Noted copyright expert Howard Knopf has been surprisingly uninvited from the important Public Policy Forum symposium on Canadian intellectual property rights. The forum claims to be an neutral environment, yet apparently "neutral" could be a keyword for preferring the attendance of specific multinational and corporate interests, as represented by people like U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, Michael Shapiro of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Perrin Beatty of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Glen Bloom - a lobbyist for Time Canada Ltd., Warner Bros. Entertainment Canada Inc., AOL Canada Inc., and the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.

Here is that paper, which documents several weaknesses in American copyright law and some 15 areas in which Canadian copyright law is already stronger and better than American law, many of which result in very substantial outflows of money to the USA. The paper also points out hypocrisy and inconsistencies in American positions on IP, including with respect to the US '301' mechanism. I was also asked to address a some points in patent and trade-marks law. However, it seems that some interests do not want to hear about these points at this conference. I have done a lot of research in this area, and nobody has suggested that anything in the Fordham paper was inaccurate in any respect. In fact, it was well received.

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