The Honourable Mr. Marshall Rothstein presents his keynote address.
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
The majority ruling in the SODRAC case concluded that the Supreme Court’s central holding in Bishop v Stevens [1990] 2 S.C.R. 467 remains sound: there is no reason, either in the subsequent jurisprudence or legislative amendments, to depart from long-standing practice of treating ephemeral copies as reproductions. In a forcefully articulated dissent, the minority described this conclusion as unreasonable and contrary to the principles of balance and technological neutrality. How should “reproduction” be understood in the digital context, where copies may no longer appear to be “material” either in form or effect? Is the holding limited to the broadcasting context? What are the potential risks and benefits of treating every copy as a copy? What bearing will the amendments in the Copyright Modernization Act (2012) have on the potential scope of the SODRAC ruling
