Michael Geist is Canada's leading copyfighting lawyer, a great speaker and thinker on the subject of copyright. He gave a very good lecture on Canada's "outdated" copyright law. In Canada, the entertainment industry has decided that Canada's copyright (which has been updated dozens of times since it was first introduced" is outdated and must be updated to look like American copyright law, but even worse. For example, Canada's rightsholders want to replace "notice-and-takedown" (an ISP has to remove material when someone complains that it might be infringing) with a "notice-and-terminate" regime (an ISP has to kick off its customer if anyone, anywhere accuses them of infringing). The speech is fascinating and long overdue: there is a wealth of material on the issues with American copyright, but precious little that's specific to the Canadian context. With Canada considering an ambitious overhaul of its copyright law, this speech is required viewing for everyone who wants to understand what's at risk in Canada.
(Thanks, Michael!)
