Industry committee  In terms of the games industry, certainly the games industry has been explosive in its growth over the past few years. We have at least 260 institutions across the country offering games-related programs at varying levels. Some are more advanced than others. The challenge has b

Industry committee  Because the bulk of the changes were aimed at a form of R and D that doesn't really happen that much in the games industry—we're much more labour based; we're not capital intensive in the same kind of way—the changes don't have that significant an impact. We're a little concerned

Industry committee  Thanks. We should be trying to harmonize to the extent possible simply because it's a cost issue. It's very difficult to operate in different jurisdictions out of different regimes.

Industry committee  I agree, and I put an emphasis on any kind of funding, be it tax credits or direct funding, for the commercialization element of it, as opposed to pure research and development. Pure R and D is important, but it shouldn't necessarily have the lion's share of the funding.

Industry committee  While certainly there's an interprovincial component to our business, I'm just not sufficiently familiar with the legislation to be able to comment, unfortunately.

Industry committee  I think it's both. Certainly there is an organized crime element to it, especially when it comes down to the modchips or the physical components, where the organization of a business that's operating in illegal trade is, by definition, organized crime. The online elements tend to

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  As with all things, I think a careful balance is important. I agree that in terms of the issue of clarity, it's critically important. It's also making sure that you have smart regulation. When there's a policy objective you're attempting to obtain, you're attempting to obtain it

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. Actually, it's a fancy way of saying it, but when I say giving customs officers the ex officio power to seize, that's exactly what I mean. Right now customs officials do not have the power to seize on their own power things they identify or suspect to be counte

Industry committee  Absolutely. Actually one of the recommendations that a number of groups made is the notion of an IP crime task force, which would be representatives from rights holders, from private industry, from government, and from law enforcement who all stick together. There is an informal

Industry committee  I agree. You're right that the games industry tends to operate in what you might called closed environments, assuming it's a console. Whether or not it's a closed environment versus a more open environment—and there's a lot of what the word ”open” might happen to mean as an impac

Industry committee  It's a good question. I don't have an answer, mostly because games, specifically console games, actually remain at a fairly consistent price.

Industry committee  Okay. We'll change that eventually.

Industry committee  It's all of the above in terms of where they are. The core groups that stand to gain from widespread piracy of video games, and also of music, movies, and so forth—we're all in the same boat here—and some regular software as well, tend to be, in our case, those who offer, often f

Industry committee  No, unfortunately not. It's partly that the nature of the piracy has just evolved. It went from a hard goods piracy, where people would buy on discs, to where people download games now. Year over year we see the number of infringements that we detect online increasing as it becom