Teresa Scassa - Blog

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Friday, 08 February 2013 13:27

More on Privacy and Public Gun Permit Data

Recently I have blogged about the controversial interactive map created by the New York Journal News which showed the names and addresses of gun permit holders in two New York counties. I then followed this up with another posting about how the data on the map was substantially inaccurate. Both the map and its aftermath raise interesting issues about public data, open government and privacy rights.

This week, a New York court has given us more to think about on the issue of public government information and privacy. The New York Times sought access to an electronic copy of a database of the names and addresses of all residents of New York City who hold handgun licences. In Matter of New York Times Co. v. City of New York Police Dept., the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court denied disclosure of the database notwithstanding that the information it contains is a matter of public record. The court stated: “The fact that Penal Law §400.00(5) makes the name and address of a handgun license holder “a public record” is not dispositive of whether respondent can assert the privacy and safety exemptions to FOIL [Freedom of Information Law] disclosure.” The court went further, noting that this was so “especially when petitioners seek the names and addresses in electronic form.” It also indicated that other case law supported the view that the disclosure of a person’s home address “implicates a heightened privacy concern.”

This decision is an interesting one in that it tackles head on the thorny problem of what to do with public record information that includes the personal information (names and addresses) of individuals. When made available in electronic form, this information can be used to create all manner of information maps (among other things) that might generate far greater privacy concerns than the original government record. The infamous gun permit map is an example of this. Consider also the Proposition 8 map – a map that plotted the names, addresses and donation amounts of all contributors to a campaign to ban gay marriage in California.

Open government and open data principles favour the disclosure of government information in digital “re-usable” formats to serve a variety of public purposes which include promoting transparency and accountability. While access to information legislation generally permits a government department or agency to refuse disclosure of third party personal information in response to an access request, this limitation does not apply to information that is already part of a public record. In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (which governs the private sector use of personal information) creates exemptions to rules around the collection, use and disclosure of “publicly available information”. According to the regulations, this category of information expressly includes “personal information that appears in a registry collected under a statutory authority and to which a right of public access is authorized by law”. While it is true that the exemption is limited to instances “where the collection, use and disclosure of the personal information relate directly to the purpose for which the information appears in the registry”, given that the information appears in the registry for purposes of transparency and accountability, republishing the information would likely fit within those purposes. In any event, newspapers are largely exempt from the application of this law where personal information is collected, used or disclosed for journalistic purposes. The result is a significant gap in Canadian privacy law when it comes to public registry data.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is already aware of the problems that open government and open courts principles may raise when it comes to the electronic dissemination of “public record” information. For example, the Commissioner has issued guidelines to administrative tribunals to assist them in their decision-making around the online publication of decisions that might contain detailed personal information. Clearly the OPC is of the view that open online access can change the privacy equation.

Balancing the interests of open government and privacy is a significant challenge – and not an easy one. I doubt we have heard the last on this issue.

 

Published in Privacy
Friday, 01 February 2013 13:21

Update on Gun Permit Holder Information Map

In a recent blog post I wrote about the issues raised by the mapping of public information. The issue that prompted this blog post was the creation, by the Journal News of New York State, of a map featuring the names and addresses of all gun permit holders in two counties. The map prompted outrage although it merely represented data made available to the newspaper on an access to information request.

A recent development in the story highlights another issue both with open data and with the mapping of public information. The Journal News reports that a substantial amount of the posted information was inaccurate. Apparently this was attributable to the fact that one of the two counties at issue did not require permit renewals, and thus contained a significant amount of outdated information. In fact, the data for this county was only about 25% accurate. The other county required renewals every five years, which made the data more current, though not entirely up-to-date.

The open data movement promises significant social and economic benefits. Making government data freely available in appropriate formats for reuse is meant to increase government transparency and accountability, and to provide individuals and the private sector with raw data for research or innovation. Many already use such information to create useful apps, or to develop information maps that place government data in an interactive and accessible geographic context.

One of the challenges, however, is ensuring that the data sets provided by government are accurate, complete and fit for the purpose to which they are put. Not only must governments ensure that they are providing current data and appropriate updates, they must also include the meta data necessary for users to understand the scope and limitations of the data set.

Where the data includes personal information (including home addresses) it would seem that the onus should be even higher on governments to ensure that the information being provided is current, or that the limitations of the data set are clearly identified. Of course, there is also an onus on the party using the information to ensure that they understand the limits of the data set.

Voltage Pictures LLC has brought a motion in Federal Court seeking a court order that would compel Internet Service Provider Teksavvy Solutions Inc. to disclose the identities of customers using certain IP addresses that have been linked to Internet file-sharing of works in which Voltage owns the copyright. If the court were to order the disclosure, the identified individuals could be sued for copyright infringement by Voltage.

