Upbeat U.S. earnings buoyed stock markets around the world Thursday ahead of another round of company reports, while the euro neared a one-and-a-half year high against the dollar as investors were willing to take on more risky trades
Following a long period when investors have been focusing on other issues, such as Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, Europe’s debt crisis and the unrest in the Arab world, earnings have returned to prominence.
So far, the latest corporate results season has been generally positive, with a number of companies announcing forecast-busting earnings in another sign that the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, is performing strongly.
Particularly encouraging was Wednesday’s after-hourse statement from Apple Inc. that its hit iPhone helped earnings nearly double. Apple’s technology peer Intel Corp. also beat expectations, helping to buoy sentiment toward the technology sector. General Electric Co. then kicked off a slew of results Thursday on a positive note.
Others reporting Thursday include McDonald’s Corp. and Morgan Stanley & Co.
“In the past couple of days, the U.S. earnings season has enabled investors shrug off the euro woes and budget deficit concerns that dogged the early part of the week,” said Yusuf Heusen, senior sales trader at IG Index.
“Intel’s strong figures yesterday, followed closely by Apple’s blockbusting results, seem to have ignited risk appetite once more and investors will be looking for more of the same before the Easter break,” Heusen added.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.1 percent at 6,028 while Germany’s DAX rose 0.7 percent to 7,298. The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent higher at 4,021.
Wall Street was poised for a third day of gains following Monday’s retreat when investors were spooked by Standard & Poor’s warning that the U.S. faces a one-in-three chance of having its triple A credit rating downgraded. Dow futures were up 0.4 percent at 12,447 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.5 percent to 1,335.
Buoyant stock markets are an indication of heightened investor appetite for risk. That affects other markets too and in the currency markets the euro and the Australian dollar were the big gainers as investors looked for better interest rate returns instead.
“Monday is a distant memory and markets have shifted from shunning risk into the upcoming holiday period to assuming as much of it as they can,” said Robert Ryan, a foreign exchange strategist at BNP Paribas.
The euro was up another 0.9 percent at $1.4633 by late morning London time, a little shy of its earlier high of $1.4648, which is its strongest level since December 2009.
Despite occasional bouts of weakness, such as on Monday when the dollar _ perhaps surprisingly _ gained support from its widely-perceived status as a safe haven asset, the euro has been strong all year as it benefits from expectations that the European Central Bank will follow up this month’s first interest rate rise in nearly three years with more increases in the months ahead.
The Australian dollar was also in the spotlight, as it surged as investors flocked to so-called high yielding currencies.
Australia’s benchmark interest rate is much higher than the U.S., giving investors better returns, and it is likely to be increased further if world growth gains momentum.
At one point Thursday, the Australian dollar surged to $1.0741 on Thursday _ its highest level since it was floated in December 1983.
“There’s been a general rise in risk appetite, reflected not only in equities but in Asian currencies, which have strengthened as well,” said David Cohen , economist at Action Economics in Singapore.
Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.8 percent to 9,685.77 while South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.3 percent to 2,198.54. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended 1 percent higher to 24,138.31, and mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 3,026.67.
In the oil markets, the focus remained on the fighting in Libya. Oil prices have increased 20 percent since the beginning of the year as investors anticipated rising global demand while unrest in North Africa and the Middle East threatened oil fields and shipping lanes vital to world supply.
Benchmark crude for June delivery rose 62 cents to $112.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $3.17 to settle at $111.45 on the Nymex on Wednesday.
After notching a rare victory by stopping highly radioactive water from flowing into the Pacific on Wednesday, workers at Japan’s flooded nuclear power complex turned to their next task: injecting nitrogen to prevent more hydrogen explosions.
Nuclear officials said there was no immediate threat of explosions like the three that rocked the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant not long after a massive tsunami hit on March 11, but their plans are a reminder of how much work remains to stabilize the complex.
Workers are racing to cool down the plant’s reactors, which have been overheating since power was knocked out by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that killed as many as 25,000 people and destroyed hundreds of miles of coastline.
Unable to restore normal cooling systems because water has damaged them and radioactivity has made conditions dangerous, workers have resorted to pumping water into the reactors and letting it gush wherever it can.
Superheated fuel rods can pull explosive hydrogen from cooling water, so now that more water is going into the reactors, the concern is that hydrogen levels are rising.
