Post Tagged with: "fair dealing"
Access Copyright to the Supreme Court: No Need for Greater Fair Dealing Certainty
Against Bill C-32: Creator Groups Stake Out Strong Anti-Copyright Bill Position
Update 11/1: I have received a request to remove the link to the ACTRA document on the grounds that it was posted prematurely. I have been advised that there is not yet consensus among all groups listed in the document on the various C-32 issues.
When Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore told an IP conference last June that only two groups of radical extremists were opposed to Bill C-32, most assumed that he had user groups in mind. Yet as various groups begin to publicly make their positions known, few have been as critical as a creator coalition that includes ACTRA, a writers’ coalition, visual arts coalition, and Quebec artists groups. In a backgrounder on the bill, those groups oppose nearly all the major reform elements of Bill C-32, with the notable exception of digital locks (on which they remain silent).
Just how broad is the opposition? The position paper stakes out the following positions:
Locking Out Lawful Users
Educational, parodic and other transformative uses have long been recognized as potential fair uses in the United States. Indeed, the need to expressly include these specific exceptions in Canada speaks more to the shortcomings of the Canadian approach to fair dealing (in contrast to US fair use) than it does to the pursuit of a genuine balance between owners and users in the copyright reform process.
Craig reserves her harshest criticism for C-32’s digital lock provisions, which she describes as “unduly expansive,” concluding:
CMEC Seeks Leave to Appeal Fair Dealing Decision
The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada has announced that is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada this summer’s Federal Court of Appeal decision involving fair dealing in education. I discussed the decision here.