The University of Ottawa’s Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) has brought a motion to intervene in the proceedings. CIPPIC has an established track record in representing the public interest in cases of this kind; they have argued for a balance between individuals’ privacy interests in their online activities and copyright holders interests in previous litigation. The Federal Court has adjourned its hearing of Voltage’s motion in order to consider the issue of CIPPIC’s intervention.

Published in Privacy

A New York newspaper created a furore by publishing, in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, an interactive online map that displayed the names and addresses of residents holding permits for guns. The newspaper obtained the data through an access to information request. The map was accompanied by an article with the title: “The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood." The map and article provoked outrage. Gun owners were concerned about their privacy, and one news agency ran an interview with a retired burglar who suggested that the map would make burglars’ work much easier. A blogger responded to the map by creating another map which featured the names and addresses of the staff of the newspaper. The newspaper has reportedly had to hire armed guards to protect its main office.

This is, of course, not the first time that controversial information maps have been created by news agencies or by others. In California, for example, information about election donors is a matter of public record. Someone used this information to publish a map detailing the names, addresses and contribution amounts of individuals who had donated to a campaign to amend the State’s constitution to prohibit gay marriage.


Widely available Web 2.0 tools and resources have made it easy for almost anyone to create online maps. The ability to present information in a geographical context is an attractive option. Information maps are visually appealing, and can reveal patterns and permit connections that might not be evident from data presented in the form of lists or plain text. For example, Patrick Cain, a Canadian journalist, has been creating innovative and fascinating information maps for many years. Perhaps one of his most useful maps is his annual map of busted grow-ops in Toronto. There are real risks associated with purchasing a house which was once used for a grow op, and there is no obligation on sellers to disclose this information. The grow-op maps provide important and easily accessible information for those searching for a new home.

 

While there is no doubt that information maps can be useful and important, there are also potential risks. There is a great deal of publicly available information collected by different levels of government. For example, many registers of public documents, and decisions of administrative tribunals are already accessible to the public. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has expressed concerns about the consequences of placing this sort of information online; in the past, public access was available only to those who took the trouble to show up at specific sites to view the entries in the register. This implicitly limited access to this information. While some of this public information might be very usefully presented to the public in map form (see, for example, the maps of crime reports in Ottawa) other information may have serious privacy or security consequences if disclosed online and in map form.

 

Privacy and data protection laws in Canada do not offer a great deal of protection in this regard. While governments are bound by privacy legislation that protects against the disclosure of personal information in the context of access to information requests, a great deal of other government information is part of public registers. Individuals who disclose information on maps for personal, non-commercial purposes may be exempt from the application of national or provincial private sector data protection laws, and these laws also create exceptions for information that is collected, used or disclosed for “artistic, literary or journalistic purposes”. (I recently published a law journal article on this issue.)Thus, for example, a news outlet in Canada that did something comparable to the New York-based newspaper described above might well be insulated from recourse under data protection laws because of their “journalistic purposes” in doing so.

 

There is, of course, a tricky balance to be struck. Personal privacy and individual security are important values, but so are those served by open government (transparency, accountability) and by the freedom of expression. Indeed, the Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule sometime in the coming year on the constitutionality of the exception for journalistic purposes in Alberta’s private sector data protection legislation. That decision may give us some guidance on the tricky balance between freedom of expression and the protection of privacy. In the meantime governments must continue to examine how best to achieve the goals of openness while at the same time protecting individual privacy and security.

Note: this piece was first published by me at:http://www.bloggingforequality.ca/2013/01/information-maps-freedom-of-expression.html

A recent decision of the Federal Court has caused a small stir over language that, taken at face value, would have a dramatic impact on trademark law in Canada. In Homeaway.com, Inc. v. Hrdlicka, Justice Hughes considered an application to have the respondents registered trademark VRBO, for vacation real estate listing services, expunged from the register. The applicant was the owner of the U.S. based website VRBO.com, which offers vacation real estate listings on a worldwide basis. The applicant argued that the respondent’s trademark registration was invalid as Hrdlicka was not the person entitled to register the mark in Canada.

 

The person entitled to register a trademark in Canada is the one who has first used it or made it known in this country. The “making known” provision of the Trade-marks Act is designed to protect well-known foreign trademarks from being registered by Canadian businesses with the likely consequence of creating confusion among Canadian consumers already familiar with the foreign mark. Unfortunately, as Justice Hughes noted in his decision, the “making known” provisions were drafted in the technological dark ages and specifically refer to marks that have been made known through the print or broadcast media. Notwithstanding this, there is still hope for a foreign trademark owner that has actually used its trademark in Canada; if they were the first to use the mark in this country, then they are the party entitled to register it.

