IPR: MICHAEL GEIST SHARES HIS VIEWS WITH EMBASSY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000691

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN, MELLE, AND GARDE
STATE FOR WHA/CAN AND EEB/TPP/MTA/IPC BOGER AND WALLACE
COMMERCE FOR GERI WORD AND SEBASTIAN WRIGHT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR CA
SUBJECT: IPR: MICHAEL GEIST SHARES HIS VIEWS WITH EMBASSY
OTTAWA

REF: MONTREAL 150


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 12, the DCM and other Embassy
officers met with University of Ottawa Law Professor Michael
Geist, who is a prominent public commentator on intellectual
property rights (IPR) issues, to discuss Canadian copyright
issues. As expected, Geist's views were generally at odds
with U.S. policy. He disputed that Canada has a major
problem with camcording in movies theaters, opposed legal
protection for digital rights management (DRM),and
characterized the current state of copyright law in Canada as
"not too bad". Geist commented that the expected government
copyright bill, possibly to be introduced later this spring,
would likely be a political liability for Prime Minister
Harper's minority government. Furthermore, Geist claimed
that his views were becoming more popular and that the longer
the government delays copyright legislation, the more
seriously his viewpoints will need to be considered. END
SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) On April 12, the DCM and other Embassy officers met
with Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law Professor and
frequent Canadian public commentator on IPR issues, to hear
his views on expected copyright legislation. Geist runs a
popular blog that discusses IPR-related issues and regularly
writes columns on the subject that are published by major
Canadian newspapers. Geist's views, while generally at odds
with U.S. policy, are taken seriously by the Canadian public,
academia, and members of the Canadian government. Geist
defended current Canadian policies and stated that Canada
meets all international treaty copyright obligations even
though it has not yet formally implemented the WIPO Internet
Treaties.

DRM
--------------


3. (SBU) Geist stated that he was opposed both to mandated
DRM and legal protection for DRM. He claimed that market
pressures were already undermining DRM, citing the recent
decision by Apple and EMI to sell DRM-free music on iTunes as
an example. Geist also stated that numerous Canadian artists
had decided that P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing of their
music was good for their business because it expanded
consumer awareness of their product, increased sales, and
increased concert ticket revenues. Geist commented that it
was also no longer a good business model for artists to rely
on income from music sales and that this a losing battle --
with or without DRM. He cited several prominent Canadian
artists to support his case. When we pointed out that the
individuals he mentioned were already established and did not
need to worry about their popularity with the public, Geist
tried to argue that this business model would also be
advantageous for unknown artists.

Camcording
--------------


4. (SBU) Geist disputed industry claims that Canada has a
major problem with camcording in movie theaters. (Comment:
The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association claims
that camcording in Canada is a significant source of pirated
movie DVDs worldwide. End Comment.) He stated that that
industry was overstating their case and that camcorded copies
of movies simply do not make up a large portion of the
illegal market. Geist believes that relatively few titles
are targets of camcording and that the "inferior" copies
produced are soon superseded by legitimate DVDs when these
become available to the public a few months after a movie is
released to theaters. Although Geist conceded that theater
Qreleased to theaters. Although Geist conceded that theater
camcording is "not a good thing" because it violates the
creator's copyright and it distorts an artist's work, he
questioned the need for imposing criminal penalties for the
simple act of theater camcording. (Comment: Embassy will
contact movie and theater industry representatives in
Montreal to see if they would be interested in discussing
camcording with Geist. He may be unaware of the measures
they are taking to cope with this problem, which seems to be
growing. End Comment)

Copyright Law
--------------


5. (SBU) Geist stated that new copyright law legislation
would be controversial -- as well as a political liability if
national elections were called. (Comment: Prime Minister

OTTAWA 00000691 002 OF 002


Harper,s chief domestic advisor told Economic
Minister-Counselor on April 16 that the Harper government
continues to see a revision of the copyright law as a matter
of urgency and said that the bill would be introduced in
Parliament later this spring, a prediction he caveated by
saying that this assumes that there would not be a spring
federal election. End comment.) Geist suggested that
competing interests could produce a more restrictive, less
advantageous copyright regime in Canada than currently
exists. That said, Geist stated that some changes he would
like to see include:

- Expansion of Canada's limited fair use/fair dealing
provisions for copyrighted works;
- Downward adjustment of statutory damage provisions for
copyright violations;
- Allowing greater public access to government copyrighted
works; and
-Institutionalization of the "notice and notice" system for
Internet Service Providers.


6. (SBU) Geist stated that the United States' fair use
provisions and access to publicly owned works could be good
models for Canada. He also commented that a solid fair use
provision in a new copyright bill would go "a long way"
towards placating parties opposed to stronger IPR protection.


7. (SBU) Geist was pleased by the invitation to discuss IPR
issues at the Embassy. Well-informed and articulate on these
technical issues, Geist has become the media source of choice
to balance out the growing chorus of commentators worried
about Canada's lax IPR protection regime. His
acknowledgement that Canada is a net importer of copyrighted
materials helps explain the advantage he would like to hold
on to with a weaker Canadian UPR protection regime. His
unvoiced bias against the (primarily U.S. based)
entertainment industry also reflects deeply ingrained
Canadian preferences to protect and nurture homegrown artists.

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