[d@DCC] C-36 again

From: ag737 _-at-_ freenet.carleton.ca (Wallace J.McLean)
To: discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 20:46:43 -0400 (EDT)

This is something I wrote up for another listserv, so rather than reinvent
the wheel, I'm just going to repost it verbatim.

* * *

I have produced a little article on the impact of Bill C-36, currently
before Parliament, on the public-domain status of uncountable historical
documents whose authors are of the "Lucy Maud" class... that is, they died
between 1930 and 1948. See:

  http://geocities.com/kenemish/c36impact.htm


See also the following Hill Times articles:

  http://www.thehilltimes.ca/2003/june/9/malley2/
  http://www.thehilltimes.ca/2003/june/23/malley/
  http://www.thehilltimes.ca/2003/june/30/letters/ 


And this site by Prof. Laura Murray at Queen's:

  http://post.queensu.ca/~lm19/bill_c36.html


The "consultation" process which lead first to the Wanda Noel Report:

 http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/incrp-prda.nsf/vwapj/cpuwe.pdf/$FILE/cpuwe.pdf

was a total sham. Unfortunately the archival institutions involved -- the
National Archives and Bureau of Canadian Archivists -- completely caved
into the Writers Union-Canadian Heritage-Wanda Noel position on this.
Millions of documents that would have become public domain on January 1st
coming, will not be public domain now until January 1st, 2018... at the
EARLIEST. Why? To keep Lucy Maud Montgomery Inc. and Writer's Union happy.

If archivists, even the few who were cherry-picked to be part of this sham
consultation, aren't going to stand up for the public domain, then who
will?   


And what's next? Anyone who thinks C-36 doesn't set a precedent for future
copyright term extensions in other types of works, for other year-classes
of authors, is deluded. (It is not coincidence that the 14-year base
extension for the "Lucy Maud" class will give Lucy Maud an even 75 years
of posthumous protection.)

This is a dangerously slippery slope we're on. The value of our archival
heritage, and our ability to share our own story and our own history with
ourselves, is being eroded... by the very people who claim to speak for
it, at the Department of Canadian Heritage. The legacy of Shortt and
Doughty has been betrayed by the current crop of national archivists.

I am so disappointed. And I am so baffled as to the silence of the
archival and broader historical communities on this issue. Where is
everyone?  



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