S-4 copyright trolling concerns not ‘valid’: Moore

OTTAWA — Industry Minister James Moore said Wednesday that he is not concerned that the government’s Digital Privacy Act will, as critics as have charged, open the door to copyright trolls. Some experts have said the legislation, Bill S-4, would open the door for U.S.-style “copyright trolls” by allowing telecommunications companies to hand over subscriber information to organizations who are investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the law. The “trolls,” usually on the behalf of companies that create content, send out letters to people they accuse of having violated copyright in hopes of reaching an agreement for some kind of payment under threat of legal action. “In the context of the bill, we don’t have that concern,” Moore told reporters after appearing at the Senate’s transport and communications committee to discuss the legislation Wednesday evening. “We understand the concern. We don’t think that the concern is valid,” Moore said. The Digital Privacy Act would amend the section of Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) dealing with circumstances under which “an organization may disclose personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual.” Under S-4, that would include cases where the disclosure is “made to another organization and is reasonable for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province.” In response to a question about what circumstances this provision of the bill was created for, Moore said he could not answer the question immediately and would have to respond to reporters at a later time. The minister’s press secretary, Jake Enwright, said in followup phone interview that the provision in the Digital Privacy Act allowing private information sharing between organizations is not new and has existed since PIPEDA was put in place in 2001. “This provision has existed since the Liberal government brought the bill in,” he said. “The purpose of is to place stricter limits and tighter rules on private information-sharing among organizations,” Enwright added. Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, told The Wire Report in April that PIPEDA currently forbids this type of disclosure. He said that, at the moment, companies such as Internet service providers are allowed to disclose information to law enforcement “but there is no exception … for other private organizations.” The Wire Report reported last month that experts disagree about the effect the Digital Privacy Act could have on disclosure of information by telecommunications companies and whether the legislation would open the door for copyright trolls. The Digital Privacy Act marks the government’s most recent move to update PIPEDA, something it has attempted in the past. An NDP PIPEDA reform bill was defeated in the House of Commons in January. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

S-4 copyright trolling concerns not ‘valid’: Moore

Broadcast | May 29, 2014

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S-4 copyright trolling concerns not ‘valid’: Moore

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