Having discussed the importance of fair dealing for creators in yesterday’s post, today’s case looks at the link between freedom of expression and fair dealing. A recent case involving the Vancouver Aquarium placed the spotlight on how fair dealing can be used to safeguard freedom of expression, even when (indeed particularly when) a rights holder may prefer to use copyright to block the expression. In 2015, two film makers created a documentary on the Vancouver Aquarium called “Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered.” The film, which can now be viewed online, focuses on whales and dolphins in captivity. The Vancouver Aquarium filed a copyright infringement action, seeking to have the documentary removed from all public viewings and the deletion of photos and video clips shot at the aquarium.
Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP
Copyright
The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 11: Higher Internet Access Costs for All
The Bell website blocking coalition includes several Internet providers, but there are no smaller, independent ISPs. The absence of smaller ISPs that are essential to the government’s aspiration for greater Internet access competition is unsurprising given the costs associated with site blocking that can run into the millions of dollars with significant investments in blocking technologies and services, employee time to implement blocking mandates, and associated service issues. A mandated blocking system applied to all ISPs in Canada would have an uneven impact: larger ISPs will face new costs but may find it easier to integrate into existing systems (some already block child pornography images), whereas hundreds of smaller ISPs would face significant new costs that would affect their marketplace competitiveness. In fact, larger ISPs might ultimately benefit from higher fees passed along to subscribers and reduced competition.
Why Fair Dealing Benefits Creators: The Case of a Room Full of Spoons
Fair dealing debates often focus on education-related issues, but its role as a user’s right extends far beyond the classroom. As part of fair dealing week, I’ll be posting on several cases that highlight the importance of fair dealing for many other purposes. For example, last year an Ontario case highlighted how fair dealing is an essential legal right for creators. The Room is a well-known film (sometimes referred to as the Citizen Kane of bad movies) that was the subject of The Disaster Artist, a film released late last year starring James Franco. In 2016, a group of documentary film makers released Room Full of Spoons, which examined the popularity of The Room.
Fair Dealing Fake News: When Seeking a Refund Arising From Copyright Over-Payments Becomes a “Legal Attack on Writers”
With the Canadian copyright review likely to commence in a few weeks, the hysteria associated with fair dealing – much of it disconnected from the economic reality of spending on copyright works since 2012 – promises to hit a fever pitch. Access Copyright and the Writers Union of Canada got off to an early start in their reaction to a lawsuit filed last week by Canadian school boards and Ministries of Education seeking a refund for years of over-payments that has cost schools more than $25 million. The groups described the lawsuit as “an outrageous attack on Canada’s writers” and “simply intimidation.”
![By Pratyeka (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOptus_blocking_TPB.jpg](https://www.michaelgeist.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Optus_blocking_TPB-200x150.jpg)
The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 8: The Ineffectiveness of Website Blocking
The Bell website blocking coalition unsurprisingly argues that blocking “regimes have been widely adopted internationally because they have been proven to work.” The submission cites data from several countries including the UK, Portugal, and South Korea. As demonstrated last week, the Bell coalition proposal has not been widely adopted internationally. In fact, the overwhelming majority of countries have rejected approaches that do not include court orders. Moreover, a closer look at the data reveals that website blocking is far less effective than its proponents claim.
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