Technicians began pumping nitrogen into an area around one of the plant’s six reactors at 1:31 a.m. Thursday (1631 Wednesday GMT; 12:31 p.m. Wednesday EDT) to counteract the hydrogen, said Makoto Watanabe, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. They want to prevent hydrogen explosions that could spew radiation and damage the reactors.
The nitrogen pumping also has risks, but the nuclear agency approved it as a necessary measure to avoid danger, spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said. The injection could release radioactive vapor into the environment, but residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant have been evacuated.
The government said Wednesday it might consider expanding that zone, though not because of the nitrogen injection. An expansion might not necessarily mean the radiation that has been spewing into the air and water from the plant is getting worse. The effects of radiation are determined by both the strength of the dose and the length of exposure, so the concern is that people farther away might start being affected as the crisis drags on.
“I would imagine residents in areas facing a possibility for long-term exposure are extremely worried,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. “We are currently consulting with experts so that we can come up with a clear safety standard.”
Edano did not say how far the zone might be expanded or how many people might be affected. Tens of thousands have been living in shelters since the tsunami, either because they lost their homes or are in the evacuation zone or both quick pay day loan.
Police in hard-hit Fukushima prefecture prepared to launch a full-scale search for bodies in the evacuation zone Thursday. Nearly 250 agents from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police will join local police searching for 4,200 people still missing there.
At the plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, workers finally halted the leak of highly contaminated water that raised worry about the safety of seafood caught off the coast.
But even that rare good news came with a caveat. Highly contaminated water pooling around the plant has often made it difficult or impossible for workers to access some areas because of concerns about radiation exposure. Now that the leak has stopped, the pooling could actually get worse because water that had been going into the ocean could back up onto the grounds of the complex.
When water was still leaking into the ocean, officials said it would quickly dissipate in the vast Pacific, but the mere suggestion that seafood could be at risk stirred worries throughout Japan’s fishing industry. Water with lower levels of radioactivity is also being dumped into the sea to make room to store other water with higher levels of contamination on the plant grounds.
In the coastal town of Ofunato, Takeyoshi Chiba, who runs the town’s wholesale market, warily watched developments at the plant, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) down the coast.
“There is a chance that the water from Fukushima will come here,” he said, explaining that area fishermen still haven’t managed to get out to sea again after the tsunami destroyed nearly all of their boats. “If Tokyo decides to ban purchases from here, we’re out of business.”
This week, the government set its first-ever standard for the amount of radiation allowed in fish after levels in waters near the plant measured several million times the legal limit and elevated levels were found in some fish. The standard is the same as one already in place for vegetables.
Stopping the leak by injecting several chemicals into the area around it seemed to help cut down on radiation. By afternoon, radiation at a point 360 yards (330 meters) off the coast was 280 times the legal limit, down from a high of more than 4,000, although Edano said plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. was still watching closely.
“Right now, just because the leak has stopped, we are not relieved yet,” Edano said. “We are checking whether the leak has completely stopped, or whether there may be other leaks.”
President Barack Obama’s search for innovative ideas to spur job creation has led him to the West Coast to brainstorm with some of the brightest technological minds in the country.
Obama was touring Intel Corp.’s semiconductor manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Ore., on Friday and learning about programs the company has to encourage studies in science, technology, engineering and math, and get people the skills they need to compete for new high-tech jobs.
He also was speaking about education’s role in fostering job creation and innovation.
Continuing his outreach to business leaders, Obama met over dinner in the San Francisco Bay area Thursday with a dozen top innovators, including Eric Schmidt of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs of Apple, who is on his third medical leave as concerns about his health mount. Also present were the chief executives of Yahoo!, Oracle, NetFlix and Twitter, and the president of Stanford University.
Obama is pushing for new spending on innovation, education, high-speed rail, faster Internet service and other programs that he says will better position the U.S. to compete against other nations.
But Republicans are pushing back, arguing that government spending without restraint is actually hindering job creation. They want to slash the budget. The Republican-controlled House was also nearing a vote on whether to do just that by cutting $61 billion from government spending this year.
“We’re broke,” says House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, about the country’s finances.
As that money fight raged in Washington, Obama left town Thursday on the latest in a series of weekly trips he’s been taking to promote the competitiveness agenda he outlined in the State of the Union address.
A seal of approval from Silicon Valley’s leading innovators could bolster his sales pitch.
At the Woodside, Calif., home of venture capitalist John Doerr, Obama and the innovators brainstormed ideas. White House spokesman Jay Carney said afterward that Obama wants to keep exchanging ideas with the group “so we can work as partners to promote growth and create good jobs in the United States.”
