More specifically, we are talking here about reproduction rights. In the digital world, the value of the work is associated with the server where the copy was originally made. The Copyright Act is unclear in this regard. A person could succeed by arguing that because the reproduction was made in another country, Canadian law does not apply.
We should simply introduce a notion of technological neutrality into the Copyright Act. The current version of the act includes a section on copyright infringement at a later stage, when a copy of a work is produced. If, for example, books are printed elsewhere and imported into Canada, and the authorization was not originally given by the Canadian owner in the other country, that importation is considered copyright infringement. In this case, the word “copy” should simply be replaced by “digital copy”. Suppose a reproduction is placed on a server in a cloud, and the Canadian holder has not given permission at the outset. Since this service primarily serves Canadian consumers, the same recourse should be available. We should be able to argue that Canadian law applies, since the recipients are Canadians.