Thanks. Good morning.
My name is Michael Geist. I'm a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where I hold the Canada research chair on Internet and e-commerce law. I've been active on copyright and intellectual property issues for many years. Last year, I edited the largest academic study to date on Bill C-32, the current copyright bill, with peer-reviewed contributions from 20 leading Canadian experts.
I appear before this committee today in my personal capacity, representing only my own views.
The committee's recently released report on CETA's fact-finding mission focused primarily on two intellectual property issues--geographical indications and pharmaceutical patents--so the committee is aware of some of the concerns associated with the EU proposals, particularly some of the impact on agricultural products, and even more so on pharmaceutical pricing.
But I'd like to focus on another intellectual property issue within CETA: copyright. I believe that to fully understand the CETA copyright provisions, they should be viewed within the broader context of copyright trade pressures on Canada.
As committee members may be aware, Canada recently participated in the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement negotiations that led to a draft agreement in December of last year. The United States and the European Union were two of the leading protagonists behind the treaty. While few would oppose genuine efforts to deal with dangerous commercial counterfeiting, ACTA generated a global public outcry on at least two grounds.
First, the secrecy associated with the negotiations led to widespread concern about the negotiation of an intellectual property agreement--