What is currently happening?

Geophysical Service Incorporated is fighting the expropriation without compensation, and abuse of its registered copyright intellectual property, by the Canadian government, and government agencies. This fight is costing GSI tens of millions of dollars in lost revenues, not to mention the tens of millions in costs of legal action to protect and recover its property. The intellectual property is the seismic data GSI has created offshore Canada, for decades. Canada's courts have been extremely hostile to property rights and GSI's license agreement terms making it impossible to protect our property.

• As a brief background in offshore areas, The National Energy Board (CER), Canada Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board and the Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board require mandatory submission of non-exclusive or speculative seismic survey results as a condition of obtaining permits to do the work. It may be legitimate for "environmental, safety, and mgmt of the resource" (as stated) that the Boards need this data in order to have current information for approval of work programs and for proper evaluation and management of resources. The bait and switch comes with the implementation of the separate disclosure legislation where Canada ignores all property rights and unilaterally determines to progressively expand disclosure of this copyright material to "promote oil and gas" something Canada falsely claims it wants to eliminate fossil fuels. The boards created a arbitrary time frame to keep the data confidential for a period of ten years, although GSI questions the right to set any time frame to ever disclose this copyright protected information. No other copyright information is treated outside of copyright laws like this as far as we know.
• After government created periods of confidentiality run out, the seismic data is available to be shown or “viewed” by those in the industry interested in exploration. The boards told industry they would only act as a library.  GSI in fact discovered after forcing the govt to disclose and follow its own Access to Information Act that its data was being extensively copied and in worse cases scenarios the data was reproduced for sale to third parties.  Canada had a cozy relationship and rewarded piracy firms copying and reselling GSI data in a free for all bonanza of bootleg pirated data causing GSI well over $1 billion in lost license fees that we can see from the delayed by decades, concealed, and limited Access to Information responses from Govt.
• Further to this in 2010 then Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of Natural Resources Kathy Dunderdale made the announcement that the province was changing the way speculative or non-exclusive seismic data was being released after a 10 year confidentiality period. The plan was to move from paper files to digital ones.  This was termed modernizing to “keep up with technology” but it simply expanded the release of the very data that GSI licenses to customers.  The data was distributed to unethical competitors of GSI, GSI's clients, and destroyed our control of our data and the ability to license it to anyone.  Hostile courts encouraged our licensees to fight GSI tooth and nail for decades in a hopeless legal system that helps criminals such that only one oil company has honoured its license committments to GSI and all others have fought tooth and nail to undermine GSI and not comply with terms that in the past were always complied with.
• The boards are now using the data to promote the offshore by giving it away for free and reaping the benefits in the form of increased royalties on oil and gas production, taxes and local employment.  Worse GSI data was frauduently converted by oil companies with the full nod and wink of goverment to be accepted as if it was data owned by the oil company rather than licensed by GSI in a criminal scheme called "Allowable expenditures".  The GSI licensed data is sold for credits to offset lease obligations by these unethical oil companies (the govt forms require proof of ownership and sale from GSI and none exist of course) and the data is released in 5 years with the oil company often getting much more money from Canada than it even paid GSI for the restricted license fee that prohibits disclosure or conversion like this.   But Canadas courts have determined that this obviously elective submission of data that is done illegally is "required" then Canada has the audacity to say it is now elective after cheating us in court on many cases.  GSI's NAFTA claim will be heard hopefully in 2025.
• Property Rights Under Threat - Watch the video here