OTTAWA–Canada has capitulated on copyright policy in the new trilateral North American trade deal, experts say, with a new “digital trade” chapter that could have wide-ranging implications on everything from Canadian content online to personal privacy.The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), announced late Sunday night, commits Canada to extending the term of copyright by two decades, from 50 years after the author’s death to 70 years. While that sounds like a relatively minor change, University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist said the costs associated with it could be significant.“I think it’s bad news for Canadians, bad news from a cultural and heritage perspective,” Geist said, who suggested the government “caved” on the issue.“We’ll find that Canadian culture and heritage is locked down, out of the public domain for an extra two decades. Canada had resisted those reforms despite U.S. pressure for a long time … (It) means that works that might otherwise make their way to schools under the public domain won’t for a couple of decades, which could increase education costs.”Geist also said the extension of patents on biologics to 10 years could have an “enormous” cost on the health care system by driving up the price of generic drugs.Read more: Justin Trudeau calls trade deal a win, promises compensation for dairy farmersHere’s what’s new in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada AgreementOpinion | Chantal Hébert: Trade agreement is unlikely to hurt Liberal fortunesExperts were still poring over the massive trade agreement on Monday, reached between Canada, the United States and Mexico after a year of tense negotiation. Much of the initial reaction has been focused on the impact for Canada’s auto sector, which appears to have dodged U.S. tariffs for the time being, and the Liberal government’s concessions on Canada’s supply managed da ...
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