Canadian Technology & IP Law : Canadian Technology Lawyers & Attorneys : Stikeman Elliott Law Firm : IP Law in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa & Vancouver

David Elder and Lindsay Gwyer -

Bloggers, tweeters, webpage owners and other providers and hosts of internet content can breathe a little easier today following a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that ruled that merely providing hyperlinks to defamatory content cannot make them liable for defamation.

That said, while the decision provides clear support from the highest court in the land for both free expression and the preservation of the nature and benefits of the internet as whole, it stops short of giving hyperlinkers a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for all uses and presentations of links to defamatory material. 

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Alexandra Stockwell and Robert Mysicka -

The Canadian Government is giving copyright reform another try, reintroducing what is essentially the same copyright bill that died last spring with the dissolution of Parliament. 

But while the text may be the same, one thing has clearly changed: this time, the ruling Conservatives have a legislative majority, significantly increasing the likelihood that the new bill will actually become law, either in its current form or with amendments introduced at Committee.

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David Elder and Lindsay Gwyer -

The long road for local broadcasters wanting to charge fees to cable and satellite companies for rebroadcasting their signals just got a little longer, as the Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to hear an appeal a Federal Court of Appeal decision that upheld the ability of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to establish such a regime.

The “Value for Signal” (VFS) regime was authorized by the CRTC in its 2010 group licensing framework decision, and was intended “to remove unnecessary barriers to the continued viability of private broadcasters and to ensure that broadcasters are able to obtain, through market-based negotiations, fair value of the programming they broadcast.”

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Amy Hu and Michael D. Smith -

In Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v Rogers Communications Inc., the BC Supreme Court upheld the validity of the so-called “browse wrap” agreements and awarded damages against Zoocasa and its parent Rogers for Zoocasa’s breach of the Century 21 website terms of use when it pulled listings from the Century 21 website for use on its own real estate listing search engine. The BC court confirmed that industry standard browse wrap agreements (i.e. a website’s posted terms of service) can form valid contracts without being brought to the attention of users or requiring any review/acknowledgement by the user before accessing the website.

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David Elder & Robert Mysicka

In an unprecedented cluster of cases focusing on copyright, the Supreme Court of Canada has recently granted leave to appeal in five separate cases involving tariffs approved by the Copyright Board. 

The cases, at least four of which will be heard on December 6 and 7, 2011, will consider tariffs dealing with online music, photocopying by teachers for instructional purposes and music in movie soundtracks.

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David Elder -

“Free-to-air” local television signals may no longer be free to cable and satellite subscribers, following a recent court decision affirming the scope of the powers of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) under the Broadcasting Act.

In an important ruling that addresses the intersection of broadcasting and copyright law and policy, a majority of the Federal Court of Appeal found, in the case of Reference re the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-167 and Broadcasting Order CRTC 2010-168, 2011 FCA 64, that the Copyright Act permits the CRTC to limit the statutory retransmission rights of broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), such as cable companies, by imposing any regulatory or licensing condition that is consistent with the Commission’s statutory authority under the Broadcasting Act. In fact, the majority went so far as to state that Parliament has ranked the objectives of Canada’s broadcasting policy ahead of the statutory retransmission rights granted to BDUs under the Copyright Act.

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The Federal Courts Rules provide a summary judgment procedure that allows a party to prevent claims or defences that have no chance of success from proceeding to trial. Although the summary judgment procedures were amended a year ago, a recent decision of the Federal Court demonstrates that summary judgment is still only granted in the most appropriate cases.

In Concept Developments Ltd. v. Webb, the plaintiff (Concept), a designer and builder of homes, brought a motion for summary judgment against the defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Webb, alleging infringement of its registered copyright in the plans and design of one of its model homes. The Webbs had apparently viewed Concept’s model home, but disliked Concept’s quoted price to build the house, so they subsequently took their business to another home building company (High Grade). According to the facts (which had not been fully established), the Webbs showed Concept’s model home design to High Grade and requested something similar for their house, albeit with some modifications. The Webbs then drew up what they wanted, gave that drawing to High Grade, and the house was subsequently built as desired. Concept claimed $124,000 for its direct loss from not building the home, as well as $40,000 for intangible loss. 

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In early September 2010, the Federal Court of Appeal concurred with an earlier decision of the Canadian Copyright Board "(Board)" holding that the download by a single user of a music file from an online music service is a communication of the musical work to the public by telecommunication.

In Bell Canada, et. al. v. SOCAN the Court of Appeal was asked to determine whether the transmission of a musical work to an individual by an on-line music service should be considered to be a communication of that work to the public by telecommunications within the meaning of paragraph 3(1)(f) of the Copyright Act. The question of whether the download was in and of itself a communication was not at issue, as it had been previously held by the Supreme Court of Canada in SOCAN v. Canadian Association of Internet Providers that a music file is communicated when it is recreated on the recipient computer. Such a communication was also held to qualify as a communication by telecommunication.

