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Wishful Thinking

The Globe and Mail's Jack Kapica has posted in an interesting story on a recent appearance on Canada AM by CRIA President Graham Henderson. Discussing the upcoming copyright bill, Henderson told viewers that "That there is no question that there is language in this proposed bill that is going to make it categorical: illegal to upload, illegal to download, without question."

This is simply wrong as the March 2005 statement makes no mention of reforms to private copying and the legality of downloading. When pressed, Henderson told Kapica that "I'm basing my understanding of what's in the proposed bill on the government's statement of intention dated 24 March 2005 and subsequent discussions with officials when we sought clarification on various issues."

Kapica gets it exactly right when he concludes that "That's a big difference from 'categorical' and 'without question.' Perhaps Mr. Henderson was just indulging in wishful thinking."

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