This Just Gets Better and Better (Or Sadder and Sadder)...

The Conference Board of Canada, which recently published a plagiarized and highly biased report on the digital economy - responded to Michael Geist's whistle-blowing by standing by their initial report. "It claims that it conducted a full review of the various arguments and included 'those arguments considered most relevant to the policy under review.'"

Well, not so, it seems. Michael reports that

it actually commissioned a study on the copyright issues from an independent Canadian legal expert. That report was completed by Professor Jeremy deBeer, a colleague at the University of Ottawa and frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail on copyright matters.

Professor deBeer has just revealed his involvement and posted a working paper based on his report submitted to the Conference Board of Canada. It turns out the deBeer was precluded from using the work for 12 months, a period that concluded today. It is immediately apparent that the deBeer paper arrived at very different conclusions from the IIPA and the Conference Board.

Fancy that.

I'm waiting for the federal government-du-jour to reintroduce a content-industry-favourable Copyright Act Reform Bill (previously C-61) with the citation that it is based on the recommendations of the Conference Board of Canada, which is, after all, "independent, objective, and non-partisan."

Update (29 May 2009): The Conference Board recalls the reports!

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