Evidence of meeting #59 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was problem.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Robert Vincent Bloc Shefford, QC
Counterfeiters won’t be too concerned about the measures that you are recommending because they are making millions of dollars off these products. We need tougher fines and legal action.
President, Canadian Recording Industry Association
Well, they have to go to jail.
Chair, Education and Training Committee, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network
I was going to say that today we have criminals who are getting more and more into the counterfeiting area. The companies are also doing more, including brand protection technologies. Microsoft is a leader in that area, and there are other companies. They put enough brand protection in their product to make it easy to spot if you know what to look for.
I happen to agree very strongly with Mr. Webster's comment that once those technologies have been proven in court, then that should be it. You shouldn't have to prove them again and again. You shouldn't have to call witnesses from around the world to prove that's the technology in there. Either it's there or it's not, and if it's not, it's counterfeit.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Dan McTeague
Thank you, Mr. Vincent.
Now let’s open the floor up to Mr. Colin Carrie.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much.
Mr. Frith, you mentioned that some changes of the regulations could be made through order in council. Did you provide the ones that you specifically thought should be changed?
President, Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association
The one I was told to address would be the proceeds of crime. It does not require a legislative change; it can be done through an order in council. Believe me, there would not be any opposition from any of the copyright industries to that.
Conservative
President, Canadian Recording Industry Association
To the extent that they need to be made, a lot of the others can be very simple one-line amendments. The CACN, by the way, is proposing an omnibus anti-counterfeiting piece of legislation. Rather than doing a piecemeal chop and change, we need to do a single bill. This is the way they've done it in a variety of jurisdictions around the world: one bill that makes counterfeiting and importing counterfeit items clearly illegal, and then everything flows from there.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I have another question.
Are you aware of anything that's coming up internationally? We have these bar codes on products, which anyone can slap on, but I've heard they have these new chips and things like that. Have you heard of any technology coming out that might help us track where these things are going through the supply chain?
Chair, Education and Training Committee, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network
There are numerous technologies that are able to do that. Canada has a company called IDGLOBAL, out of Kelowna, that has synthetic DNA, for lack of a better description. There is RFID--radio frequency. There are chemicals. There are very sophisticated holograms.
Chair, Education and Training Committee, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network
Yes. Microsoft, for example, has multi-layered technology. I certainly don't know all the technology they have; some of it has been shown in court. I'm quite confident that they, along with other companies, have multi-layered approaches to the anti-counterfeiting technologies. It can be quite sophisticated, and they work. Some are covert and some are overt.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Would you be able to provide a list of some of the things that are out there?
Liberal
Chair, Education and Training Committee, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network
Yes. I believe we could provide you with that. We actually have a PowerPoint presentation with some of the major ones, which we use in our training.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Dan McTeague
Mr. Carrie, thank you very much.
Mr. Lipkus, guests, thank you very much for being here today. It was extremely informative and very helpful to this committee. I think we're on the right track. We look forward to hearing from you on any other question you may think is helpful to this committee. Please feel free to send us supplementary information as we come forward with a decision.
Thank you again.
The meeting is now adjourned until Wednesday.