 

The Trade-marks Act contains a definition of “use” that varies depending on whether the mark is registered for wares or services. In this case, the VRBO mark related to services. For a mark to be used in relation to services, it must be “used or displayed in the performance or advertising of those services.” (s. 4(2)) The VRBO mark appears on the VRBO website and in its URL. However, the case law also makes it clear that for there to be use in Canada, it is not sufficient for there to be advertising featuring the mark in Canada, the services must also be offered in Canada.

 

This is where the decision of the Federal Court has caused confusion and controversy. In discussing “use”, Justice Hughes makes the apparently bold statement that “a trade-mark which appears on a computer screen website in Canada, regardless where the information may have originated from or be stored, constitutes for Trade-marks Act purposes, use and advertising in Canada.” (at para 22) On the one hand, the statement offers nothing particularly surprising – it is not controversial to find that use on a website can constitute “advertising” for the purposes of determining use in relation to services under s. 4(2). However, the statement falls short in that it fails to clarify that this finding is limited to use in relation to services; a mark being featured on a web site is, on its own, not a use in relation to wares. Further, the statement appears to conflate the issue of whether featuring a mark on a website is advertising with the broader issue of whether a trademark has been used in Canada. As noted earlier, the person entitled to register the mark is the person who has first used the mark in Canada, and the case law is clear that for this to happen the services in question must not just be advertised in Canada – they must also be offered in Canada.

 

Although the statement taken at face value is controversial, the decision in the case is not particularly troubling. Indeed, Justice Hughes is aware of the importance of the services being offered in Canada, even though he does not refer to the relevant case law. He finds that HomeAway not only advertised its services in Canada, it entered into contracts with Canadians to list their vacation properties, and the site was used by Canadians to find vacation rental properties. It is just unfortunate that the rather elliptical way in which the decision was framed can lead to the impression that a trademark will be considered to be “used” in Canada simply by virtue of the fact that it can be seen on websites accessible to Canadians over the Internet. This is certainly not true in the case of wares, and is only true, in the case of services, if the services are also genuinely available to Canadians.

Published in Trademarks
Thursday, 06 December 2012 10:25

Canada's New Draft Open Government Licence

The federal government has released a new proposed Open Government Licence – Canada (OGL-C) through its Open Data Portal. This licence agreement is not currently in effect; data available through the portal is still licensed under the existing Licence Agreement. The planned release of the OGL-C is in the spring of 2013.

The OGL-C has been a very long time in the drafting, and this draft is most welcome. The government is now seeking feedback on it – at the conclusion of the licence posted online is a fillable form that invites direct comments by the end of January 2013. The Licence Agreement currently in effect is also an open licence, but it suffers from excessive legalese. In contrast to other open licences it sets a tone that might make anyone feel that they should seek legal advice before using the government’s data sets. It contains language such as the following: “Intellectual Property Rights in any modification, translation or further development of the Data or in Value-Added Products made by you in the exercise of your rights under this Agreement, shall vest in you, in such person as you shall decide, or as determined by law.” It is hardly transparent and inviting language.

The proposed OGL-C is much more along the lines of Britain’s Open Government License (OGL), and indeed, the explanatory paragraphs that accompany the licence note that it is based upon this license. Interestingly enough, British Columbia also modified the British OGL, and has been using its modified version of this licence for some time now. The OGL-C and the BC-OGL are similar, but there a number of differences. Some of these are attributable to the distinct licensing parties, other differences may be due to a desire to further simplify the licence, and still others are difficult to understand.

There are several features of the OGL-C which deserve a second look before it becomes operational. First, “information” is defined in the licence as “information protected by copyright or by database right offered for use under the terms of this Licence” [emphasis added]. Since there is no database right in Canada, it makes no sense for this term to be included (it is also used in the definition of “Use”, where it refers to “doing any act which is restricted by copyright or database right”). The reference to database rights is found in the British OGL, since in that jurisdiction there are separate database rights. However, there is simply no reason why reference to rights that do not exist in Canada should be included in a licence meant to be simple, open and accessible. The BC-OGL, adapted to the Canadian context, refers only to copyright.

