[d@DCC] Re: C-36

From: ag737 _-at-_ freenet.carleton.ca (Wallace J.McLean)
To: discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 17:32:19 -0400 (EDT)

Russell McO. says:

> Contrary to the amendments to the current copyright act in 1997, I
> believe that an heir should have that same choice: to publish a work or
> not.  They should have the right to throw notes away or keep them private
> for whatever reason they choose to do so.

I fully agree. However, if they choose to preserve them physically by
donating them to an institution which preserves them, or otherwise saves,
by commission or omission, those materials from destruction, they should
have a say over their disposition, including publication, for a lesser
term than perpetuity. And preferably no longer a term than if the
materials had, in fact, been published.
 
> I am disagreeing with both extremes in this debate: those who believe
> that unpublished works should be forced to be published and fall into the

I don't know of anyone who argues that unpublished works should be forced
to be published.
 
I know of many who argue that they should be allowed to be published.
 
> public domain after a certain period of time (I see this as a privacy
> issue, not a copyright issue),
 
Whose privacy?

If the creator wanted privacy, they could have destroyed or chosen not to
create the material in the first place.

(I realize there's a slight wrinkle for the cases where someone wrote a
"Dear John" letter, then died in a horrific plane crash...)

The privacy of third persons is irrelevant, especially in respect of the
dubious "defamation" objection raised by LMM inc. The "defamed" have the
strategic advantage (a) in that they can rebut the supposed defamation
without any countercase or cross-examination by the author (who is dead),
and (b) they can attack the author ad-hominem without fear of countersuit
in defamation, becuase the author is, again, still dead.

In either event, the Parliament of Canada has no business legislating in
the area of defamation; that falls under the provincial head of
jurisdiction over Property and Civil Rights.


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