The Canadian Association of University Teachers recently held a major conference on intellectual property issues. I was delighted to provide the keynote address, which I titled Cancopy Law. The talk criticized the current incarnations of “cancopy law” (which include CMEC’s Copyright Matters and Access Copyright’s Captain Copyright) and discussed the importance to education of adopting a progressive approach to copyright. A podcast of the talk is now available.
Post Tagged with: "access copyright"
Education Ministers’ Copyright Proposal Needs a Rewrite
As thousands of children across the province return to school tomorrow, nearly everyone will be asking "what did you do this summer?" If the question were posed to Education Minister Sandra Pupatello, her candid reply might be that she was working with her fellow Provincial Ministers of Education on reforms that will have damaging consequences on Internet use in Canada.
So begins this week's Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) which focuses on the disasterous push from the CMEC to establish a specific educational exception for the use of publicly-available Internet materials. While the CMEC proposal is at least better than Access Copyright's proposed extended license for Internet content (the column reveals that AC has approached Canadian Heritage for funding to support becoming the Canadian collective for the International Standard Text Code – a new standard for "textual works" that can be applied to everything from books to blogs and thus form the basis for a future license), there are potentially several negative long-term effects.
I point to five issues in particular.
Education Ministers’ Proposal in Need of a Rewrite
Appeared in the Toronto Star on September 4, 2006 as Education Minister's Proposal Needs a Rewrite As thousands of children across the province return to school tomorrow, nearly everyone will be asking "what did you do this summer?” If the question were posed to Education Minister Sandra Pupatello, her candid […]
A Role Model for Captain Copyright
As Access Copyright reworks its Captain Copyright campaign, a reader notes that an ideal role model already exists. The Learning Commons in South Africa offers Copyright, Copyleft, and Everything in Between. The program, aimed at Grade 9 students, provides precisely the kind of balance that Access Copyright will have to […]
Access Copyright’s Statement on Captain Copyright
Access Copyright has posted a detailed statement on the Captain Copyright controversy. It claims that it always intended to provide a balanced perspective on copyright. To that end, it says it is working with copyright experts and educators to review the current materials and to create new lessons on issues such as the public domain, fair dealing, and Creative Commons. It also claims that its linking policy was misunderstood – its now says it was about protecting kids from inappropriate content – and that it being redrafted. The statement concludes by saying that the site will be relaunched later this year and invites the Canadian Library Association, which has condemned the site, to work with them.
While a cynic might suggest that the change is attitude is due primarily to the growing number of schools that dropped links to Captain Copyright, to its desire for government funding, and to the public bashing from the CLA, it is good to see that Access Copyright is committed to making changes. However, three small points in response to the statement.
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