Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP

Copyright

Triangulation: My Interview with Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt

Last month I conducted an hour-long interview with Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt on a new TWiT program called Triangulation. The interview focuses primarily on ACTA and Canadian copyright reform.

January 28, 2011 — 1 comment — News, News Interviews, Tv / Radio

Canadians Speaking Out on Bill C-32: Only Five Days Left

The House of Commons resumes next week with hearings on Bill C-32 likely to pick up where they left off in December. As I noted last week, the Bill C-32 committee has invited Canadians to provide their views on the bill in email submissions due no later than January 31, 2011. The call for comments has attracted some attention, leading to some posting their responses online:

A reminder that the Committee has set the following parameters:

January 27, 2011 — 16 comments — News

Why Canada’s Fair Dealing Rules May Impede Free Speech: The Conservative Ads, the CBC, and Copyright

This week the Conservative party began airing a series of ads criticizing the opposition, including three that included short video clips from a CBC program. The CBC has objected to the use of the footage, stating that its material should not be used in partisan advertising and noting that the Conservatives did not ask for permission to use the clip. The Conservative party has responded by arguing that the use is covered by fair dealing and that no permission was needed. According to the Fred DeLorety, the director of communications for the party, “It’s free speech. It’s free use.” To support its position, the Conservatives point to the use of a similar clip by C-SPAN in the United States under its fair use rules. The argument seems to be that if it is fair use in the U.S., surely it is fair use (or dealing) in Canada (Stephen Taylor makes the same point in criticizing the CBC for not having a better grasp of fair use).

The problem with this argument is that is mistakenly presumes that the U.S. fair use provision covers the same ground as Canadian fair dealing. It doesn’t. Indeed, this is precisely why many have argued for a flexible fair dealing provision, which unfortunately is not found in current Copyright Act or in Bill C-32.

January 19, 2011 — 32 comments — News

The Roadmap to a Compromise on Bill C-32

Yesterday I posted on the urgent need for Canadians to speak out on Bill C-32, with the committee examining the bill inviting email submissions until January 31, 2011. The post included links to several background posts on the bill, digital locks, and fair dealing. A more specific proposal on digital lock reforms can be found here. This week I also have a guest op-ed in the Hill Times (HT version, homepage version) that suggests that the roadmap to a compromise on Bill C-32 can be found among the various policy comments from the political parties late last year.

January 18, 2011 — 10 comments — Columns

The Roadmap to a Compromise on Bill C-32

Appeared in the Hill Times on January 17, 2011 as Liberals’ Copyright Position may Provide Roadmap to C-32 Compromise The last week of Parliamentary activity in 2010 struck many as a new low point for Bill C-32, the copyright reform bill. The legislative committee examining the bill met only once, […]

January 18, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive