Viewing cable 09OTTAWA583, COPYRIGHT REFORM IN CANADA: DAY 4,235

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STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN, MELLE, VETERE, AND MCCOY 
COMMERCE FOR J BOGER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR CA
SUBJECT: COPYRIGHT REFORM IN CANADA: DAY 4,235 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On July 20, the Government of Canada kicked 
off broad public consultations on copyright reform with an 
invitation-only roundtable discussion in Vancouver. Over the 
next several weeks the Government will solicit the opinions 
of experts at roundtable and town hall meetings across Canada 
and will collect submissions from any interested parties 
online. The Ministers of Industry and Heritage are embracing 
the role of technology in the process and have posted 
webcasts of the roundtable meetings and use Twitter to 
broadcast updates on the consultations. Several industry 
stakeholders recognize political value in the consultations 
and are cautiously optimistic about the process. Others 
however, are concerned that the broad consultations will 
delay the introduction of copyright reform legislation and 
possibly serve as a justification to pursue weaker reforms. 
Key Government officials insist that they are committed to 
protecting copyright in Canada - which includes ratifying the 
WIPO internet treaties (signed by Canada 4,235 days ago) - 
and that they intend to introduce a bill before the end of 
the year. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On July 20, Minister of Industry Clement and 
Minister of Heritage Moore launched a public consultation on 
copyright with a roundtable discussion between about 15 key 
stakeholders. The meeting was held in Vancouver and attended 
by representatives of the film, music, television, 
broadcasting, and software industries as well as 
representatives from library, university, and student 
associations. One participant in the meeting explained that 
the large number of participants necessitated that the format 
consisted of a series of 3-4 minute presentations rather than 
a discussion. The Ministers reportedly seemed genuine and 
open minded. Minister Clement declared that copyright reform 
is an "urgent priority" and that he and Minister Moore are 
committed to introducing a bill this fall. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Likely in an effort to avoid some of the criticism 
leveled at the last copyright bill, the Government is making 
great efforts to make this process transparent. The 
Ministers and their senior staff will host several roundtable 
discussions and town hall meetings over the next few weeks. 
The transcripts and audio feeds of these discussions will be 
posted on copyright.econsultation.ca. Interested parties can 
also submit their ideas and view and comment on other's ideas 
on this site. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Tanya Peatt, Director of Policy, Heritage Canada, 
recently told econoff that her government is conducting these 
consultations in part because of the heavy criticism for not 
holding consultations over the last copyright bill. She 
reiterated that the Government intends to introduce a bill 
this fall that will enable Canada to finally implement the 
WIPO internet treaties. The two Ministers have not yet 
decided whether they will use the last legislative attempt at 
copyright reform (Bill C 61) as a starting point or if they 
will start from scratch, according to Peatt. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The large scale of these consultations concerns some 
stakeholders. Some have told the Embassy that at best, the 
consultations look like a stall tactic to delay the 
introduction of a copyright reform bill, and at worst, cover 
for the Government to walk back from support for strong, 
WIPO-compliant copyright reform. Most interested parties 
QWIPO-compliant copyright reform. Most interested parties 
agree that the howls of protest from grassroots consumer 
groups virtually guarantee that the copyright bill will be 
more "consumer friendly" than the last iteration. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: The pace of copyright reform continues to 
be a source of great frustration to the Embassy. Given the 
scope of the consultations, the complexity of the subject, 
and the government's previous inability to live up to 
deadlines on this file, we are not confident of the 
Government's ability to introduce a bill this year. Even if 
the Government manages to get a bill to Parliament, it is 
possible that before the bill is passed, Parliament could be 
dissolved for federal elections, which many pundits predict 
will be called this winter. End Comment. 
 
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