Harvard professor Yochai Benkler recently delivered an exceptional
talk
examining how the SOPA and ACTA protests unfolded. The talk highlights
the role of online new sources and the rapidly changing key players in
raising awareness or generating …

The Bill
C-11 committee
conducts its final witness hearing on copyright reform today and not a
moment too soon. Based on the demands from music industry witnesses
this week, shutting down the Internet must surely be coming next. The
week started …

Look for the latest charge to appear soon on your Bell, Rogers, Telus, (or MTS, or SaskTel) bill by next year when Vic Toews Bill C-30 comes into effect. It may not be labeled as such, but you can think of the price increase as the “Child Predator Tax”. The misnamed “Lawful Access” cum “Protecting [...]

So remember how the Cons withdrew their just-tabled internet surveillance bill, the Lawful Access Act, on Feb 14 and replaced it an hour and 15 minutes later with the identical but renamed Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, a bill…

I participated in a Global News question
and answer feature together with Howard Knopf on Bill C-11 and how
it will affect Canadians.

Yahoo’s The Right Click reports
on the mounting protests from Canadians against the prospect of adding
SOPA-style amendments to Bill C-11.

Barry Sookman, lawyer and registered lobbyist for the Canadian
Recording Industry Association (now Music Canada), the Motion Pictures
Association – Canada, and Canadian Publishers Council, has an op-ed
in the National Post claiming that concerns …

Alexander Furnas explains
in the Atlantic why the broader implications of ACTA may make it as bad
as SOPA. Furnas notes “while many of the alarmists specific claims are
inaccurate, ACTA exposes the systemic danger in how international
intellectua…

First off, I’m not much of a political guy. I vote when I have to. I try to stay as informed as I can to ensure I make rational decisions. I don’t think I’ve ever even really protested in my life (Except when they took Firefly off the air). As you all know by now, [...]

Help Stop Bill C-11 from Ruining The Internet is a post from: I Backpack Canada

Last week, I delivered a keynote
address on copyright issues at the University of South Florida St.
Petersburg. The talk focused on the activism around SOPA and assessed
the global strategies employed by the U.S. and copyright lobby groups
of shi…

The reports
that the music industry lobby (along with the Entertainment Software
Association of Canada and the movie lobby) is seeking the inclusion of
SOPA-style provisions into Bill C-11 has generated considerable
discussion online and in the m…

Last night I appeared
on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
with a short “Soapbox” segment to explain mounting concerns over Bill
C-11. The program has posted a video version of my comments on some of
the digital lock issues in the bill and the dem…

In recent days there has been massive new interest in Canadian
copyright reform as thousands of people write to their MPs to express
concern about the prospect of adding SOPA-style rules to Bill C-11
(there are even plans for public protests
begi…

Producer, agent and New York columnist Gavin Polone is a show-biz insider if ever…

Several excellent pieces assessing the recent battle over SOPA have
been posted over the past few days. They include:

Larry Downes, has a great piece titled Who
Really Stopped SOPA, and Why?
Yochai
Benkler on Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Meg…

Jesse Brown blogs
on the push to introduce SOPA style rules into Canadian copyright
reform.

The U.S. copyright war is headed for a Hollywood-esque happy ending–unlike the one in Canada

My post
this week on the behind-the-scenes demands to make Bill C-11, the
current copyright bill, more like SOPA has attracted considerable
attention with mainstream (National
Post, La
Presse) and online media (Mashable, Wire
Report)
covering the…

Last week’s Wikipedia-led blackout in protest of U.S. copyright
legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is being hailed by
some as the Internet Spring, the day that millions fought back against
restrictive legislative proposals that pos…

The Internet battle against SOPA and PIPA generated huge
interest in Canada with many Canadians turning their sites dark
(including Blogging Tories, Project Gutenberg Canada, and CIPPIC) in
support of the protest. In writing about the link betw…