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The Globe on Copyright

The Globe and Mail ran yet another copyright masthead editorial today, A Line on File Sharing (reg. required), which predictably supported the U.S. Supreme Court's Grokster decision.  Given its two other recent copyright editorials which virtually parroted the recording industry's position on copyright, it comes as little surprise to find the paper's editorial writers providing yet another ominous "memo to digital file-swappers." Reading these editorials, it makes one wish that the paper would read its own columnists such as Jack Kapica and Kate Taylor, who together provide some of the most balanced coverage of copyright, technology, and cultural issues in the Canadian media.  

If they won't read their own people, however, perhaps they might want to read the competition.  Last month I noted the Ottawa Citizen editorial on Bill C-60, which promisingly adopted a user rights perspective and has been rewarded with several supportive letters to the editor.  Alternatively, they might take a look at this week's Economist (yes, the Economist) which not only had the sense to remove its editorial, Rip. Mix. Burn., from behind a paywall, but also measured its support for the Grokster decision by arguing for "a drastic reduction of copyright back to its original terms: 14 years, renewable once."

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