Re: [d@DCC] C-36 thoughts

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: General Discussion <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 20:28:55 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 26 May 2003, tOM Trottier wrote:

> I'd change it to say that no deposit is "required" if the material
> explicitly says, "Released to the Public Domain" or "CopyLeft."  Then
> the publisher is explicitly abandoning copyright and the author will
> know it when she sees it published.

  CopyLeft is no more a form of 'abandoning copyright' than any other
strict copyright license. CopyLeft is just as 'proprietary' (has an owner)
from a legal/copyright/etc perspective as traditional copyright licenses
are, and is as far from being "released to the public domain" as anything
that is traditionally called proprietary.

  It is a change of payment forms (payment in the form of derivative works
rather than cash) and direction of payment (paid to the public from
vendors of derivative works, rather than all rights being with the vendor
and all responsibilities with the public).  CopyLeft is no less dependent
on copyright than any other license, although its relationship with some 
parts of copyright is different.


  Please don't get this wrong, especially in a submission to the
government.  Incorrectly suggesting that the CopyLeft is 'opposed to 
copyright' is exactly the type of misinformation that the DRM/anti-free 
folks like Disney and Microsoft want governments to believe, when in fact 
our community supports Creators' Rights where Disney/Microsoft/etc do not.  
From a copyright community perspective, the Free Software Foundation was 
one of the earliest forms of a Creators' Rights Alliance -- created long 
before the traditional copyright communities even recognized there was a 
problem.

  We are not opposed to Creators' Rights -- we are leading the movement!

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Governance software that controls ICT, automates government policy, or
 electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than 
 politicians should be bought.  -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

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