Obama discussed his proposals to spend on research and development and to expand incentives for companies to grow and hire, Carney said. The president also talked about his goal of doubling exports within five years to help support and create new jobs, his plans for spending on education and a new initiative to assist small businesses and start-up companies, he said.
The group also discussed ways to encourage people to study science, technology, engineering and math and to pursue careers in those fields, he said.
In Oregon on Friday, Obama was being led on the tour of Intel’s facility by CEO Paul Otellini, who has criticized the president’s economic policies. Otellini said as recently as September that the administration created too uncertainty for businesses and had failed to encourage job growth or consumer confidence.
Otellini was among a group of CEOs who met privately with Obama in Washington last year.
Despite the criticism, Intel is working with the administration on the education front.
Last year, Intel announced a 10-year, $200 million commitment to promote math and science education in the U.S. It also is one of four companies that are working to help meet Obama’s goal of getting the U.S. to the top in science and math education over a decade.
“Freedom lies behind a door closed shut,” the great Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi wrote in the last century. “It can only be knocked down with a bleeding fist.” More than that is bleeding in the Arab world at the moment.
The uprisings we are witnessing in Egypt have been a rude awakening for all those who imagined that the despots of the Arab world could be kept in place provided they continued to serve the needs of the West and their harsh methods weren’t aired on CNN and BBC World. But while Western establishments lull themselves to sleep with fairy tales, ordinary citizens, who are defeated and demoralized, mull their revenge.
The French government seriously considered sending its paratroopers to save former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pleading with officials in Washington to delay Hosni Mubarak’s departure from Egypt so that Israel has time to prepare for the likely outcome. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair is even describing the Egyptian dictator as a “force for good.”
The almost 200 pro-democracy citizens who have been killed don’t bother him too much. That’s small beer compared with the tens of thousands dead in Iraq. And a desperate Palestine Liberation Organization is backing Mubarak and repressing solidarity demonstrations in Ramallah on the West Bank.
Hated Figures
In Yemen, another strongman in power for 30 years is beginning to totter. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is a hated figure, again backed by the West, as I discovered when I visited the country last year.
If Tunisia was a tremor, the Egyptian uprising has become an earthquake that is spreading throughout the region. The generals in Cairo are still refusing to disperse the crowds with tanks and bullets. A full-scale Tiananmen Square option, which Mubarak and his friends would have appreciated, becomes difficult in these conditions.
So what will they do? As the crisis moves a step further, Vice President Omar Suleiman, not trusted by many people as the former director of intelligence, is hoping to divide the opposition, clear the streets and negotiate a deal, offering Amr Moussa, the toothless head of the Arab League, the interim presidency. They want someone who will retain the remnants of the old institutions and, in particular, the apparatuses of the secret state that have been so useful in helping the West’s policy of renditions in the war on terror, which has so far only succeeded in engendering more terror.
Total Overhaul
The millions of people in the streets of Egypt are demanding a total overhaul. They want, as in Tunisia, a new constitution that guarantees political and social rights. They want an independent foreign policy that is decided in Cairo, not Tel Aviv or Washington. They want to lift the blockade of Gaza so that its people can live as normally as possible.
This week, the Egyptian regime, shaken by the mass mobilizations, threatened counter-revolution. Pro-Mubarak forces, a combination of the security cops out of uniform and gangsters released from prison, attacked protesters, creating mayhem in Tahrir Square. The military, which pledged to defend public safety, failed to do so.
In Alexandria, there were clashes between Mubarak’s desperate supporters and the anti-government protesters. The coming weekend is decisive. The planned march by several hundred thousand people on the presidential palace might drive Mubarak to get a helicopter to the airport. One assumes the Saudis are preparing a palace for him as is their wont.
Plan B
A post-Mubarak Egypt is difficult to predict with exactitude. What we can say is that it won’t be a repeat of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The iron will of the Ayatollah doesn’t exist in Cairo. Instead there is a decent, amiable technocrat, Mohamed El Baradei, more known abroad than at home, as a possible Plan B for the White House.
Lurking behind El Baradei is the Muslim Brotherhood. It, too, is divided, with a dominant wing composed of young, modernist Muslims who want to mimic Turkey. If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s favorite Islamists in Istanbul can do business with Washington, why not their Egyptian equivalents? They have been engaged in private discussions with informal emissaries from the U.S. for more than a decade.
