Copyright Consultation: WIPO treaties | Enterprise Insights
Copyright Consultation: WIPO treatiesThere are now only 5 days left to make your voice heard on this critically important issue. In recent years two different governments tabled copyright bills: the Liberal Bill C-60 on June 20, 2005 and the Conservative Bill C-61 on June 12, 2008. Note: Similar numbers only coincidence. When looking at these bills, both of which died on the order paper, you will notice that the majority of the bills dealt with ratifying two treaties Canada signed in 1996. We must look at these treaties to understanding what will likely form the bulk of the next copyright bill.There are a number of myths about these treaties. The most common is that signing a treaty creates an obligation to ratify. The reality is that signing is to ratifying like dating is to marriage. The Minister of the day, Sheila Copps, even asked whether signing created any obligation — and was told it did not indicate anything other than an interest to investigate the subject of the treaty.Another confusion is between the two highly controversial treaties authored in 1996 and WIPO copyright treaties generally. I have written on this blog in the past that there are 6 copyright related treaties. In that previous article I listed the dates when the UK, France, Canada and the United States either ratified or signed treaties, and whether neither was done. Canada signed the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms on October 29, 1971 and never ratified, and nobody is suggesting that this created some sort of obligation or that there is some mythical rush to ratify.
via Copyright Consultation: WIPO treaties | Enterprise Insights.
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