Steve Proulx (via Fagstein and Creators' Copyright) points to Quebecor's new agreement for magazine freelancers that not only demands exclusive rights, but retroactive rights to any previously submitted work. It is worth repeating that it is contract, not copyright law, that frequently presents the bigger problem for creators.
Archive for January, 2009
Information Commissioner Calls for Greater Government Transparency
Canada's Information Commissioner Robert Marleau has called on the government to follow the U.S. model by making more documents available under Access to Information. Marleau says that there is a clear increase in time extensions and the use of exemptions.
U.S. Airways Flight 1549 and Social Media
Brendan Hodgson has an interesting post on the rapid online response to the recent US Airways crash, including a short video that shows the remarkable creation of a Wikipedia entry.
Comparing the Fine Print at the White House and PMO Websites
Yesterday's inauguration of President Barack Obama also brought with it a complete overhaul of the whitehouse.gov site. While there has been some media coverage of the change (including the appointment of a Director of New Media for the White House), it is worth looking at the fine print by contrasting the copyright notices found on the White House site and the Prime Minister of Canada's site. The Whitehouse.gov site adopts the following:
Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected. The United States Government may receive and hold copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
Except where otherwise noted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Whitehouse.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
In other words, no copyright in the government-produced materials and a Creative Commons license that permits both commercial and non-commercial usage (with attribution) for third-party materials. That is as permissive as it gets – no real restrictions or requirements to obtain permission, which means that the public has both access and the right to use the materials on the Whitehouse.gov site as they see fit.
Now consider the Prime Minister of Canada's copyright notice:
Saunders on Tech in Canada
Alec Saunders has a trio of informative postings (1, 2, 3) that dig down into the problems faced by the Canadian tech start-up community.
Recent Posts
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act 
Tweets Are Not Enough: Why Combatting Relentless Antisemitism in Canada Requires Real Leadership and Action
