A new interactive media and design lab receiving over $1.5 million in federal funding could be the beginning of a network of such facilities spanning the country. The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) in early March gave the funding jointly to the Banff Institute of the Arts and the Emily Carr School of Design so they can build an interdisciplinary digital studio at Emily Carr. The digital studio will be networked with Banff’s Art, Research and Technology (ART) Visualization Lab.

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It looks increasingly unlikely that a stalemate between the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and department officials from Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage over World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty implementation can be solved without leadership from the federal Cabinet. During meetings March 24 and March 30, committee members continued to hammer at officials over a lack of recommendations on how the government intends to reform Canada’s copyright laws for the digital age, and neither the committee nor the departments have yet put a comprehensive series of proposals on the table for debate. Matters could be complicated as, on April 1, several parties asked the chair of the Standing Committee of Industry, Science and Technology to also weigh in on the debate.

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A noted Ottawa copyright expert says that there could be dire consequences for Canada if it implements the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet treaties. His view contrasts sharply with March 9 testimony by the record labels’ counsel to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Macera and Jarzyna’s Howard Knopf says much of the testimony of the Canadian Recording Industry Association’s (CRIA) Richard Pfohl was disingenuous and that alternative interpretations of the WIPO Internet treaties are possible (CNM, March 17/04).

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The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) will appeal a March 31 Federal Court of Canada ruling against its efforts to get at subscriber information for 29 individuals suspected of violating music copyright laws (CNM Special Update, March 31/04; CNM, Feb. 20/04). Though the ruling by Justice Konrad von Finckenstein has been lauded by many who oppose CRIA’s efforts, the door is still open to further suits. CRIA counsel Richard Pfohl didn’t disclose the organization’s legal strategy in a media release – except to confirm that it would appeal the ruling – but it’s widely expected that the industry lobby group will ask the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the decision on the basis that von Finckenstein used too strong a test to determine the motion’s validity.

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