Digital Copyright Canada

PCT issues go far beyond what we see on the Internet. As a reminder to those of us in the cities of the importance to connect to rural and especially farmers, I wish to hilight this article.

[Comment by Brewster Kneen that will appear in the June issue of The Ram's Horn, #221 | http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/fpl-fbv/2004-06/msg00008.html]

;:The courts opinion amounts to a huge insult to the many millions of farmers who have selected their seeds, nurtured their crops and selected their seeds every season in an unending cycle, not for maximum “efficiency” but for a wide variety of characteristics, conditions and uses – without a hint of ownership claims, patents or monopoly.

[Hentzenwerke Publishing | http://www.hentzenwerke.com/] is a small family-run business in Milwaukee, WI (USA), specializing in custom software development and technical book publishing. Whil Hentzen was named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional seven times. He received the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, publishing Visual FoxPro books since 1998.

He [recently published an article | http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/05/28/1936211.shtml] about his converting his entire company to Linux over the last couple of years.

See: http://www.cippic.ca/election2004

[Direct link to Document | http://www.cippic.ca/uploads/images/79/LiberalPartyResponse.pdf]
([PDF Viewers | http://flora.ca/pdf.shtml])

A text version of the document follows:

June 4, 2004

Ms. Philippa Lawson

Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

University of Ottawa

Dear Ms. Lawson,

Enclosed, please find the Liberal Party’s response to your questionnaire.

On behalf of our leader, the Right Honourable Paul Martin, thank you for writing to identify the major concerns of your membership. Your interest in the policies of the Liberal Party as they relate to these issues is appreciated.

Find out what positions federal parties and candidates take on some controversial issues involving the Internet and new technologies. CIPPIC's "Election 2004" webpage provides background on seven questions we are asking each party, and will include the parties' responses once we receive them. Get involved yourself - ask the candidates in your riding about their views on these or other related issues!

http://www.cippic.ca/election2004

1.`Do you believe that the Copyright Act should be seen as a careful balance between the rights of creators and the rights of the public?

;: __yes__

2. Do you believe that the rights of users of copyright material should be preserved in Canadian copyright law? (eg: fair dealing, public domain, home audio recording)

;: __yes__

3. Do you believe the "50 years after author's death" copyright term should be extended, shortened, or left at 50 years? If changed, what term is appropriate to reward creators?

;: __Not sure. Sounds about right to me.__

4. Do you believe that users and their representatives have a vital stake and should be consulted in changing copyright law?

While I was not invited to speak to the members of Heritage committee on copyright reform, I was able to talk to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on May 4, 2004. The invited me in to talk about Bill C-2.

University of Ottawa Law professor Michael Geist writes in this article in the Toronto Star:

Rather than adopting an approach that facilitates the use of the Internet, Bulte's committee has called for the creation of a restrictive regime in which nothing is allowed unless expressly permitted. The result will be an Internet in which schools will be required to pay to use Internet materials contrary to the expectations of many creators.

One of the ways that lobbiests have been able to take control over copyright reform is by claiming massive amounts of copyright infringement by private citizens. Given this, I strongly believe that those who do not want to see draconian measures passed by governments should "clean up house" and not be part of those statistics.

By Graeme Wearden, ZDNet UK

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040527/152/eunor.html

The BBC has given a major boost to the Creative Commons movement this week by revealing how it plans to open up its archive of broadcasting material to UK Internet users.

I wonder when (or if) the CBC will come on board and change their current [copyright policy | http://www.cbc.ca/aboutcbc/discover/copyright.html]

While we would like to see all candidates in the 308 electoral districts educated on copyright reform and the Internet during this election, there are districts that may be strategic. For reasons that are hard to understand, members of parliament who participate in the Standing
Committee on Canadian Heritage or serve as Heritage
Minister seem to become unaware of critical issues.