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“To claim we're the leading unauthorized file swapping capital of the world based on an old OECD study, that's incredible,” Geist says. “On top of that, tax dollars went towards paying for [that report].”

Ontario's Ministry of Research and Innovation helped fund the Conference Board's report, alongside copyright lobby groups such as the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, Copyright Collective of Canada, and both the U.S. and Canadian Chambers of Commerce.

While the ministry didn't commission the report, it did provide $15,000 to the Conference Board for its upcoming conference Intellectual Property Rights: Innovation and Commercialization in Turbulent Times. Some of that money was used towards the report, says Grahame Rivers, press secretary for John Wilkinson, Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation.

“These are serious allegations. We take any charge of plagiarism seriously,” Rivers says. “We will be following up and look forward to hear what they [Conference Board of Canada] have to say about this.”

The exchange between Geist and the Conference Board is not the first time the debate over Canada's copyright laws has been controversial. The minority Conservative government had Bill C-61 on the table to enact copyright reform, but it was killed when an election was called Sept. 7, 2008.

Bill C-61 was been called Canada's version of the U.S.Digital Millennium Copyright Act by critics who complained it was too strict in preventing legitimate copying of digital media. It would also put the onus on copyright holders to enforce their rights by suing those who infringed upon them.

Canada remains in need of copyright reforms to meet obligations of WIPO treaties, says Brian Isaac, chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network.

“Canadians tend to be more likely to infringe copyright than in many other industrialized nations,” he says. "We're risking becoming a haven for some of the people who are trying to profit off of Internet piracy."

A tougher mandate for the Canadian Border Services Agency to enforce copyright law is one thing the network would like to see. It is also recommended in the Conference Board's report.

“The key is ex-officio power and the ability to communicate information that will be effective in dealing with this stuff,” Isaac says. “They need to be able to detain goods.”

To comply with WIPO Internet treaties, Canada must prohibit the deliberate alternation of digital rights management information. It must ensure that copyright holders are able to use technology to protect their licences and works online, and those who find ways around that protection are punished.

Canada should do this by outlawing devices or software designed to circumvent such protective measures, the Conference Board says.

The Board bills itself as an objective research group without an agenda. Its slogan is “insights you can count on.”

“The Conference Board of Canada has compounded its mistake by standing by its report,” Geist says. “In doing so, it has done little more than further undermine its credibility.”

No spokesperson from the Conference Board was able to respond to an interview request before deadline.

With files from Joaquim P. Menezes

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