Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Good afternoon. Bonjour. My name is Glen Bloom, and I'm a partner in the law firm of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt. I appear today on behalf of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, IPIC. It's a pleasure for me to be here today on behalf of IPIC. Thank you for inviting

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  It's difficult for me to talk about policy issues. I must stay away from them. But on the issue of clarity, there is one provision in the act, the fair dealing provision, that has to give flexibility to the courts, because it is not possible for legislators to define all circumst

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Perhaps I can help you. The three-step test is something to consider as to whether an exception is appropriate and is permissible under the international treaties. The international treaties have permitted a fair dealing exception. The six factors that the Supreme Court of Canada

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  It's our understanding, as we've been advised by government officials, that WIPO treaty compliance is a policy issue and therefore I'm not able to speak to that issue. But what I can say is that under the draft of the legislation currently, the prohibition against circumvention c

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  In the submission we will be furnishing to the officials, we have expressed our concern about precisely that point. It comes up in a number of sections. There is “private”. There is “non-commercial”. There is “non-profit”. These terms are used throughout the legislation, and the

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I don't think you could use that language; it wouldn't be effective. But you could certainly craft language that would much more focus the UGC section. If that's to be done, let's get the right language. But it could be done, yes.

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  We're not proposing issues that would be policy issues; we're pointing out where the existing language, which is based on a policy intent, has perhaps fallen somewhat short of the policy intent, or where there are issues of clarity, and you've hit on one of them, which is this no

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I can say our submission does refer to a specific, very recent Federal Court decision that looked at the words “educational textbook” and did conclude that “educational textbook” is not confined to something that is used in a structured educational environment. So if the policy

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I do believe there is need for new copyright legislation. The legislation does need to be modernized. The legislation does not address many of the issues in the digital environment that are critical for both creativity and for the dissemination and use of works, and therefore it

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  No. Our committee simply looked at the bill as it's drafted to determine whether it's WIPO compliant. We did not look at and have not considered whether, if there were lower standards of protection, it would also be WIPO compliant. We'd need to see what the lower protection was i

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  It's our opinion that the TPM provision certainly meets the requirements under the WIPO treaties.

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I spoke earlier about the need for modernization. One of the critical needs for modernization is to provide a regime of protection to enable a marketplace to operate in the digital environment. That's what this bill is seeking to do, and that's what Canada needs to do to meet its

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Well, certainly there are studies. We've not considered those studies. They've been largely done by other groups, other rights-holder groups. We're somewhat more neutral than that, but certainly those studies do exist.

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I have nothing to add.

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  We will provide it.