Nonetheless, a regime propelled into office via an uprising from below can’t be as cavalier in disregarding public opinion, and nor is this a time for the U.S. to start preaching the virtues of liberal capitalism: The recent fate of Iceland, Ireland and Greece should be enough on that score.
Internally, what is required is to rebuild the abandoned social safety net, providing elementary health, education and housing for the poor.
Externally, Egypt’s relationship with the U.S. and Israel will have to be modified, regardless of who succeeds Mubarak. A peace treaty that benefits Israel alone was never accepted by the Egyptian people.
Only then will Egypt be able to stop the bleeding.
(Tariq Ali is a London-based writer, filmmaker and author of the 2010 book “The Obama Syndrome.” The opinions expressed are his own.)
What recession? Hedge fund honcho John Paulson profited more than $5 billion in 2010, possibly the largest haul in investing history, according to a news report.
This means that Paulson was making $158.55 per second last year.
In 2010, more than $4 billion of his profits came from fund investments. Most of his funds contained bets on gold, due to Paulson’s wariness of the dollar’s long-term weakness, based on the Wall Street Journal’s report. He placed much of his own money in gold-focused funds, which rose as much as 45% because of gold’s meteoric rise last year.
Paulson’s take from last year exceeds the $4 billion that he raked in from short bets against subprime mortgages in 2007, according to the news report.
The founder and president of investment firm Paulson & Co. achieved fame and notoriety, for betting against subprime mortgages on the eve of the market crash in 2007. His funds scored gains of as much as 590% from this subprime wager, the news report states.
Other elite hedge fund profiteers in 2010: David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management; Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates; and James Simons, founder of Renaissance Technologies. Each made between $2 billion and $3 billion last year, reported the newspaper.
Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado called a news conference today to discuss the financial system after the government pledged to strengthen the capital of savings banks, or cajas.
Salgado and Deputy Finance Minister Jose Manuel Campa will address reporters in Madrid at 6 p.m. today, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. They will discuss the financial system, said an official at the ministry, who declined to be named in line with government policy.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Jan. 11 called on cajas to bolster their capital and said they could use the state’s bank-rescue fund, the FROB, to do so until access to capital markets improves. The lenders may have a shortfall of at least 17 billion euros ($23 billion), rising to 89 billion euros in a stressed case, Moody’s Investors Service said today.
The cajas have been locked out of wholesale debt markets amid investor concern about 181 billion euros of what the Bank of Spain terms “potentially troubled exposure” to construction and real estate. Faced with a surge in its own borrowing costs, the Spanish government is trying to convince investors that shoring up the cajas won’t overburden public finances as it seeks to tame the euro region’s third-largest budget gap.
The government is working on a plan to strengthen the “solvency and credibility” of Spanish savings banks, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said on Jan. 21. Savings banks are scheduled this month to release additional information on risks related to the construction and real-estate industries, where bad loans have surged since the collapse of the debt- fueled housing boom.
Capital Markets
Spain may change regulations to remove “obstacles” to savings banks’ access to capital markets, the FROB said in a presentation to investors last week. It could introduce incentives to “strengthen solvency and capital quality requirements, preparing the entities in advance to meet the most stringent international capital standards and future stress tests,” it said.
If “necessary,” the FROB could grant “temporary support to help entities to raise funds from private investors,” the presentation said. In a “last instance” the facility could provide funds directly in exchange for a stake in the lender on a temporary basis,” it said, adding in a separate statement that its comments were hypotheses and only the government has the power to change legislation.
The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice on Tuesday approved — with several conditions — a merger of the country’s largest cable operator, Comcast, and broadcasting company NBC Universal.
The FCC voted 4-1 in favor of the deal.
"After a thorough review, we have adopted strong and fair merger conditions to ensure this transaction serves the public interest," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.
The FCC said the Comcast-NBC Universal combination will be required to take steps to increase competition in the video marketplace. In addition, Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) has committed to expanding local news coverage, expand programs for Spanish-speaking viewers and offer Internet access to schools and libraries.
The lone dissenter, Commissioner Michael Copps, expressed concern that the merger will limit communications choices and drive up costs to consumers.
"At the end of the day, the public interest requires more — much more — than it is receiving," Copps said in a statement.
