Archive for September 28th, 2011

Behind the Scenes of Bill C-32: Music Copyright Collectives Say Digital Locks Won’t Increase Revenue

Two of Canada’s largest music copyright collectives warned the Bill C-32 committee against digital locks, arguing that it was unrealistic to think that the implementation of digital lock rules would increase music industry revenues. While there is much to take issue with in the CMRRA and SODRAC submission, the following […]

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September 28, 2011 22 comments News

CMRRAc32sub

CMRRA-SODRAC INC CSI E.pdf

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September 28, 2011 1 comment General

Behind the Scenes of Bill C-32: The Committee Submissions

The new copyright bill is scheduled to be introduced tomorrow with the government planning to restart the copyright legislative committee and pick up where it left off in March when the election call killed Bill C-32 (talking points, clause-by-clause analysis of the bill). Given the plans to restart the committee, it is worth asking what the committee actually heard during months of hearings from November 2010 to March 2011. There are obviously the transcripts of the various hearings, but the detailed recommendations typically come from direct submissions to the committee. Those have not been posted online, but I did obtain copies of all unique submissions (there were hundreds of letters from individuals) to the C-32 committee. Together with Diana Cooper, a second year law student at the University of Ottawa, we reviewed all unique submissions and tried to categorize their recommendations.

Given the number of submissions, it should come as no surprise to find that there is at least one group or person who criticizes every proposed reform and at least one that supports it. In fact, this was part of the plan. According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, department officials developed their committee witness list with a requirement that “at least one witness will strongly support every provision in the Bill” and a preference for witnesses “that have expressed an overall positive view”(though it recognized some may have negative views on certain aspects of the bill).

A full chart of the submissions is posted below and available for download here. There is also a second chart that tracks the submissions based the specific provision available here. Digital locks are easily the top issue raised in the submissions with many submissions calling on the government to ensure that digital locks do not trump fair dealing or that the prohibition on circumvention should be linked to infringement. In addition to many individuals, group submissions supporting this position include:

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September 28, 2011 6 comments News

Princeton Passes Resolution Requiring Open Access

Princeton University has adopted a resolution requiring faculty to retain rights to their work for open access purposes. Under the new policy, faculty members grant the university a non-exclusive licence to their scholarly articles. The effect of the licence ensures that the articles can be made available under open access […]

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September 28, 2011 2 comments News

Library and Archives Canada To Publish Historical Canada Gazette

Library and Archives Canada has announced that it is posting all issues of the Canada Gazette dating back to 1841. The issues are full text searchable.

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September 28, 2011 Comments are Disabled News