Drew Olsen has been named vice-chair and CEO of the Copyright Board of Canada, it was announced Tuesday. He begins his five-year term on Aug. 26.
A longtime employee of the Department of Canadian Heritage, Olsen is currently associate director general its audiovisual...
Organizations representing Canada’s creative industries are calling on MPs to add copyright provisions to Bill C-27, in order to protect creators’ content, likeness, and...
The federal government is seeking public input on generative artificial...
Arguments began Thursday in a Federal Court case that would see pirated...
Canada’s Online News Act could serve as a template for countries around...
Canadian broadcasting executives, from companies...
The Supreme Court of Canada says Canada’s Copyright Act “does not exist solely for the benefit of authors,” in a decision in which it found that the Copyright Board...
The Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is suing Quebecor Inc. for...
Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez is...
A Conservative MP who was outspoken on the revised Broadcasting Act, Bill...
A test-case for Canada's first-ever "dynamic" site-blocking order is headed...
BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Quebecor Inc. have turned to...
OTTAWA -- MP Pablo Rodriguez is back in familiar territory as he is once...
A trio of Canada's biggest broadcasters has asked the Federal Court for a...
A federal court judge has fined a pre-loaded set top box seller $40,000 for being in contempt of an...
A federal appeal court judge has revived a proposed reverse class-action suit by movie studio Voltage Pictures LLC looking to sue thousands of alleged Canadian copyright...
A Federal Court judge ordered three pirate TV services to pay more than $29...
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled Friday partially in favour of a group...
With Parliament rising this week for its summer break, a number of bills of interest to the broadcasting...
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is opposing internet...
An Alberta judge shot down a request from Allarco Entertainment 2008 Inc. for an injunction against Best Buy Canada Ltd., Staples Canada ULC, Canada Computers Inc., and London Drugs Limited as part of its suit against the retailers whose employees allegedly recommended to customers that they pirate content using media boxes. In a decision released Friday, Justice Michael Lema of the province’s Court of Queen’s Bench denied Edmonton-based Allarco, the owner of the Super Channel television network, an injunction stopping the stores from selling “certain TV set-top boxes.” The...
The Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will hear an appeal from Music Canada and the Society of...
The federal government has launched a consultation document to solicit feedback on whether or not it...
Is a Nov. 2019 court order mandating a number of...
The federal government has appointed Federal Court judge Luc Martineau as...
A small Ontario telecommunications provider has told Federal Court it should be able to continue to market its wireless home internet service as “WiFibe,” urging it to deny a trademark injunction...
BCE Inc. has asked a Federal Court of Appeal judge to throw out an appeal of Canada's first ever site-blocking court order, saying that TekSavvy Solutions Inc.'s appeal of the order is grounded in...
BCE Inc. has asked Federal Court to order a small Ontario telecom to stop using the name “WiFIBE” for its wireless fibre internet service. Bell argued in a claim filed Monday that SkyChoice...
In a closely-watched appeal of Canada's first-ever site-blocking court...
The Copyright Board was wrong in extending the making available right to downloads in 2017, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. The court said the board, in making that decision, “went to article 8 of the [The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty], asserted its view of that article’s meaning without any supporting reasoning,” and then interpreted 2.4(1.1) of the Copyright Act to “conform to its view.” “This is not a legally acceptable methodology. This...
Music Canada CEO Graham Henderson will step down from the role he’s held for more than 15 years, the organization announced in a Thursday press release. In the statement, Henderson said working at Music Canada had been a...
After dropping its lawsuit in Federal Court against four retailers whose employees it accused of recommending pirating content from media boxes sold in stores -- and subsequently launching a similar...
A Federal Court proceeding between Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron and Rovi Guides Inc. that was halted in early March as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began, will resume via Zoom, over the objections of...
A consortium of rights holders — including the top tier of English soccer, the Premier League, sports streaming service Dazn and industry trade groups for book publishers — wants the Federal Court of Appeal to uphold...
