Christopher Moore points to one area where I think both user and creator rights advocates should agree – the educational exemption in C-61 is bad, bad policy.
Christopher Moore on the C-61 Educational Exemption
June 17, 2008
Share this post
3 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 263: The Lawful Access Act Roundtable With David Fraser and Robert Diab
byMichael Geist

March 30, 2026
Michael Geist
March 16, 2026
Michael Geist
March 2, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
Why the Verdict on Social Media Defective Design Harming Children Gets the Instinct Right But the Law Wrong
Scoping in the Tech Giants: Bill C-22’s International Production Order and the Shift to a Less Privacy-Protective Cross-Border Disclosure System
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 263: The Lawful Access Act Roundtable With David Fraser and Robert Diab
When Writing About Antisemitism Proves the Point: What the Replies Reveal
Acting on Antisemitism: If This Was Always Possible, Why Didn’t It Happen Sooner?

They might agree that it’s bad policy, but for entirely different reasons:
“appropriated by schools”
Yeah, someone should do something about those freeloading third-graders. Pirates.
Meanwhile, Christopher Moore, whose works (“Louisbourg Portraits”, “1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal”, “Canada Our Century”, etc.) are FULL of OPW (Other People’s Works) thanks to copyright infringement exceptions, rails against copyright infringement exceptions.
Except when he benefits from them.
Woe unto creators, like Christopher Moore, if Christopher Moore ever gets Christopher Moore’s wishes on copyright law, that “Copyright Act without exemptions”
Foreign works
A significant difficulty with the educational exceptions is that it is often hard to tell whether a web site is Canadian. Foreign sites certainly aren’t going to bother with a notice that reads, “Canadian Educational Institutions, please keep your thieving little mitts off this content because it’s super-duper-canuck-copyrighted.” As a result, Canadian schools will end up on the wrong side of the law.
No, Canadian schools will be OK as Canadian law applies