Like the BC-OGL licence, the OGL-C explicitly excludes any right to use personal information. Unlike the BC-OGL, however, the OGL-C uses the term “personal data” and provides no definition of this term. Since federal data protection laws (both PIPEDA and the Privacy Act) govern the collection, use and disclosure of “personal information”, it makes sense to use this term, rather than “personal data” (which is the British term, used in the British OGL). It should also be noted that the French version of the licence uses “renseignements personnels”, which is normally translated as “personal information” in the federal legislation. Further, it would be helpful to provide (as is the case in the BC-OGL) a definition of “personal information” as this is an important concept, and one which goes well beyond, for example, name and address information. This can be done by reference to the governing privacy statute (as is done in the BC-OGL and the British OGL), or it could also be done through the use of the common portion of most Canadian definitions of personal information: “information about an identifiable individual.”

The licence is also somewhat muddy in its use of two terms – “the Information Provider” and the “Licensor”. The BC OGL uses only “Information Provider” and defines this as Her Majesty the Queen in right of the Province of British Columbia. By contrast the British OGL uses the same structure as the OGL-C, and separately defines the Information Provider and the Licensor. However, the definition of Licensor in the British OGL is much more detailed. It is not clear that this complicated distinction needs to be carried through to the OGL-C. Indeed, the complexity of the British definition of “Licensor” is abandoned in the OGL-C, with the result that under the OGL-C, the “Information Provider” is defined as “the person or organization providing the Information under this Licence” and the “Licensor” is defined as “any Information Provider which has the authority to offer Information under the terms of this Licence”. Defined in this way, using two separate terms seems unnecessary and confusing. Further, there is no mention that the actual holder of copyright in government data or documents is Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, and that if any third party rights have been licensed to the Crown, Her Majesty will also be the one authorized to licence them further. What the double terminology seems to suggest instead is that Information Providers are Licensors only when they have the “authority” to license the information, presumably from Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. This implies that there might be some rogue Information Providers who do not qualify as Licensors. It would be far simpler to adopt the structure used in the BC-OGL and simply acknowledge that where the information is provided by a department or agency of government, the Information Provider is acting on behalf of Her Majesty, and is entitled to licence the Crown copyright in the information. In other words, the legalistic term Licensor should be ditched in favour of Information Provider, and the Information Provider should be, ultimately, her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

These criticisms aside, the OGL-C is a marked improvement over previous attempts at drafting open licences for federal government data. The licence is meant to be simple and accessible, and is designed to encourage rather than stifle the re-use of government information. Its reliance on the British OGL shows a willingness not only to build on the experience of others, but also to develop a licence that will have some measure of interoperability with other open licences around the world. Let’s hope that the process remains on track, and that the revised licence will indeed be adopted for use by spring 2013.

 

Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada, 2nd Edition, CCH Canadian Ltd., 2012 (with Michael Deturbide).

Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada, 2nd Edition is a definitive resource on Internet and e-commerce law from Canada’s leading IT law experts, Teresa Scassa and Michael Deturbide.With a Foreword written by Justice Thomas Cromwell of the Supreme Court of Canada, this latest edition’s extensive coverage addresses the vast changes that have taken place in this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.Highlights in the new edition include:

* New Copyright Act amendments

* Trademark issues online

* Online contracting, including browse wrap agreements

* Personal information protection in the private sector

* Software and e-business patents

* Consumer protection online

* Canada's new anti-spam legistlation

* Online Anonymity

* Regulation of online speech

* Intermediary liability

* Web-based competition

* Internet domain names

* Jurisdictional issues

Published in Books

I recently blogged for FreeSpeechDebate.Org about free speech, ambush marketing and the London Olympics. The posting is available here:

http://freespeechdebate.com/en/discuss/guilt-by-association-the-london-2012-olympics/

Published in Ambush Marketing

On July 12th the Supreme Court of Canada handed down five decisions on copyright law. Collectively these five judgments send a strong message as to the interpretation of the rights of both owners and users of copyright protected works.

In terms of owners’ rights, two of the decisions deal with the scope of the economic right to communicate a work to the public by telecommunication. A third decision addresses the scope of the neighboring right of performers and makers of sound recordings to be remunerated for performances of these works in public or for their communication to the public by telecommunication. The core issue in Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Software Association of Canada v. SOCAN was whether a tariff could be applied to music incorporated into video games downloaded over the internet. Music is frequently a part of video games, and the makers of video games negotiate the rights to include this music in their products. No separate tariff is applied when such games are purchased by consumers from brick and mortar stores. The issue in this case was whether when the games were sold over the internet as downloads, the songs were communicated to the public by telecommunication. This would implicate a separate economic right of the music copyright holders, and would thus eligible for the imposition of a tariff. Similarly, in Re: Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada the issue was whether a right of remuneration for music that formed part of movie soundtracks, the use of which would already have been negotiated with the rights holders, was triggered by each time the movie was screened, streamed or broadcast In Rogers Communications Inc. et al v. SOCAN, the issue was whether music streamed over the internet to consumers “on demand” was a communication to the public by telecommunication, to which a tariff could be applied.

