COPYRIGHT REFORM IN CANADA: DAY 4,235

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000583

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CAN AND EEB/TPP/IPE
STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN, MELLE, VETERE, AND MCCOY
COMMERCE FOR J BOGER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR CA
SUBJECT: COPYRIGHT REFORM IN CANADA: DAY 4,235


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On July 20, the Government of Canada kicked
off broad public consultations on copyright reform with an
invitation-only roundtable discussion in Vancouver. Over the
next several weeks the Government will solicit the opinions
of experts at roundtable and town hall meetings across Canada
and will collect submissions from any interested parties
online. The Ministers of Industry and Heritage are embracing
the role of technology in the process and have posted
webcasts of the roundtable meetings and use Twitter to
broadcast updates on the consultations. Several industry
stakeholders recognize political value in the consultations
and are cautiously optimistic about the process. Others
however, are concerned that the broad consultations will
delay the introduction of copyright reform legislation and
possibly serve as a justification to pursue weaker reforms.
Key Government officials insist that they are committed to
protecting copyright in Canada - which includes ratifying the
WIPO internet treaties (signed by Canada 4,235 days ago) -
and that they intend to introduce a bill before the end of
the year. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) On July 20, Minister of Industry Clement and
Minister of Heritage Moore launched a public consultation on
copyright with a roundtable discussion between about 15 key
stakeholders. The meeting was held in Vancouver and attended
by representatives of the film, music, television,
broadcasting, and software industries as well as
representatives from library, university, and student
associations. One participant in the meeting explained that
the large number of participants necessitated that the format
consisted of a series of 3-4 minute presentations rather than
a discussion. The Ministers reportedly seemed genuine and
open minded. Minister Clement declared that copyright reform
is an "urgent priority" and that he and Minister Moore are
committed to introducing a bill this fall.


3. (SBU) Likely in an effort to avoid some of the criticism
leveled at the last copyright bill, the Government is making
great efforts to make this process transparent. The
Ministers and their senior staff will host several roundtable
discussions and town hall meetings over the next few weeks.
The transcripts and audio feeds of these discussions will be
posted on copyright.econsultation.ca. Interested parties can
also submit their ideas and view and comment on other's ideas
on this site.


4. (SBU) Tanya Peatt, Director of Policy, Heritage Canada,
recently told econoff that her government is conducting these
consultations in part because of the heavy criticism for not
holding consultations over the last copyright bill. She
reiterated that the Government intends to introduce a bill
this fall that will enable Canada to finally implement the
WIPO internet treaties. The two Ministers have not yet
decided whether they will use the last legislative attempt at
copyright reform (Bill C 61) as a starting point or if they
will start from scratch, according to Peatt.


5. (SBU) The large scale of these consultations concerns some
stakeholders. Some have told the Embassy that at best, the
consultations look like a stall tactic to delay the
introduction of a copyright reform bill, and at worst, cover
for the Government to walk back from support for strong,
WIPO-compliant copyright reform. Most interested parties
QWIPO-compliant copyright reform. Most interested parties
agree that the howls of protest from grassroots consumer
groups virtually guarantee that the copyright bill will be
more "consumer friendly" than the last iteration.


6. (SBU) Comment: The pace of copyright reform continues to
be a source of great frustration to the Embassy. Given the
scope of the consultations, the complexity of the subject,
and the government's previous inability to live up to
deadlines on this file, we are not confident of the
Government's ability to introduce a bill this year. Even if
the Government manages to get a bill to Parliament, it is
possible that before the bill is passed, Parliament could be
dissolved for federal elections, which many pundits predict
will be called this winter. End Comment.

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