Friday, December 14, 2007

Canada's Current Copyright Issues

I have been following the latest news about the government's plans to revise the Canadian Copyright Act. The revisions have caused an unprecedented outcry from the Canadian public. I've attached an article from the Globe and Mail outlining recent events. These revisions would make many of the things we do illegal and subject to fines and penalties. An example of this would be buying a cd and then downloaded the cd to your ipod.
The interesting thing about this is that the public outcry was started by a Facebook account posted by a university law professor when he saw that the revisions would practically copy a US law that has caused a granny to be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for making a tape for her grand daughter.
Its pretty frightening that our government seems to just follow in the footsteps of the Americans. Here's a link to the question period regarding this issue.

2 comments:

Paul C said...

As a teacher in Ontario I have enjoyed the freedoms which Can Copy has provided for teachers with regard to print and video use in the classroom. Will the proposed new legislation mean significant restrictions for use of copyright material in the classroom?

PC

Sharon Seslija said...

Well it could based on what you are doing in the classroom. If you are doing things the 1.0 way, thete will probaly be no change. But, if students/teachers want to do things like rip cds that they own to use them to create podcasts and videos, then yes it will.