Comcast also agreed to cease its management of the News Corp., (NWS, Fortune 500) NBC Universal, and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500)-owned video sharing site Hulu - though Comcast and NBC Universal can still maintain a financial stake in the site.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said the move was essential so that, "Comcast cannot use NBCU’s partial ownership of Hulu to diminish its competitive significance."
Varney added that she’s confident in the settlement. "The conditions imposed will maintain an open and fair marketplace while at the same time allow the innovative aspects of the transaction to go forward," she said in a statement.
The merger should be complete by the end of January and the new venture will be managed by Comcast, according to a joint press release from both Comcast and NBCU. Comcast will own 51% of the company, NBC Universal will own 49%, the press release said.
Comcast CEO and Chairman Brian L. Roberts said the company was "proud" and "excited" about today’s FCC decision.
GE (GE, Fortune 500) Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement that he was confident that NBCU would be in "good hands" under Comcast’s leadership.
Debt-strapped Greece will likely get more time before it has to repay the bailout loans that saved it from defaulting on its bonds, a top EU official indicated Thursday as the union seeks to keep its government debt crisis from mushrooming.
A decision on delaying Greece’s first repayments will likely be taken next year, EU monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said during a visit to Athens.
Greece has to start repaying bailout loans of up to euro110 billion ($145 billion) from the EU and International Monetary Fund in 2013, when the current rescue package ends. EU governments are considering pushing back that date by 4 1/2 years to put it in line with the deadlines of the bailout given to Ireland.
The move comes as EU officials make efforts to ease the pressure in debt markets that forced Ireland’s rescue last week and threatened to engulf Portugal as well as larger economies like Spain and Italy. While the EU has resisted further big moves, such as boosting its bailout fund or creating European bonds to share the debt burden, it has focused on austerity plans and making bailout repayment terms more flexible.
Fears of default push bond yields for trouble countries so high they face being unable to borrow at affordable rates and roll over expiring debt.
Fitch Ratings on Thursday said that while the eurozone’s credit strength was better than markets were indicating, the “dramatic deterioration” in borrowing conditions may mean leaders will have do more such as increase the size of their current bailout fund from euro750 billion or have the European Central Bank step up its purchases of government bonds.
But Fitch said it doesn’t expect the crisis to lead to the breakup of the euro.
In Greece’s case, the extension addresses fears that its economy will not be growing sufficiently by 2013 to generate enough revenue to pay back its debts if it had to pay back the full IMF/eurozone loan in 2014 and 2015.
Rehn said the European Commission was discussing the repayment extension “following the decision to do so by the EU finance ministers.”
“We stand ready to make the concrete proposal early next year, and I’m certain that it will receive the support of EU finance ministers,” the commissioner told reporters after meeting with Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou payday loans with no fax.
Speaking at a conference outside Athens earlier in the day, Rehn said that the extension “will mean that we will be able to go beyond and stabilize (Greece’s) debt dynamics and overcome the hump in debt repayment, especially in 2014 and 2015.”
Rehn expressed “sincere admiration” at the progress of Greek financial reforms, which have included overhauling the pension system, cutting civil service salaries, trimming pensions and increasing consumer taxes.
Greece must lower its budget deficit from the 15.4 percent of gross domestic product it stood at in 2009, to below the eurozone limit of 3 percent of GDP by 2014. Its finances are under strict supervision by the IMF and EU, and the quarterly disbursement of bailout loans depends on Athens meeting financial targets.
The austerity measures have led to a backlash from labor unions, who say they are causing ever increasing hardship.
The country’s statistics agency said Thursday that unemployment in September rose to 12.6 percent from 12.2 percent the previous month. The figure in Sept. 2009 stood at 9.1 percent.
Unions have staged a series of strikes and demonstrations, with hundreds of uniformed firefighters marching to the Finance Ministry on Thursday. Greece’s seventh nationwide general strike this year has been called for Dec. 15.
On Tuesday, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on a visit to Athens that he supported the extension without imposing additional demands for economic austerity.
The European Union is seeking to toughen fiscal rules for countries using the euro to prevent a repeat of the crises seen in Greece and Ireland and contain the debt market turmoil which some fear could drag in other countries with shaky finances, such as Spain and Portugal.
Rehn said a comprehensive response was needed by the EU.
“It is increasingly a systemic crisis, and therefore we need a systemic answer,” he said in response to questions by Greek deputies during an appearance in Parliament.
Canadian copyright law promises to dominate discussion in Ottawa over the coming weeks as hearings on Bill C-32, the controversial copyright bill, are set to begin within a few days.
