Copyright Law

The Cabinet Shuffle

By Michael Geist

New Ministers at both Industry and Canadian Heritage -- Prentice is out and Tony Clement in at Industry; Verner out at Heritage and James Moore is in.  As I noted last week, copyright should not be a top priority issue (notwithstanding the campaign commitment to re-introduce legislation) given the bigger economic concerns and the political changes in the United States that may reduce pressure until the spring.  That said, copyright will be back and today's shuffle presents an opportunity to rethink the approach in C-61.  While the future copyright bill will undoubtedly address controversial issues such as anti-circumvention legislation, there is great flexibility in how the government chooses to implement these provisions and new ministers could mean new thinking.

As for the other cabinet appointments, note that Diane Ablonczy is back as Minister of State for Small Business which may mean leadership on the anti-spam file, while the government has introduced a new Minister of State for Science and Technology (Gary Goodyear).

Update: CBC covers the Clement appointment with a discussion of the implications for technology, telecom, and copyright policy.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).