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

Copyright

Montreal Copyright Town Hall: Summary Review

The first of two town hall meetings as part of the copyright consultation was held in Montreal this afternoon. The discussion featured a wide range of views with several music representatives calling for tougher laws and other participants voicing support for greater flexibility. In many ways, the town hall demonstrated that the Quebec perspective on copyright reform is very similar to the rest of the country.

Video of the town hall has already been posted online by a third party. There was also active live tweeting under the #copycon tag. Below is a summary from University of Ottawa student Frances Munn.

July 30, 2009 — 17 comments — News

The Gatineau Copyright Roundtable: Brief Summary

Having already posted the participant list and my opening remarks, I'll provide a brief summary of the copyright consultation roundtable in Gatineau last night. A fuller report will be available when the government posts the transcript and audio of the event.

While there were some big names from the rights holder community (CRIA, Access Copyright), the user perspective was well represented. Indeed, there was a large consumer and education contingent that continually emphasized the need for more flexible fair dealing and the dangers of anti-circumvention legislation that is not linked to copyright infringement. A quick synopsis of the various positions:

July 30, 2009 — 2 comments — News

Media Awareness Network on Copyright in the Media Age

The Media Awareness Network has posted a great piece demonstrating how restrictive copyright laws can harm media awareness education.

July 30, 2009 — 1 comment — News

ITWorldCanada on Copyright Reform

ITWorldCanada has a feature on the copyright consultation with comments from a range of stakeholders.

July 30, 2009 — Comments are Disabled — News

The Gatineau Copyright Roundtable: My Opening Remarks

As I posted earlier, I was fortunate to receive an invitation to the copyright consultation roundtable in Gatineau this evening. Given the large group, each participant was limited to between three and five minutes. My opening remarks were as follows:

Prepared Remarks
Copyright Consultation Roundtable, Gatineau, QC
July 29, 2009

Let me start by thanking both Ministers for the invitation and for conducting this consultation. Last summer, I wrote a 61 part series on fixing Bill C-61 and the very first entry focused on the lack of consultation, so I think this is a great first step.

There is so much to say – preserving the public domain, modernizing the backup copy provision, removing crown copyright, sticking with notice-and-notice for ISPs, reforming the statutory damages provision by distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial infringement, to name just a few.

But I instead want to pick up on Minister Clement’s opening challenge: how do we establish reforms that last?

July 29, 2009 — 7 comments — News