Digital Copyright Canada

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.

The following is a questionnaire for election candidates around the important cultural and creative policy known as copyright. Your answers are appreciated as early as possible. We will be making answers available on our digital-copyright.ca website as part of the materials we are presenting during this election.

The questions are based on the Petition for Users' Rights which can be read at http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/

I have been circulating around a message trying to draw people to this website. It has now been posted at the following locations.

The quickest way to send a message to parliament is to sign our Petition for Users' Rights.

Please also read our 23rd April 2004 (WIPO Intellectual Property Day) press release.