Paula Gignac has been named as executive director of IAB Canada. Gignac has served in a number of capacities in the interactive industry, including as GM of Chatelaine.com and as VP or Rogers’ women’s group of web sites.

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Radar Pictures takes piece of C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures
Los Angeles-based Radar Pictures has taken an undisclosed minority interest in C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and C.O.R.E. Feature Animation. Radar is the company behind The Last Samurai, The Chronicles of Reddick and Runaway Bride, and has seen its films gross $3.25 billion since 1984. C.O.R.E. touts itself as Canada’s largest employer of digital animators in Canada, with a staff of over 400. Said Ted Field, founder and CEO of Radar, in a media release: "We’ve believed for some time that computer-generated animation will play a growing role in feature films. We also believe the natural evolution of our business is to move into feature animation. So we began to look for a company that had some unique qualities; first and obviously, it had to have loads of talent and a strong track record. But it also had to share our vision of creating an independent North American animation studio. C.O.R.E. is already producing films that rival the established animation producers."

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After a high-profile year and a half in operation, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is set to grow significantly to deal with an increasing number of requests for help, as well as a widening scope of activities.

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A small battle is brewing online as proponents of open source software gear up to fight the CBC’s decision to switch its streaming format to Windows Media Player. For the past week, participants in the discussion forum at www.digital-copyright.ca have expressed their frustration at the decision by CBC to abandon the Real Player format for streaming live audio in favour of the Microsoft Corp. product, while expressing hopes that the broadcaster might use an open standard player rather than support a proprietary format. They express fears that the CBC will use the digital rights management capabilities in Microsoft’s player, and highlight the security holes that they say exists in the product. There is precedent for using federal money, they say, to develop an open standard player as the BBC is currently examining.

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The Creative Commons rights licence, touted as an alternative to copyright, will be launched at the end of this month. Developed in large part by the students and faculty of the law and technology program at the University of Ottawa, the licence is a modification of the American version that has been used on more than three million digital works since being introduced in late 2002. The licence, which is a do-it-yourself approach to putting works into the public sphere while retaining copyright rights for later exploitation, offers legally binding language to protect creator rights without the need to hire a lawyer.

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The executive director of CBC.ca says recent Olympics coverage was a success by almost every measure, but that the absence of streaming audio remains a sticking point with the Mother Corp. Claude Galipeau tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that the public broadcaster couldn’t meet obligations to keep its live radio coverage restricted to Canada in time for this year’s event, but says he’s confident that by the time the Turin Winter Games arrive in 2006, the CBC will have the safeguards in place to keep its radio stream online instead of shutting it down for the duration of the games.

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The CRTC’s decision to grant Al Jazeera carriage in Canada but at the same time require TV distributors to ensure no derogatory comments are broadcast on the station could serve as the legal basis for holding ISPs accountable for illegal material transmitted through their lines. Mark Goldberg, a prominent telecom and broadcast consultant, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that he has been involved in early discussions around the formation of an industry self-regulatory body that would block access to sites hosting illegal content, with the threat that ISPs might be held liable for hate and kiddie porn crimes if they are made aware of illegal material and continue to allow subscribers to access it. Goldberg says the Al Jazeera ruling makes it clear that carriers can be held responsible for content, and hopes the principle will be applied to the interactive environment, as well.

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