The Canadian government is expected to start a consultation on the country's copyright laws later this month, with a view to having a reworked Copyright Bill on the table by the end of the year.
As previously reported, Canada's copyright laws have not proved helpful for content owners trying to protect their copyrights online, with some judges saying current laws do not actually make the sharing of unlicensed content online illegal. So much so Canada was recently placed on the US's 'intellectural property watch list' of country's whose laws fail to protect the rights of American content owners.
It's not the first time a review of Canadian copyright law has taken place - but two previous reviews were halted because of elections. The aim this time is to have a new bill in place before Christmas, which would be voted on in the New Year.
That said, content owners shouldn't get too excited too quickly. There is a strong lobby in Canada who oppose tighter copyright laws, especially on the internet, while ISPs will be keen to ensure they are in no way liable for any infringement committed by their customers, meaning there will need to be a lot of wheeling and dealing before proposals can be successfully taken through the country's parliament, not least because the current Canadian government doesn't have an automatic majority vote in there.