Michael Geist

E-commerce and privacy law expert Michael Geist is among a notable panel that will be putting the federal government's bill to reform Canada's copyright laws under scrutiny Thursday afternoon to kick off a three-day conference.

Bill C-60, which Mr. Geist and others have criticized as a piece of legislation that panders to special interest groups rather than serving the broad public interest, is the federal government's stab at reforming copyright law to make it relevant to the digital age. Such reform comes as the legality of file-sharing and file-swapping continues to spark fierce debate and whether Internet Service Providers should be held liable for illegal file sharing.

The organizers, OCRI and the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, believe Bill C-60 could emerge as one of this fall's most contentious policy issues with significant interest and lobbying pressure from a wide range of stakeholders including the education community, the music industry, Internet service providers, and millions of individual Canadians.

The summit includes the launch of In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law, a collection of essays by 19 law professors from across Canada critical to the government's proposed legislation. Mr. Geist was editor and a contributor.

Notable with the book's release is the fact that publisher Irwin Law will allow Canadians to download free copies for non-commercial use, a first in Canada.

Following the book's release Thursday afternoon, the faculty is hosting a public forum on Bill C-60 with representatives from both Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage, the two departments responsible for the bill.

The three-day event will also feature Australia, a nation that has earned kudos in recent years with its innovative approach to "cyberlaw" issues, innovations that are being held up as an example for Canada to follow.

"They have an anti-spam legislation that is actively cited by Canada's anti-spam taskforce, and a telecommunications regulatory model often cited as a potential model for Canada as part of possible reforms to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act," Mr. Geist said in a statement ahead of the event.

For more information, please visit: http://web5.uottawa.ca/techlaw/resc/canaus.programme.pdf