2012 Canliidocs 174 Some of the Agreement’S Digital Copyright Measures
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THE IMPACT OF ACTA ON CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW 677 JOIN THE CLUB: THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT’S ENFORCEMENT MEASURES FOR CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW ELIZABETH F JUDGE* AND SALEH AL-SHARIEH** The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) L’Accord commercial anti-contrefaçon (ACAC) est is the most recent international agreement by which la toute dernière entente internationale dans le cadre Canada and other countries have sought to strengthen de laquelle le Canada et d’autres pays cherchent à the protection and enforcement of intellectual property renforcer la protection et l’exécution des droits de rights. While it was originally feared that ACTA propriété intellectuelle. Bien qu’on craignît à l’origine would impose obligations that are in tension with the que l’ACAC impose des obligations tendues par principles of Canadian copyright law, the final rapport aux principes de la loi canadienne sur le droit outcome of the ACTA negotiations moderated or d’auteur, l’aboutissement des négociations de l’ACAC removed many of the most controversial provisions in a modéré nombre des dispositions les plus the agreement and thus has alleviated many of the controversées de l’ACAC ou s’en est éloigné et ainsi concerns about the impact of ACTA on Canadian a calmé les inquiétudes sur l’effet de l’ACAC sur la loi copyright law. Canada has taken the first steps toward canadienne sur le droit d’auteur. Avec le projet de loi satisfying ACTA’s copyright obligations with Bill C- C-11, Loi sur la modernisation du droit d’auteur, le 11, the Copyright Modernization Act, which addresses Canada a fait les premiers pas vers la conformité avec 2012 CanLIIDocs 174 some of the agreement’s digital copyright measures. les obligations de l’ACAC à cet égard. La nouvelle loi Some legislative change still remains before Canada aborde certaines mesures de l’ACAC qui ont trait au will have fully met ACTA’s copyright obligations, in droit d’auteur dans un monde numérique.D’autres particular to enhance the powers of customs and modifications législatives sont nécessaires pour que le border authorities to enforce intellectual property Canada se conforme entièrement aux obligations de rights. This article discusses ACTA’s evolution, l’ACAC; il faudra tout particulièrement rehausser le negotiations, final text, and the extent of its rights- pouvoir de la Douane et des autorités frontalières pour holder orientation. It then details the differences faire respecter les droits sur la propriété intellectuelle. between ACTA’s provisions and the current Canadian Cet article porte sur les négociations et le texte final de Copyright Act, as amended by the Copyright l’ACAC ainsi que sur la portée de l’orientation des Modernization Act, identifies which obligations in détenteurs de droits. Il décrit aussi en détail les ACTA require further amendment, and suggests how différences entre les dispositions de l’ACAC et la loi these obligations may best be implemented to reflect canadienne sur le droit d’auteur actuelle qui est important values and principles underlying Canadian devenue la Loi sur la modernisation du droit d’auteur, copyright law. identifie les obligations de l’ACAC qui nécessitent des modifications et suggèrent des moyens de mettre en œuvre ces obligations de manière à refléter les valeurs et principes importants du droit d’auteur canadien. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................................. 678 II. THE EVOLUTION OF ACTA .................................... 683 III. ACTA’S CONTENT AND RIGHTS-HOLDER ORIENTATION ............. 689 A. ACTA’S TRIPS-PLUS MODEL ............................. 689 B. ACTA’S REGIME SHIFT .................................. 691 C. ACTA’S DISCOURSE ..................................... 694 * Elizabeth F. Judge is a Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society and an affiliate member of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa. We gratefully acknowledge support from the GEOIDE Network, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Law Foundation of Ontario. ** Saleh Al-Sharieh is a Doctoral Candidate at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. 678 ALBERTA LAW REVIEW (2012) 49:3 D. ACTA AS A MINIMUM STANDARDS AGREEMENT ............... 695 E. ASYMMETRY BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS VERSUS DEFENCES, EXCEPTIONS, AND OTHER RIGHTS .......... 698 IV. ACTA AND COPYRIGHT REFORM ............................... 699 V. THE IMPACT OF ACTA’S LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW ............................... 705 A. CIVIL ENFORCEMENT .................................... 707 B. BORDER MEASURES ..................................... 713 C. CRIMINAL ENFORCEMENT ................................ 718 D. ENFORCEMENT IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT ................ 721 VI. CONCLUSION .............................................. 740 I. INTRODUCTION At the same time that Canada’s Parliament was debating amendments to modernize the Canadian Copyright Act,1 the Canadian government joined several nations in the negotiations for a new intellectual property agreement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).2 ACTA aims to enhance the enforcement of intellectual property rights and combat 2012 CanLIIDocs 174 “counterfeit trademark goods” and “pirated copyright goods.”3 Notably, ACTA is a plurilateral agreement negotiated only among select members of the World Trade Organization (WTO),4 consisting principally of countries with strong intellectual property portfolios who share a keen interest in strengthening enforcement against counterfeit and pirated goods and who are frustrated by the lack of international cooperation thus far.5 ACTA 1 RSC 1985, c C-42. 2 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and United States, 1 May 2011 (signed by Canada on 10 October 2011), online: European Commission <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/ docs/2011/may/tradoc_147937.pdf> [ACTA]. Canada officially announced its intention to join the negotiations on 23 October 2007 and remained an active participant in all 11 rounds of ACTA negotiations, which came to an end in October 2010 in Tokyo, Japan. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA),” online: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada <http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/fo/ intellect_property.aspx?view=d>. 3 ACTA, ibid, art 5(d): counterfeit trademark goods means any goods, including packaging, bearing without authorization a trademark which is identical to the trademark validly registered in respect of such goods, or which cannot be distinguished in its essential aspects from such a trademark, and which thereby infringes the rights of the owner of the trademark in question under the law of the country in which the procedures set forth in Chapter II (Legal Framework for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights) are invoked [emphasis omitted]. Ibid, art 5(k): pirated copyright goods means any goods which are copies made without the consent of the right holder or person duly authorized by the right holder in the country of production and which are made directly or indirectly from an article where the making of that copy would have constituted an infringement of a copyright or a related right under the law of the country in which the procedures set forth in Chapter II (Legal Framework for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights) are invoked [emphasis omitted]. These definitions are consistent with the definitions of the same terms in the World Trade Organization (WTO), Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Annex 1C of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, 15 April 1994, WTO Doc LT/UR/A- 1C/IP/1, 33 ILM 1197, art 51, n 14(a)-(b), online: WTO <http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_ e/27-trips.pdf> [TRIPS or TRIPS Agreement]. 4 WTO, online: WTO <www.wto.org>. 5 Plurilateral agreements are open to only a limited number of countries, as distinct from multilateral agreements such as the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, supra note 3, to which all members of the WTO are parties. See ACTA, supra note 2, for a list of the nations that are signatories to ACTA as of October 2011. For a list of nations that signed ACTA after this article went to press, see the discussion in note 60, infra. THE IMPACT OF ACTA ON CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW 679 aims to meet this objective by creating a new international legal framework of best practices for combating counterfeiting and piracy. The agreement establishes uniform standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights through enhanced border measures, civil and criminal enforcement measures, specific practices for the digital environment, and increased international cooperation between enforcement agencies and right holders. ACTA’s Preamble indicates that its member countries designed the agreement to address the cross-border trade problem of weak intellectual property rights enforcement by setting norms that would be taken up globally and not merely by its member nations.6 ACTA’s scope encompasses intellectual property broadly defined and is co-extensive with the subject matter covered by TRIPS (namely, copyright and related rights, industrial design, trademarks, geographical indications, patents, integrated circuit topographies, and