Thursday, September 29, 2016

Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce to study, and make recommendations on the operation and practices of the Copyright Board of Canada



The Honourable Senator Tkachuk moved, seconded by the Honourable Senator Nancy Ruth:
That the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce be authorized to study, and make recommendations on, the operation and practices of the Copyright Board of Canada.
That the committee submit its final report no later than Wednesday, November 30, 2016, and that the committee retain all powers necessary to publicize its findings until 180 days after the tabling of the final report.
After debate, The question being put on the motion, it was adopted.

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This will be interesting.

HPK

PS - During the course of this brief discussion in the Senate, Senator Tkachuk stated as follows on September 28, 2016, as reported by Hansard:

He said: Honourable senators, to get this out of the way, there will be no travel on this matter. The House of Commons is charged with reviewing the legislation on the copyright bill that was passed a number of years ago. We have had a number of presentations from businesses that said that the Copyright Board itself should be subject to review. We have decided as a committee that we would then ask them to come forward to us over the next couple of day to see what the problem is. If there is, we will make a recommendation to the House of Commons that they not only study the bill but specifically include the Copyright Board, which is excluded from the process

 (highlight added)

Note that the announced deadline to report of November 30, 2016 and the reference to the "next couple of days" suggests warp speed activity on the part of the Senate and some intense lobbying activity coming from somewhere. Given the curious mix of "strange bedfellows" that are concerned with unacceptable delays, expense, retroactivity and other issues that are clearly apparent at the Board, this development is not surprising and may present a useful opportunity.

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