Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Levies In Canada's Digital Music Market , Jeremy F. De Beer

Jeremy de Beer

Parties not directly involved in the use of copyright-protected music have increasingly become the targets of established or proposed schemes to provide revenues for the music industry. It has been suggested that rather than obtaining payments directly from consumers or distributors of digital music in exchange for licenses to use or transmit that music, levies should be imposed on the goods and services of third parties, such as recording media, digital devices and/or Internet access. This paper considers whether levies are an appropriate way to deal with the challenges and opportunities that are arising in Canada's digital music market.

Traditional …

Constitutional Jurisdiction Over Paracopyright Laws , Jeremy F. De Beer

Jeremy de Beer

This paper considers whether the Government of Canada's proposed legislation addressing technological protection measures and rights management information would be constitutionally valid federal law and examines the provinces' role in the debate over these copyright reforms. The Constitution allocates exclusive legislative responsibility for various matters to either the federal or provincial governments. The constitutionality of the proposed provisions turns on their pith and substance, which seems to involve technological and contractual controls over terms of distribution of digital materials. For a list of reasons, qualifications on the legal effects, intended to tether the legislation to existing copyright doctrine, may not …