Allarco Entertainment 2008 Inc.’s Super Channel has dropped its Federal Court lawsuit against four major retailers, whose employees allegedly recommended pirating content from media boxes sold in the store, only to launch similar action seeking $50 million in damages in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta. Super Channel’s new litigation lists 100 “John Doe” suppliers as defendants, as well as the four retail stores -- Best Buy Canada Ltd., Staples Canada ULC, Canada Computers Inc., and London Drugs Ltd. -- and 1000 “John Doe” customers listed in its now dismissed Federal...
Court mandated website-blocking is an "extraordinary" remedy and should only be granted sparingly, according to a court filing from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. The BCCLA has...
As part of their ongoing effort to fight content piracy, two of Canada’s largest media and telecom...
Fresh documents are shedding light on how Canada’s first piracy case...
A recent Federal Court order for two internet service providers to disclose the personal information of alleged copyright infringers diverged from previous precedent by expanding the type of...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron will argue in Federal Court later this month...
Internet service provider TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has appealed a Federal Court order requiring ISPs to...
Voltage Pictures LLC and Rogers Communications Inc. have both agreed to drop their appeal and cross-appeal, respectively, against a decision by the Federal Court to award the telecom costs to dig up personal information of alleged...
An Alberta court has sided with Corus Entertainment Inc. in banning the use...
In a precedent-setting decision, a Federal Court judge has ordered internet service providers to block specific websites hosting copyright-infringing TV content.
In a Nov....
The movie studio that has for years sought to sue...
The country’s largest TV service providers are appealing an increase in the over-the-air distant signal...
Six years after first filing suit alleging BCE Inc. infringed on its patent...
BCE Inc., Quebecor Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are arguing in...
Even if the large telecoms satisfy the court’s threshold to move forward with forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to block a website involved in alleged copyright infringing activity, it should not grant the application because it would usurp the authority of the...
In asking the Federal Court to deny certifying a class of defendants in a copyright infringement case, an advocacy group is arguing that an IP address is insufficient in proving an individual has...
In the event Federal Court allows a site-blocking application brought by...
OTTAWA — On the second and final day of a potentially precedent-setting court hearing on site-blocking, a Federal Court judge gave the parties until Wednesday to negotiate a revised draft site...
Counsel to Voltage Pictures LLC and a number of movie studios is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to review a case that found Rogers Communications Inc. is owed $67.23 to disclose the personal...
Shueisha Inc., a Japanese publisher of comic books, has filed an...
The Federal Court is setting at $35 the hourly rate that Rogers...
OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has granted an interim ban on what the big telecom companies are...
Three of the nation’s largest broadcasters are suing the owners of a service that is allegedly selling...
Music Canada, the trade organization which represents the Canadian divisions of some of the world’s largest record labels, has declared that the gap between what artists create and what they are paid for it — what they call the value gap — has reached “staggering” proportions. In a report released Wednesday, Music Canada attributes the problem to “a broken copyright framework, ill-adapted to the challenges of the digital age,” according to a release. Citing research done...
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal request by MediaTube Corp. to present new evidence in a six-year-old patent infringement case brought against BCE Inc. Judge David Stratus agreed with Bell’s argument that...
The House industry committee is asking the Heritage committee to study...
An organization representing sound recording rights holders wants to...
Nicholas McHaffie, who served as counsel to TekSavvy Solutions Inc. in its long-running legal saga against movie studios looking to get the personal information of Canadians in copyright cases, has been appointed to the Federal...
While the Canadian music industry aims to address revenue shortfalls in the face of increasing internet competition, amalgamators of their content rights have been filing lawsuits against public establishments who they allege have been playing their music without a license....
Key evidence relied upon by movie studios in a substantial chunk of copyright infringement cases that have yielded vast sums of money from settlements has been ruled insufficient by a Federal Court...
Music in public establishments such as malls, bars and restaurants should...
The Federal Court has set a spring date to determine how much Voltage Pictures LLC must pay Rogers Communications Inc. to hand over personal subscriber information after the Supreme Court found the telecom was entitled to...
BCE Inc. urged the federal government to make virtual private networks (VPNs) used to circumvent...
A regional internet registry is going to walk-back a controversial request...
The organization responsible for allocating IP numbers to intermediaries in...
