Congress opposed to “hurried” passage of Bill C-48, warns of trade friction

Last month, a group of major U.S. copyright holders wrote their government asking for its assistance in fighting Bill C-48 (see story in this issue and CNM, May 31/02). On June 4, the U.S. Congress’ House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary wrote the following to Canada’s ambassador to Washington DC, Michael Kergin. The letter has caused significant consternation among members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as they struggle to understand the trade implications of protecting Internet retransmission with a compulsory licence. Dear Mr. Ambassador: We write to express our serious concern regarding legislation pending in the Canadian Parliament that would almost certainly cause enormous harm to U.S. copyright holders and local television stations, and would further constitute a violation of Canada’s international obligations. We understand that the U.S. Administration has expressed these same concerns through diplomatic channels, and we urge your Government to take them into account during the Parliamentary process. Bill C-48 would amend the Canadian copyright law to establish a compulsory license for Internet retransmissions of television broadcasts. Our basic concern is that the legislation was drafted in such a way as to disregard singular features of the Internet and could, therefore, facilitate piracy of copyrighted works. This is because the Internet is not comparable to conventional cable and satellite systems; its reach is not limited by geography or market areas. As a result, the risk of world-wide "leakage" of content from any Canadian compulsory license for Internet retransmission is enormous, and Bill C-48, if enacted, has great potential to facilitate massive piracy of copyrighted U.S. works. Moreover, Bill C-48 would eliminate the fundamental ability of many U.S. copyright holders to control the distribution of product licensed to conventional broadcasters. This will dramatically reduce the value of the related copyright licenses and drive product to other means of distribution. It also would compel Canadian and U.S. broadcasters to contend with the unlimited importation of television programs into markets for which they have acquired the exclusive local rights. It is possibly for this reason that no country in the world permits Internet-based retransmission of copyrighted television broadcasts under a compulsory license. Finally, such a license represents a potential violation of Canada’s international obligations under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne). Under this scenario, both protocols – Article 9 of TRIPS and Article 11 bis(2) of Berne – would require that the application and impact of any compulsory licenses of rebroadcast rights be limited to Canada. Given that no effective technology for imposing geographic restrictions on access to material available over the Internet has been developed, the effects of this compulsory license would not be limited to Canada. As a result, it could not be implemented consistent with these agreements. We urge your government to take these concerns into account as the Parliament reviews Bill C-48. Hurried passage at this time would contravene Canadian obligations under TRIPS and Berne, and represent an unnecessary and unfortunate source of trade friction between our governments. Thank you for your consideration of our views. Sincerely, (signed) James Sensenbrenner Jr.John Conyers Jr.Howard CobleHoward Berman

Congress opposed to “hurried” passage of Bill C-48, warns of trade friction

News | 06/14/2002 4:00 am EDT

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