Professor Geist's weekly Toronto Star Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, HTML backup article, homepage version) returns with a new year's resolution — Canada should become the first country in the world to to create a comprehensive national digital library. The library, which would be fully accessible online, would contain a digitally scanned copy of every book, government report, and legal decision ever published in Canada. The column argues that the most significant barriers to a national digital library do not arise from fiscal challenges but rather from two potential copyright reforms — an extended licensing system and an extension on the term of copyright — currently winding their way through the system.
Time for Canada to Create National Digital Library
January 10, 2005
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