In reaching its decisions in these three cases the Court demonstrated both a commitment to the “balancing” approach it had initiated with its 2002 decision in Théberge, and a concern that the Copyright Act be interpreted in a technologically neutral manner. The Court found that in the case of music incorporated into video games, the right to incorporate the music into the game had already been negotiated and paid for by the makers of the video games. The only distinction between the context in which the game was sold in stores and where it was sold over the internet was the manner in which the game was delivered to the consumer. According to the majority of the Court, “it makes little sense to distinguish between the two methods of selling the same work.” (at para 1). To decide otherwise, according to the majority, would “violate[] the principle of technological neutrality, which requires that the Act apply equally notwithstanding the technological diversity of different forms of media.”(at para 2). In the context of online sales of the games, the internet functioned simply as a means of delivering the work to the customer who paid for the work. The majority rejected an approach that would allow for two fees – one for reproduction and one for communication – to be charged simply because of the mode of delivery chosen for the work. The decision has significant ramifications for any work that is made available online for legal downloading, whether it is a movie, game, musical work or electronic text.

In Rogers, the court distinguished between using the internet to download music files from the internet (which would be analogous to the purchase of a video game over the internet, and thus not subject to a separate royalty for communication to the public) and the streaming of music to customers over the internet. In the latter case, musical works were being communicated over the Internet, and these communications were to “the public” notwithstanding the fact that “pull” technology was used such that the works communicated were dependent upon the choices of individual consumers. In reaching the decision the Court also emphasized the principle of “balance” noting that such a balance “is not appropriately struck where the existence of copyright protection depends merely on the business model that the alleged infringer chooses to adopt rather than the underlying communication activity. Whether a business chooses to convey copyright protected content in a traditional, “broadcasting” type fashion, or opts for newer approaches based on consumer choice and convenience, the end result is the same.” (at para 40). Thus in the case of consumers acquiring copies of musical or other works, the internet is used as a delivery mechanism and the work is not “communicated” in a broadcasting sense. By contrast, where the work is streamed, the act is one of communication in a manner that is equivalent to broadcasting.

The Court’s decision in Re: Sound is along the same lines. The Copyright Act provides that performers and makers of sound recordings have a right of remuneration with respect to the performance in public or the communication to the public by telecommunication of their performances or sound recordings. The Act contains an exception; the definition of a “sound recording” excludes “any soundtrack of a cinematographic work where it accompanies the cinematographic work”. On the face of it, this appears quite straightforward. The producers of a movie that is to include a musical work must clear the rights to use the work in the movie; the licensing fee would no doubt take into account the fact that the movie is intended to be shown in cinemas and made available for broadcast or other forms of communication to the public by telecommunication. Therefore, it is unnecessary to provide for additional remuneration for rights holders in these circumstances. This is, indeed, the interpretation adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada.

These decisions on the rights of copyright owners seem eminently sensible. They respect the right of the copyright owner to be remunerated for a commercial use of their work; at the same time, they resist what seems to have emerged as an industry practice to layer rights and royalties on single economic acts. The result is clear, straightforward, practical, and ultimately balanced.

The other two decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with the ‘users’ right’ of fair dealing. Prior to the decision in CCH Canadian, fair dealing had been treated in Canada as a rather limited exception to the rights of copyright holders. In CCH Canadian, the Supreme Court of Canada established it as a users’ right, and emphasized its role in maintaining the balance between public and private interests under the Copyright Act. In SOCAN v. Bell Canada, the Court was asked to consider the scope of fair dealing in relation to the practice of online music sites of providing previews consisting of short excerpts of musical works to customers searching for music to download from their sites. The collective societies sought a tariff that could be applied to such previews, arguing that they constituted a communication to the public by telecommunication of a substantial part of each work, thus engaging the economic rights of the copyright owner. The music providers argued that previews were consulted by customers as a form of research into the music they wished to purchase; as a result, they were fair dealing for the purposes of research under the Copyright Act. The unanimous Court ruled that these previews were fair dealing. They reiterated the view that fair dealing rights must not be interpreted restrictively, and maintained that “research” must be given a large and liberal interpretation. The Court rejected the idea that “research” could only refer to activities that led to the creation of new works or new knowledge. They maintained that “[t]o do so would ignore the fact that the dissemination of works is also one of the Act’s purposes, which means that dissemination too, with or without creativity, is in the public interest.” (at para 21). The Court found that there was a low threshold for qualifying activities as ‘research’ and that this threshold was met in this case. On the issue of whether the dealing was ‘fair’, it had been argued that the music sites made previews available to customers for essentially commercial purposes, mitigating against a finding that the dealing was fair. However, the Court was of the view that it was the purpose of users that should be considered; in this case, they used the previews “to help them research and identify musical works for online purchase.” (at para 34). The Court examined the nature of the dealing, noting that the excerpts were of 30 to 90 second portions of the work and were of a quality inferior to the musical work available for sale. The Court also rejected an approach to evaluating the volume of dealing with the work on an aggregate basis (i.e., not in relation to the portion of each work accessed, but rather the aggregate number of excerpts accessed by consumers). They noted that such an approach might undermine the goal of technological neutrality, since it would mean that “most of what online service providers do with musical works would be treated as copyright infringement.” (at para 43) The court noted as well that the previewing of musical works did not have a negative effect on the economic rights of the owner of copyright; rather, the goal of providing previews was to facilitate sales of the works, for which the copyright owners would be compensated.

