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Law Times • February 8/15, 2010 FOCUS PAGE 9 smooth over U.S.-Canada trade disputes? That was the upshot of a December interna- tional trade event in the nation's capi- tal that featured that contention on the part of Mary- scott Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian- American Business Council and a trade lobbyist. It was an "astonishing" state- ment, according to Ottawa-based copyright lawyer Howard Knopf. Gr e e nwo o d , Swapping copyright reforms for open borders? C BY PAUL BRENT For Law Times ould the government sacrifice made-in-Can- ada copyright law to Howard Knopf is con- cerned Canada may use copyright reform as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations. head of the Wash- ington-based trade group, said Canada could ease its current trade problems with the United States, including the current administration's Buy American edict, by simply "fixing copy- right" and thereby ending the trade issues "tomorrow." "The Canada-U.S. file is now all about copyright, according to her," Knopf reported on his Ex- cess Copyright web site the day after the event. "All we have to do is do what the U.S. govern- ment and the American lobby- ists say. It doesn't matter how wrong the U.S.A. may be about 'Buy American' and countless other trade irritations." Buy American, which is tied to projects funded by the US$800-billion stimulus pack- age introduced by the U.S. fed- eral government last year to help pull the country out of the reces- sion, has proved a major irritant to Canada's exporting compa- nies. Knopf, who worries that control of Canadian copyright law will shift southward from Ottawa to Washington with the implementation of the anti- counterfeiting trade agreement, pressed the U.S. lobbyist on her remark about tying copyright reform to eliminating the Buy American irritant. "Her answer was that Canada should fix its copyright law in the manner suggested by the U.S.A. because this would be better for Canada or words to that effect." While Greenwood made the argument for "linkage" between Canadian copyright reform and an accommodation on the Buy American policy, there was im- mediate skepticism on this side of the border. A spokesman for the federal industry minister pointed out to The Globe and Mail that it's state and municipal governments that for the most part care little about copyright policy that are fuelling the patri- otic buying push. Blayne Haggart, a Carleton University PhD student who is working on a dissertation exam- ining North American copyright policy and regional integration, noted on his blog that the United States has already incorporated copyright protection into trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement in return for access to its market. "But be- cause Canada and Mexico already have guaranteed access to the U.S. mar- ket, thanks to the NAFTA, the U.S. has relatively little to offer its trading partners," he noted. "Somewhat ironi- cally, the NAFTA has provided North America's junior partners with a not-insignificant degree of policy autonomy. Given the reality that copyright laws are changed regularly in response to technological developments, the American strategy of using trade agreements, which can't be modi- fied easily, to set other countries' copyright laws may backfire in the long run." This past summer, President Barack Obama's administration added Canada to its blacklist of countries where Internet piracy flourishes. That action put Cana- da among the 12 worst countries in the world for copyright pro- tection, according to an annual U.S. government report. It was the first time Canada had ap- peared on the so-called Priority Watch List, which also included countries such as China, Rus- sia, and Indonesia. The United States said the move stemmed from its concern that Canada needs to implement copyright reforms and better police itself against violations such as pirated movies and music. The Special 301 Report, which has been published for 20 years, targeted 46 countries by ranking them on their effective- ness in fighting copyright theft and protecting against the piracy of U.S. films, music, and other material. Knopf has since coun- tered: "There was no evidence of serious counterfeiting and piracy in Canada and no basis for the 301 listing other than that of a few lobbyists' recycled back-of- the-envelope musings." The tougher stance on pi- racy isn't surprising, copyright observers say. "Obama has ap- pointed a bunch of people from the recording industry to be his top copyright [advisers]," says Samuel Trosow, an associate pro- fessor at the University of West- ern Ontario's faculty of law. "The [U.S.] Justice Depart- ment filed a brief in support of these very, very large damages that people are being hit with for music downloading, which isn't even illegal in Canada." Just last month, the Obama administration said it supports a Ridout_LT_Feb9-16_09.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com $675,000 verdict against a Mas- sachusetts student brought for- ward by the Recording Industry Association of America for shar- ing 30 songs. As well, the U.S. Justice Department, which now includes five recently installed former recording association lawyers, has said copyright in- fringement "creates a public harm that Congress determined must be deterred." To date, the majority of the 30,000 civil cases brought for- ward by the recording indus- try have settled out of court. Good enough is never good enough That's the attitude we bring to every matter – because the difference between winning and losing is often as simple as which side went the extra mile. Our winning track record and reputation as one of Canada's ip litigation "go-to" firms is based on this dedication to detail. That's why in our experience, when you want results, "good enough" is never good enough. So far, the association's other major victory was against a Minnesota woman hit with a $1.92-million verdict for shar- ing 24 songs via an Internet- based program. Last month, a judge reduced that award to $54,000. LT Dimock Stratton llp experience. results. 20 Queen W. 32nd fl, Toronto | 416.971.7202 | dimock.com Untitled-2 1 2/2/10 9:26:56 AM When it comes to IP in Canada, We're Well Read Ridout & Maybee LLP: Editors of the Canadian Patent Reporter it all starts somewhere www.ridoutmaybee.com 2/5/09 10:52:55 AM