Digital Copyright Canada

Elections Canada Electoral district profile (Links to Map, Past Candidates, and Past Election Results)

Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay / Timmins - Baie James

Name: Charlie Angus
e-Mail: <Angus.C@parl.gc.ca>
Party: New Democratic Party

NDP Critic for Copyright, Public Works and Government Services, Treasury Board, Democratic and Electoral Reform.

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Search for 'Angus' in Hansard.

OTTAWA – In the wake of a controversial proposal on net neutrality advanced by Google and Verizon in the United States, New Democrats are calling on the CRTC to lay down clear rules to ensure equality of access to all information on the Internet for all Canadians.

Read full NDP press release.

Author, broadcaster, editor, journalist, musician, negotiator, singer, and MP Charlie Angus has released a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore discussing how the Minister has his facts wrong on Copyright.

It is great that we have an actual creator in parliament, able to speak on behalf of fellow creators, rather than too many parliamentarians that get confused by intermediaries falsely claiming to represent creators!

When I first heard a group outside of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) or Creative Commons movement use the word "CopyLeft", I thought they were simply using the term incorrectly. (See: Independent authors just wanting a little respect... from fellow creators and collective societies from 2006)

In the FLOSS movement it means something similar to ShareAlike with Creative Commons: the license says the copyrighted work can be freely shared (without additional permission/payment) as long as any derivatives are equally shared. The licensing model is not opposed to copyright in any way, and focuses on material rewards in the form of additional creative works rather than royalties.

I continue to hear the term "copy left" used, sometimes by those who consider it a positive term, but more often by people who are trying to use the term in a derogatory manner. In this context the term is not being used to reference to a licensing model, but a political philosophy.

This suggests that the term "copy left" references a liberal creators' rights philosophy, and the "copy right" refers to a conservative creators' rights philosophy. It is only a coincidence that those on the "copy left" also support CopyLeft style licensing.

(Including full article here -- configuration issue at IT World Canada. Read full article on IT World Canada's blog >> )

I just wanted to point to a cool feature of the OpenParliament website. You can search for a term (Example: Copyright) and it finds the usage and shows you in an easy interface. In fact, I'm noticing the site coming up often in my Google Alerts.

This one on Charlie Angus, "Copyright" on May 11th, 2010 came in this morning.

I added the following as a comment to a blog article by Chris Castle which he titled, "The Consultation of the Mikado Part 2: Geist is running his playbook again ". It is also interesting to ask why the same isn't lobbed against musician and MP Charlie Angus who, along with myself, share many policy views with Michael Geist. Maybe it is seen to be easier to pick on a lawyer than fellow artists?

Jesse Brown interviewed Charlie Angus about his private copying regime private members bill and fair use motion.

See Michael Geist's Law Bytes article for more on the motion and private members bill tabled by Charlie Angus.

While the iPod levy proposal garnered the lion's share of attention, Angus's fair-dealing motion may ultimately have a bigger impact.

Also in the news today: CRTC to rule on 'TV tax' dispute.

On March 16, 2010, NDP digital issues critic Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) tabled Motion 506 to expand Fair Dealings as well as a private members bill Bill C-499: An Act to amend the Copyright Act (audio recording devices) which seeks to extend the existing Private Copying regime for audio recording to devices. The next day the Heritage committee tabled a motion supporting the extension of the regime to devices, indicating the support of the Liberals and Bloc for this policy direction.

While I fully support the motion on extending Fair Dealings, the impact of the private members bill is much more complex and needs discussion. This is what Mr. Angus intended.

Read full article on IT World Canada's blog >>

Charlie Angus has sent a letter to International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan challenging him to explain how ACTA will impact Canada's domestic copyright policy. Full text of letter is on Charlie's website.