The decision in Province of Alberta v. Access Copyright is likely to be the most controversial of the five decisions. This case addressed a dispute over what types of in-school copying activities could be captured by the tariff for reprography. As photocopying that was fair dealing would be excluded from the tariff, the dispute focussed on whether copies made of excerpts from text books for distribution to students for class instruction amounted to fair dealing. According to a 5-4 majority of the Court, it did. The majority declined to separate the teachers’ purpose (instruction) from that of the students (private study). Instead, they characterized the role of the teachers as to support and facilitate the research and private study of their students. The majority wrote: “It seems to me to be axiomatic that most students lack the expertise to find or request the materials required for their own research and private study, and rely on the guidance of their teachers. They study what they are told to study, and the teacher’s purpose in providing copies is to enable the students to have the material they need for the purpose of studying.” (at para 23). The majority described this as a “symbiotic purpose” between students and teachers. They characterized the provision of photocopied materials to students by teachers as “an essential element in the research and private study undertaken by those students.” (at para 25) Further, the majority rejected an interpretation of “private study” that focussed on the term “private” – in their view, this term “should not be understood as requiring users to view copyrighted works in splendid isolation.” (at para 27)

Having found that the copying of excerpts was for “research or private study” the court next considered whether this dealing was “fair”. They found that it was. As in SOCAN v. Bell, they rejected an approach that considered the volume of dealing on an aggregate basis; instead each excerpt had to be considered in relation to the work from which it was taken. The majority found no reasonable alternative to the dealing; purchasing the books for each student was not a reasonable alternative given that only short excerpts were required. The Court also found the evidence of the economic impact of the copying on textbook publishers to be unconvincing. They noted that there was no causal link between a decline in textbook sales and the copying of short excerpts, and that other factors could more easily explain the decline in sales. Further, they found that it was not reasonable to assume that if the copying did not take place, that the books from which the excerpts were taken would be purchased for all students. The court noted that “it is more likely that students would simply go without the supplementary information, or be forced to consult the single copy already owned by the school.” (para 36).

This decision is of great significance in the educational sector because of its broad definition of “research and private study” and its interpretation of the teachers’ role in their students’ activities. It is also of great significance because it will guide the interpretation of “education” as a new basis for fair dealing introduced by the recently passed Bill C-11. The educational sector in Canada has long been squeezed for royalties by Access Copyright. Resistance to Access Copyright’s licences has been growing, in part because of the under-inclusiveness of such licences when it comes to activities perceived as fair dealing. This decision by the Court sends a strong signal that fair dealing for the purposes research, private study, and now education must receive a large and liberal interpretation and must reflect the rights of users to access works, without payment of fees or need for a licence, to achieve these purposes.

Overall, the five decisions are a strong indication that the Supreme Court of Canada remains committed to the approach to copyright law which it laid down in Théberge and CCH Canadian. Their approach is pragmatic and straightforward. It rejects interpretations of the legislation that allow rights holders to layer economic rights in order to maximize revenues for discrete uses of works. It also makes it clear that fair dealing is a significant users’ right that should be given a generous construction consistent with the public interest it serves. The Court’s approach focuses on balance, and ultimately upon common sense.

On July 12th the Supreme Court of Canada handed down five decisions on copyright law. Collectively these five judgments send a strong message as to the interpretation of the rights of both owners and users of copyright protected works.

