Post Tagged with: "Copyright Microsite – Canadian Copyright"

Why Copyright?

Why Copyright?

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to deliver a talk to the Canadian University Press National Conference, a gathering of student journalists from across the country.  The talk was a long response to a question that comes up pretty regularly – why has copyright generated so much interest from so many people.  A podcast of the talk is available here.  The slides are posted below.

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January 25, 2008 7 comments Audio, ExtPodcasts, News

Privacy Coalition Warns on Copyright Reform

Following on Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart's public letter warning against weakening privacy through copyright reform, a broad coalition of privacy, education, civil liberties groups, and academics have signed a public letter raising similar concerns (I am a signatory).

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January 25, 2008 Comments are Disabled News

The CCC on Copyright Reform

The Creators' Copyright Coalition is out this morning with its position on copyright reform.  The CCC includes many large creator associations and copyright collectives.  Though there are some notable exceptions – the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, Appropriation Art, and the Documentary Organization of Canada to name three – there are some important voices here.

While the government's focus on copyright reform has centred on new technologies, the CCC's position paper seems to focus primarily on non-digital issues.  Indeed, the CCC is clearly troubled by the growing concern from users (it talks of "the tendency to privilege users") and of the Supreme Court of Canada's emphasis on balancing copyright (it laments that users are "now officially part of an on-going process of striking a 'necessary balance'").  The position paper sets out to scale back user concerns by dropping the SCC's balance objective to one where the "Copyright Act's main objective is to protect the moral and economic rights of creators."  Moreover, it seeks to limit the fair dealing provision, by specifically excluding any commercial purposes from within its ambit.

In addition to shifting away from a copyright balance, the CCC looks at copyright reform primarily as the opportunity to introduce new rights and fees.  In particular:

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January 21, 2008 15 comments News

The CCC on Copyright Reform

The Creators' Copyright Coalition is out this morning with its position on copyright reform.  The CCC includes many large creator associations and copyright collectives.  Though there are some notable exceptions – the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, Appropriation Art, and the Documentary Organization of Canada to name three – there are some important voices here.

While the government's focus on copyright reform has centred on new technologies, the CCC's position paper seems to focus primarily on non-digital issues.  Indeed, the CCC is clearly troubled by the growing concern from users (it talks of "the tendency to privilege users") and of the Supreme Court of Canada's emphasis on balancing copyright (it laments that users are "now officially part of an on-going process of striking a 'necessary balance'").  The position paper sets out to scale back user concerns by dropping the SCC's balance objective to one where the "Copyright Act's main objective is to protect the moral and economic rights of creators."  Moreover, it seeks to limit the fair dealing provision, by specifically excluding any commercial purposes from within its ambit.

In addition to shifting away from a copyright balance, the CCC looks at copyright reform primarily as the opportunity to introduce new rights and fees.  In particular:

Read more ›

January 21, 2008 Comments are Disabled Stop CDMCA

Two Copyright Columns To Start the Week

I have two copyright-related columns out this morning.  The first, Fair Copyright Provides Prentice With Reform Roadmap, appears in the Hill Times (HT version, homepage version).  The column raises the same fair copyright proposals that I posted last week.  The second,  Copyright Reform a Potential Threat to Privacy, is my […]

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January 21, 2008 1 comment Columns