Re: [Cdn-DMCA] Disney: "There is no right to fair use"

From: mskala _-at-_ ansuz.sooke.bc.ca
To: No DMCA in Canada <canada-dmca-opponents (at) flora.org>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 15:26:39 -0500 (EST)

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, David F. Skoll wrote:
> Seen on page 2 of http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49201,00.html
> 
> "Disney's Padden wasn't buying it. "There is no right to fair use,"
>  Padden said at the event. "Fair use is a defense against
>  infringement."
> 
> Disney wants to rewrite copyright law to eliminate the right to fair
> use.  This kind of evil should be exposed.

I daresay Disney *does* want to rewrite copyright law to eliminate fair
use (U.S. term)/fair dealing (Canadian); but the actual quote from their 
spokesman is true as far as it goes.  Read the Canadian and U.S. copyright
statutes and caselaw.

That said, although fair use/fair dealing are not rights, they do exist
because of the Constitutionally protected rights of free speech (U.S.) and
free expression (Canada).  Without fair use/fair dealing, we'd have to
throw out copyright laws as not Constitutional - especially in Canada,
where there isn't a specific Constitutional power for the government to
legislate on copyright at all.  (The U.S. Congress does have such a power,
which must then be balanced against the First Amendment; we have free
expression in the Canadian Constitution, but no intellectual property.)  
Copyright laws are Constitutional only because of the fair use/fair
dealing defenses; without those, the laws would have to go.

Please also see my comments on the submissions of IMO and DirecTV, at
   http://localhost/~mskala/ansuz/icresp3.html#affirm

Matthew Skala                        "Whenever a copyright law is to be made
mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca              or altered, then the idiots assemble."
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/                                       - Mark Twain

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