In terms of owners’ rights, two of the decisions deal with the scope of the economic right to communicate a work to the public by telecommunication. A third decision addresses the scope of the neighboring right of performers and makers of sound recordings to be remunerated for performances of these works in public or for their communication to the public by telecommunication. The core issue in Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Software Association of Canada v. SOCAN was whether a tariff could be applied to music incorporated into video games downloaded over the internet. Music is frequently a part of video games, and the makers of video games negotiate the rights to include this music in their products. No separate tariff is applied when such games are purchased by consumers from brick and mortar stores. The issue in this case was whether when the games were sold over the internet as downloads, the songs were communicated to the public by telecommunication. This would implicate a separate economic right of the music copyright holders, and would thus eligible for the imposition of a tariff. Similarly, in Re: Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada the issue was whether a right of remuneration for music that formed part of movie soundtracks, the use of which would already have been negotiated with the rights holders, was triggered by each time the movie was screened, streamed or broadcast In Rogers Communications Inc. et al v. SOCAN, the issue was whether music streamed over the internet to consumers “on demand” was a communication to the public by telecommunication, to which a tariff could be applied.

In reaching its decisions in these three cases the Court demonstrated both a commitment to the “balancing” approach it had initiated with its 2002 decision in Théberge, and a concern that the Copyright Act be interpreted in a technologically neutral manner. The Court found that in the case of music incorporated into video games, the right to incorporate the music into the game had already been negotiated and paid for by the makers of the video games. The only distinction between the context in which the game was sold in stores and where it was sold over the internet was the manner in which the game was delivered to the consumer. According to the majority of the Court, “it makes little sense to distinguish between the two methods of selling the same work.” (at para 1). To decide otherwise, according to the majority, would “violate[] the principle of technological neutrality, which requires that the Act apply equally notwithstanding the technological diversity of different forms of media.”(at para 2). In the context of online sales of the games, the internet functioned simply as a means of delivering the work to the customer who paid for the work. The majority rejected an approach that would allow for two fees – one for reproduction and one for communication – to be charged simply because of the mode of delivery chosen for the work. The decision has significant ramifications for any work that is made available online for legal downloading, whether it is a movie, game, musical work or electronic text.

In Rogers, the court distinguished between using the internet to download music files from the internet (which would be analogous to the purchase of a video game over the internet, and thus not subject to a separate royalty for communication to the public) and the streaming of music to customers over the internet. In the latter case, musical works were being communicated over the Internet, and these communications were to “the public” notwithstanding the fact that “pull” technology was used such that the works communicated were dependent upon the choices of individual consumers. In reaching the decision the Court also emphasized the principle of “balance” noting that such a balance “is not appropriately struck where the existence of copyright protection depends merely on the business model that the alleged infringer chooses to adopt rather than the underlying communication activity. Whether a business chooses to convey copyright protected content in a traditional, “broadcasting” type fashion, or opts for newer approaches based on consumer choice and convenience, the end result is the same.” (at para 40). Thus in the case of consumers acquiring copies of musical or other works, the internet is used as a delivery mechanism and the work is not “communicated” in a broadcasting sense. By contrast, where the work is streamed, the act is one of communication in a manner that is equivalent to broadcasting.

The Court’s decision in Re: Sound is along the same lines. The Copyright Act provides that performers and makers of sound recordings have a right of remuneration with respect to the performance in public or the communication to the public by telecommunication of their performances or sound recordings. The Act contains an exception; the definition of a “sound recording” excludes “any soundtrack of a cinematographic work where it accompanies the cinematographic work”. On the face of it, this appears quite straightforward. The producers of a movie that is to include a musical work must clear the rights to use the work in the movie; the licensing fee would no doubt take into account the fact that the movie is intended to be shown in cinemas and made available for broadcast or other forms of communication to the public by telecommunication. Therefore, it is unnecessary to provide for additional remuneration for rights holders in these circumstances. This is, indeed, the interpretation adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada.

These decisions on the rights of copyright owners seem eminently sensible. They respect the right of the copyright owner to be remunerated for a commercial use of their work; at the same time, they resist what seems to have emerged as an industry practice to layer rights and royalties on single economic acts. The result is clear, straightforward, practical, and ultimately balanced.