OTTAWA — The Copyright Board will work to address long-standing criticism over how long it takes to issue decisions, including by implementing new regulations, CEO Nathalie Théberge told members of the House industry committee....
OTTAWA — The Canadian Bar Association told MPs Monday Parliament should introduce a new regime to deal with online piracy in the Copyright Act because the current notice-and-notice regime is...
OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants members of Parliament to include a “flexible copyright exemption” for AI and machine learning copying in the Copyright Act, adding to a chorus of voices from digital companies calling on Parliament to address the issue....
An expert in copyright law is asking senators to nix a reform measure in...
The federal government paid a $2,000 settlement to a Barrie, Ontario photographer, according to the 2018 public accounts, because bureaucrats shared a copyrighted image on a government Facebook page....
A reverse class action case that has been stalled for nearly two years over the issue of costs will now move forward, after plaintiff Voltage Pictures LLC put up $75,000 in security for defence costs. Voltage paid the amount...
The federal government has named two new members to the Copyright Board of Canada, a move that fills the last vacancies on the board and comes alongside Ottawa introducing new board reform measures....
OTTAWA — Consumer advocacy groups are cautioning MPs against proposals that would make site-blocking in Canada easier, after a push for those anti-piracy policies failed at the CRTC failed last month. Representatives from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) warned MPs on the House of Commons industry committee Monday against proposals similar to FairPlay Canada’s CRTC ask for a new website-blocking regime to deal with internet piracy. John Lawford, executive director at PIAC, said “expedient judicial...
OTTAWA -- BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are asking the House heritage committee to amend parts of the copyright and telecommunications acts to compel a number of intermediaries to take down websites that make available...
OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants to see the Copyright Board of Canada tariff setting process...
Nearly a dozen content producers have obtained a court order banning set-top box software developed by an individual in Canada that allows users to watch their content for free, according to court...
Internet traffic is “more encrypted than ever,” with a “conservative estimate” suggesting more than half of all internet traffic is encrypted, according to Sandvine Corp.’s 2018 Global...
The CRTC has no jurisdiction to implement a system to block websites...
OTTAWA -- Fraudulent copyright infringement claims made through Canada’s...
The new trade pact forged by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to replace the...
Some of the battles taking place before the CRTC related to site-blocking...
OTTAWA — Canada’s private broadcasters are defending Canada’s existing copyright laws and tariff rules and say a proposal to nix a radio royalty exemption in the Copyright Act is an attempt at a cash grab by the recording industry.
That comes after recording...
OTTAWA -- Canadian rock legend Bryan Adams is asking Canadian lawmakers to...
OTTAWA --- In a decision that could serve as a deterrent to copyright...
The European Parliament passed its copyright directive Wednesday, with some amendments to the...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters registered to lobby the federal government on its review of the Copyright Act in July, which was otherwise a sleepy month in telecom and media government...
More than a dozen movie studios have sued Canadians in recent months in a flurry of cases that has so far yielded over $200,000 in settlement agreements from individuals,...
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) will not hear an appeal from an American movie studio challenging a Canadian court’s decision forcing it to pay court costs upfront for a defendant it is looking to sue for copyright...
The Quebec Superior Court has ruled against a plan by the Quebec government...
One in eight Canadians have watched pirated TV or movie content online in...
A European Union committee has approved a controversial copyright directive that critics say could interfere with the sharing of online content. At issue are two articles under the directive. The...
The House industry committee heard some familiar suggestions from a number...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) asked a parliamentary committee...
The popularity of fully-loaded set-top boxes, such as Kodi devices, is illustrative of an attitude of indifference toward piracy, the House of Commons industry committee heard Thursday. There is no...
A government-commissioned report is shedding light on the extent of...
The ongoing review of the Copyright Act will begin focusing on the music, radio, television and film sectors next month. The House of Commons industry committee has heard from 100 stakeholders since the review began in December, the federal government said in a press release Friday. “To best support the work of its members, the Committee encourages Canadians to submit briefs on the topic of copyright and music, as well as copyright and television, film and radio, as early as possible,” the release said....