close timing. Copyright and similar discussions can take years from start to finish, and the Christmas deadline set by Copps represents an unusually expedited process. Stockfish says, however, that the departments of Heritage and Industry Canada have been evaluating s. 31 for over a year, and the ministers’ comments didn’t come as a surprise. "The s.31 issue was very advanced. We’d had consultations over the past year," he says. "The…process confirmed a lot of those consultations. We certainly had an opportunity to consider the submissions and, in fact, we did take advantage of the consultation process. We are taking advantage of those comments and submissions to finalize the proposed amendments. Both ministers indicated simply that they prefer we move on a faster track and we’re working to comply with the ministers’ wishes. "Certainly, we were working on a fast-track to deal with the section 31 issue. I wouldn’t say it was a surprise. The ministers simply indicated, in more precise terms shall we say, their timing on the issue." In fact, possible amendments have been quietly circulating among industry representatives since early last winter (CNM, Jan. 24/01). At the time, Stockfish told CNM that if a consensus could be found on any of four proposals for changing the Copyright Act, then legislation might be passed by spring. Clearly, no consensus has been possible as JumpTV.com Canada Inc. and the Canadian Cable Television Association stood fast against demands by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), the Canadian Film and Television Production Association and others to exclude the Internet from s.31. Now, however, the ministers have publicly indicated their willingness to close the s. 31 loophole. Stockfish won’t give any preview of legislation that he expects to be brought to the federal Cabinet soon. Asked whether there would be an Internet carve-out, or whether Internet retransmitters would be brought under the protection of the regime to "close the loophole", Stockfish wouldn’t divulge specifics. "That’s the ministers’ language," he says. "Certainly, we never talked in those terms in the consultation paper or in any of our discussions with the industry. …We’re not using the language of a loophole. It’s a question of clarifying so that it applies in a way that – as a matter of policy – is acceptable from the government’s point of view and from the stakeholders’ point of view." Along those lines, Stockfish says the department has several options, but that nothing is yet written in stone. Discussing submissions by the CAB and others that would be likely to accept nothing short of specifically excluding the Internet as a solution, Stockfish says, "we understand that. Certainly, that’s the submission they’ve made. Others have made other submissions that would still clarify s. 31 – perhaps limit, but not prohibit, but limit the application on the Internet. If they consider that closing the loophole, then so be it."

Departments had adequate time to study section 31: Canadian Heritage official

News | 11/15/2001 5:00 am EST

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