If the past six months are any indication, members of Parliament will be asked to sort through confusing rhetoric in order to understand the implications of the proposed changes. Separating fact from fiction will not be easy, but getting straight answers to the following questions will be crucial:
1.Will Bill C-32 give education institutions the right to engage in massive uncompensated copying?
No. The inclusion of education as a fair dealing category will not mean that any educational copying will be free. It will only mean that educational copying will be eligible for analysis under a six-part test developed by the Supreme Court of Canada to determine whether the copying qualifies as fair dealing. The changes in Bill C-32 are more modest than often claimed as they merely fill some gaps in the existing list of fair dealing categories.
2.Will Bill C-32 give consumers the right to make backup copies and view or read their purchases on the device of their choice?
Sometimes. The bill includes new consumer exceptions that open the door to legally recording television shows (time shifting), moving content between devices (format shifting) and making personal backup copies. However, the bill also says that if the content, such as DVDs and e-books, contains a digital lock, consumers can???t circumvent the lock in order to exercise their rights. Since digital locks are commonly found on these products, Canadians may not actually get to exercise their new ???rights.???
3.Aren???t the digital lock rules in Bill C-32 required by international law?
No. The government has made implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization???s Internet treaties a key priority and those treaties include a requirement to provide legal protection for digital locks. However, the treaties feature considerable flexibility that permits countries to allow users to circumvent digital locks for legal purposes.
The Bill C-32 model is one of the most restrictive approaches in the world ??? even the U.S. permits circumvention of DVD locks for some non-commercial purposes ??? and could be amended to match the more flexible implementations found in countries such as New Zealand and Switzerland.
4.Does Bill C-32 require Internet providers to help combat piracy?
Yes. The bill codifies a ???notice-and-notice??? system that gives rights holders the power to notify ISPs of alleged infringements and requires the ISPs to forward the notifications to the targeted subscribers. ISPs bear the costs of this system, which has been used informally in Canada for more than five years. Studies have shown that a majority of users that receive notifications cease placing the infringing file back on file sharing networks.
5.Does Bill C-32 create a ???licence to steal??? by reducing statutory damages awards?
No. Canada is one of the few countries in the world with statutory damages for copyright, which can lead to liability of up to $20,000 per infringement. The lofty awards were designed for commercial infringement, as no one envisioned multi-million dollar lawsuits against individuals. Since that has become a reality in the U.S., Bill C-32 establishes a $5,000 cap for non-commercial infringement, which still represents a very significant penalty for such activities.
6.Will Bill C-32???s user-generated content provision deprive creators of commercial opportunities?
No. The provision, which legalizes the creation of certain forms of user-generated content, is limited to non-commercial activities, requires attribution, and does not apply if there is a substantial adverse effect, financial or otherwise, on the exploitation or potential exploitation of the original work.
Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.
Poles voted Sunday in local elections expected to reward the government’s reluctance to trim the welfare state in the EU’s largest new member _ the only one in Europe to avoid a recession.
The government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his pro-business Civic Platform party has privatized some state-run enterprises, but overall has not met its promise to trim back the welfare state.
That policy over the last three years seems to have bolstered the government’s popularity because it means Poland has avoided painful cuts during the global economic crisis, boding well for Civic Platform in local elections and in national elections next year California payday loan lenders.
Sunday’s vote for mayors, city council members and other officials is the first round in the election. In many cases, results will only be determined in a runoff vote in two weeks.
Poland’s economy slowed during the financial crisis but the nation was the only one in Europe to avoid a recession, another factor which has given Tusk’s governing team a boost.
However, the budget deficit has grown, prompting the government to plan an unpopular 1 percentage point increase in the value added tax to 23 percent on many goods and services.
Due to Europe’s economic turmoil and the growing deficit, the government also has postponed plans to adopt the euro currency. Though many business owners favor the currency change, many Poles oppose it because they fear it will lead to a rise in prices.
Opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s voting indicated that Tusk’s Civic Platform remains the country’s most popular party.
The election also is a test for the main opposition group, Law and Justice. The conservative and nationalist party was founded by the late President Lech Kaczynski _ who was killed in a plane crash this year _ and his twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who remains its leader cheap payday loan lenders.
Kaczynski has clashed with some of his closest party supporters in recent weeks. He has expelled two close aides, and several others have left in protest, raising questions about whether the turmoil will weaken support for the party.
A national election for parliament must be held by late 2011, but no date has been set.
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