
The previous CRi article entitled "Revolution in Canadian Copyright Law?" (Beardwood, CRi 2005, pp. 40-47) identified the following three themes that emerged from a series of seminal Canadian copyright cases in 2004: (1) the expansion of user rights, (2) the significant influence of foreign law, and (3) the potential for conflict between the courts and the legislature. Four years later, the federal government has finally unveiled its package of reforms on 12 June 2008 to the Canadian Copyright Act (the "Act") in the form of Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, which would, among other things, implement the World International Property Organization Treaty ("WPPT"). There is no doubt that Bill C-61, if enacted, will represent a significant shift in the Canadian copyright regime. However, in reviewing the main elements of the Bill and comparing them against the 2004 case law, it appears that the shift represented by the Bill is much less dramatic than the "revolution" proposed by the judiciary, and in fact in many respects appears to represent a counter-revolution intended to circumscribe the direction adopted by the judiciary.
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