The effort to further modernize copyright law in Canada, which was derailed because of the election during the summer, has been put back on track.
The standing committee on Canadian Heritage, charged with reviewing the Copyright Act of 1998, this week resubmitted to Parliament its Interim Report on Copyright Reform, originally presented in May. The report had fallen off the order paper when the federal election was called in the summer.
The committee had originally asked that reformed legislation to permit ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty, which Canada has signed, be presented to Parliament by Nov. 15.
The committee covered laws governing rights to such things as photographic works, the extent of the liability of Internet service providers, the use of Internet material in education, technology-enhanced learning, interlibrary loans and private copying.
Among its recommendations, the committee asks that Canada immediately ratify the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT).
The Copyright Act should grant photographers, the committee says, the same authorship right as other creators.
In what is bound to be a controversial element, the committee recommended that Internet service providers (ISPs) must be held liable for copyrighted material that goes through their systems. To be exempt from that liability, the ISPs must show they are acting as true "intermediaries," without actual or constructive knowledge of the content.
ISPs should be required to comply with a "notice and takedown" system against subscribers who violate copyright laws.
The committee also recommended allowing for extended licensing of Internet material for educational purposes, meaning that a fee cannot be collected for publicly available material.
That publicly available material would be defined as material that available on public Internet sites that do not require subscriptions or passwords and for which there is no associated fee.