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Recently, a court in the UK (Football Dataco Ltd et al. v. Sportradar GmbH) found that the location of a server determined the appropriate jurisdiction to regulate internet content. This is not entirely consistent with the Canadian approach.

Sportradar tried to argue that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim that Football Dataco’s copyright and database rights had been infringed by Sportradar’s alleged reproduction of Football Dataco’s live scores and statistics. The content from Sportradar was stored on webservers in Germany and Austria, but was made available to users in the UK by Sportradar’s online betting sites. To determine what law should apply, the court focused on where the act of “making available” occurred. The court held that such an act occurs where the transmission takes place, and more specifically, where the server is located. Since Sportradar’s servers were located outside of the UK, the court found that it could not assert jurisdiction over certain of the claims.

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The power of social media was on full display this past week, as the unauthorized publication of a recipe for apple pie drew a quick and virulent online response. The story begins on November 3, when blogger Monica Gaudio announced on her blog that Cooks Source, a small New England magazine, had republished an article on the history of apple pie (she had previously written it for another publication) without permission. While Gaudio was credited for her work, she never consented to, nor was she compensated for, the use of the article. After emailing the magazine’s editor, Gaudio received a response informing her that the internet is “public domain”. The email, which Gaudio published on her blog, sparked a fierce response from an online community that quickly coalesced on Facebook to disparage the magazine’s conduct.

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This past weekend’s Globe and Mail included an interesting article regarding the principle of droit de suite, which provides artists with a right to a percentage of the sale price on the resale of their works of art. The article counts 59 countries, including most of Europe as providing such a right and discusses the lobbying efforts of Canadian Arts Representation, which has argued for a 5% resale right in Canada. On a related note, Bill C-32, Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act (which includes no such right) is expected to receive second reading today.
 

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On July 17, 2010, CSI, the company formed as a royalty-collection vehicle by the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA)  and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) , proposed three new tariffs which would apply to the reproduction of music (which can include broadcasting, streaming and downloading) by non-commercial radio stations, online music providers, and satellite radio providers.

In the proposed CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. Non-Commercial Radio Tariff, 2011, CSI is requesting that the Copyright Board of Canada  certify a tariff of 0.63% of the annual gross operating costs of radio stations that are either owned or operated by not-for-profit corporations, excluding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  In the case of such a non-commercial radio station that is a “low use station” (generally, a station that plays music for less than 20% of its broadcast time), the tariff would be lower, at 0.23% of its annual gross operating costs.  In exchange for the payment of the tariff, the non-commercial radio stations would receive a license to broadcast music contained in CSI’s repertoire as often as desired, including the streaming of the broadcast over the Internet.

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Craig Collins-Williams

On June 2, 2010, Industry Minister Tony Clement tabled Bill C-32 entitled An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, which may also be referred to as the Copyright Modernization Act. Bill C-32 represents the Conservative government’s latest attempt to implement revisions to the Copyright Act. Potential changes to the Copyright Act have been the focus of intensive discussion and debate between stakeholders for a number of years. The Conservative government’s previous reform attempt, Bill C-61, was introduced in the summer of 2008, but it died on the order paper (before being passed into law) when a federal election was called in the fall of 2008. The previous Liberal government’s June 2005 attempt, Bill C-60, also died on the order paper when Parliament was dissolved in November 2005.

Growing pressure from the European Union and the United States, which view the Canadian Copyright Act as inadequate to protect copyrighted material, appears to have prompted the federal government to propose amendments to the Act once again.

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an American statute that provides for the automatic takedown of counterfeiting materials posted on the Internet simply by sending a notification (a “DMCA Notification”) from the copyright holder to the website hosting the counterfeiting materials. While drafting and sending a DMCA Notification is easy as shooting fish in a barrel, this articles presents three important tips to avoid problems later in the DMCA-driven process.

1. Don’t overreach: Avoid liability and “bad press” by making a serious effort to determine if the materials really are infringing… And that implies that you consider the possibility that the materials qualify under “fair use” before sending the DMCA Notification;
    
2. Properly save a copy of the infringing materials prior to sending the DMCA Notification;
    
3. Consider search engine optimization: Limit the impact of future infringements by creating legitimate content and making sure that your content is optimized in search engines.

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In March 2009, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice had occasion to consider the scope of the presumption under the Copyright Act of an employer's ownership of copyright in works created by an employee in the course of his employment.

The case of Corso v. NEBS Business Products Limited [(2009) 176 A.C.W.S. (3d)] involved a claim for wrongful dismissal by Mr. Corso, and a counterclaim by the employer NEBS Business Products Limited (NEBS), for a declaration that it was the owner of copyright in certain materials created by Mr. Corso, largely on his own time.

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