Bill C-32: Proposed Amendments to the "Copyright Act"

After failed attempts in 2006 and 2008, the Canadian government tabled Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act before the House of Commons on June 2, 2010. Bill C-32 builds on its predecessors, Bills C-60 and C-61, and proposes substantial amendments to the Copyright Act. If passed into law, Bill C-32 would provide the first major changes to the Copyright Act since 1997.

The primary stated objectives of Bill C-32 are to: (1) update the Copyright Act to better address advances in technology, including making provisions in the Copyright Act technologically neutral; (2) balance the interests of copyright owners with those of copyright users through the creation of expanded liability and exception to infringement provisions; and (3) implement Canada's international treaty obligations under the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), both of which were adopted in December 1996.