The other two decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with the ‘users’ right’ of fair dealing. Prior to the decision in CCH Canadian, fair dealing had been treated in Canada as a rather limited exception to the rights of copyright holders. In CCH Canadian, the Supreme Court of Canada established it as a users’ right, and emphasized its role in maintaining the balance between public and private interests under the Copyright Act. In SOCAN v. Bell Canada, the Court was asked to consider the scope of fair dealing in relation to the practice of online music sites of providing previews consisting of short excerpts of musical works to customers searching for music to download from their sites. The collective societies sought a tariff that could be applied to such previews, arguing that they constituted a communication to the public by telecommunication of a substantial part of each work, thus engaging the economic rights of the copyright owner. The music providers argued that previews were consulted by customers as a form of research into the music they wished to purchase; as a result, they were fair dealing for the purposes of research under the Copyright Act. The unanimous Court ruled that these previews were fair dealing. They reiterated the view that fair dealing rights must not be interpreted restrictively, and maintained that “research” must be given a large and liberal interpretation. The Court rejected the idea that “research” could only refer to activities that led to the creation of new works or new knowledge. They maintained that “[t]o do so would ignore the fact that the dissemination of works is also one of the Act’s purposes, which means that dissemination too, with or without creativity, is in the public interest.” (at para 21). The Court found that there was a low threshold for qualifying activities as ‘research’ and that this threshold was met in this case. On the issue of whether the dealing was ‘fair’, it had been argued that the music sites made previews available to customers for essentially commercial purposes, mitigating against a finding that the dealing was fair. However, the Court was of the view that it was the purpose of users that should be considered; in this case, they used the previews “to help them research and identify musical works for online purchase.” (at para 34). The Court examined the nature of the dealing, noting that the excerpts were of 30 to 90 second portions of the work and were of a quality inferior to the musical work available for sale. The Court also rejected an approach to evaluating the volume of dealing with the work on an aggregate basis (i.e., not in relation to the portion of each work accessed, but rather the aggregate number of excerpts accessed by consumers). They noted that such an approach might undermine the goal of technological neutrality, since it would mean that “most of what online service providers do with musical works would be treated as copyright infringement.” (at para 43) The court noted as well that the previewing of musical works did not have a negative effect on the economic rights of the owner of copyright; rather, the goal of providing previews was to facilitate sales of the works, for which the copyright owners would be compensated.

The decision in Province of Alberta v. Access Copyright is likely to be the most controversial of the five decisions. This case addressed a dispute over what types of in-school copying activities could be captured by the tariff for reprography. As photocopying that was fair dealing would be excluded from the tariff, the dispute focussed on whether copies made of excerpts from text books for distribution to students for class instruction amounted to fair dealing. According to a 5-4 majority of the Court, it did. The majority declined to separate the teachers’ purpose (instruction) from that of the students (private study). Instead, they characterized the role of the teachers as to support and facilitate the research and private study of their students. The majority wrote: “It seems to me to be axiomatic that most students lack the expertise to find or request the materials required for their own research and private study, and rely on the guidance of their teachers. They study what they are told to study, and the teacher’s purpose in providing copies is to enable the students to have the material they need for the purpose of studying.” (at para 23). The majority described this as a “symbiotic purpose” between students and teachers. They characterized the provision of photocopied materials to students by teachers as “an essential element in the research and private study undertaken by those students.” (at para 25) Further, the majority rejected an interpretation of “private study” that focussed on the term “private” – in their view, this term “should not be understood as requiring users to view copyrighted works in splendid isolation.” (at para 27)

Having found that the copying of excerpts was for “research or private study” the court next considered whether this dealing was “fair”. They found that it was. As in SOCAN v. Bell, they rejected an approach that considered the volume of dealing on an aggregate basis; instead each excerpt had to be considered in relation to the work from which it was taken. The majority found no reasonable alternative to the dealing; purchasing the books for each student was not a reasonable alternative given that only short excerpts were required. The Court also found the evidence of the economic impact of the copying on textbook publishers to be unconvincing. They noted that there was no causal link between a decline in textbook sales and the copying of short excerpts, and that other factors could more easily explain the decline in sales. Further, they found that it was not reasonable to assume that if the copying did not take place, that the books from which the excerpts were taken would be purchased for all students. The court noted that “it is more likely that students would simply go without the supplementary information, or be forced to consult the single copy already owned by the school.” (para 36).

This decision is of great significance in the educational sector because of its broad definition of “research and private study” and its interpretation of the teachers’ role in their students’ activities. It is also of great significance because it will guide the interpretation of “education” as a new basis for fair dealing introduced by the recently passed Bill C-11. The educational sector in Canada has long been squeezed for royalties by Access Copyright. Resistance to Access Copyright’s licences has been growing, in part because of the under-inclusiveness of such licences when it comes to activities perceived as fair dealing. This decision by the Court sends a strong signal that fair dealing for the purposes research, private study, and now education must receive a large and liberal interpretation and must reflect the rights of users to access works, without payment of fees or need for a licence, to achieve these purposes.

Overall, the five decisions are a strong indication that the Supreme Court of Canada remains committed to the approach to copyright law which it laid down in Théberge and CCH Canadian. Their approach is pragmatic and straightforward. It rejects interpretations of the legislation that allow rights holders to layer economic rights in order to maximize revenues for discrete uses of works. It also makes it clear that fair dealing is a significant users’ right that should be given a generous construction consistent with the public interest it serves. The Court’s approach focuses on balance, and ultimately upon common sense.

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