[Download] "Competition Policy and Canada's New Breed of "Copyright" Law." by McGill Law Journal # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Competition Policy and Canada's New Breed of "Copyright" Law.
- Author : McGill Law Journal
- Release Date : January 22, 2007
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 384 KB
Description
Open digital networks present a number of challenges for copyright holders. With a few clicks of a mouse, a digital work can be copied perfectly and distributed globally without the copyright holder's knowledge or permission. In response to these challenges, copyright holders have started using technological means--called technological protection measures ("TPMs")--to control access to and use of copyright works. They have also sought legal protections for their TPMs through amendments to copyright laws. These legal protections typically make it illegal to circumvent TPMs and, in some countries, to make devices that circumvent TPMs. These are commonly known as "anticircumvention" and "anti-device" provisions, respectively. Although often overlooked, anticircumvention and anti-device provisions are a new breed of "copyright" law that may come to be implemented in Canada and that spawns substantial implications and unintended consequences for Canadian competition policy. Identifying and addressing some of these implications and consequences is the focus of this article. Part I briefly sketches the traditional relationship between competition and copyright policy in Canada. Part II sets out a basic framework for analysis by describing copyright holders' new technological controls, and the possible shape of amendments to Canadian copyright law. Part III explores the new competition policy issues spawned by legal protections for TPMs and digital rights management. Finally, consistent with recent indications from the commissioner of competition that intellectual property will receive increased attention from the Competition Bureau, Part IV discusses concrete ways that Canada's competition authority can ensure dial Canada maintains vibrant competition law and policy in the face of possible changes to copyright law.