As I expected and worried about, Copyright was mentioned in the Throne Speech. The Conservatives mentioned earlier that anything mentioned in the speech will be considered confidence motions when they become bills.
From the text of the speech:
To complement this, our Government will support Canadian researchers and innovators in developing new ideas and bringing them to the marketplace through Canada’s Science and Technology Strategy. Our Government will improve the protection of cultural and intellectual property rights in Canada, including copyright reform.
As Michael Ignatieff of the Liberals suggested, this is like judging a meal only by looking at the menu, but the above is a menu item that will likely leave a bad taste in the mouths of most Canadian creators, consumers, software authors and hardware owners.
It is possible that something good can come out of this, but given the thinking of parliamentarians and committees who have believed that "if some Copyright is good, more is better", I suspect the outcome will be bad. Protecting science and technology in the modern area is best done by limiting and clarifying the patent and copyright monopolies.
In the coming days there will be speeches from the Liberal, Bloc and NDP leaders, and an amendment tabled by the Liberals and sub-amendment by the Bloc. We will see if either the Liberals or Bloc have any specific comments on this areas of the speech. Unfortunately the history thus far has been that the Liberals are the party least in-touch with the needs of creators and digitally-connected Canadians in the new millennium.
I also have a scheduled meeting with James Rajotte (Edmonton-Leduc, Chair of Industry Committee) on Thursday morning which I hope will not be preempted by debate around the throne speech.
See also: Howard Knopf, Michael Geist.
