CBC Q&A with Michael Geist
p2pnet.net News:- The CBC has a Q&A with Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.
Discussed, among other things, is the copyright situation in Canada with, “Politicians … trying to come up with a new set of laws that will govern ownership of content in a medium that is often outside their jurisdiction,” MPs, “eagerly awaiting a revamping of the Copyright Act” and, “calls from Corporate Canada for reforms”
For Corporate Canada read ‘entertainment industry, and, for “reforms,” read, “a total re-write of Canada’s copyright laws to suit the movie, music and software cartels”.
Below are several clips from the post:
Q: Do you think in this day and age, with the internet becoming what it is, that the notion of copyright should be rethought?
Geist: Everything is copyright. Everything that you write is protected copyright. The internet has proven to be a remarkable place for access to new content and for creators the ability to disseminate that content and find new audiences that previously didn’t exist. I think the copyright law has proven itself to be remarkably resilient in dealing with such issues.
The government is currently contemplating reforms and the reforms in many ways are wrong-headed. They are moving us towards an environment that will limit access and will limit some of the abilities to take advantage of this new medium.
Q: Is there an example you can cite?
Geist: The government is pursuing what’s known as anti-circumvention legislation, which encourages the use of technology to lock down content. There are countries that have adopted that, most notably the United States. There has been what people describe as unintended consequences, a real negative factor with respect to things like privacy and security. From a Canadian perspective, not only is the legislation unnecessary but it may indeed be harmful.
With blogs becoming popular on the internet, people are using them to point to other articles, or even to lift portions of other people’s work. Does copyright protect work online?
Geist: I think it’s protected and if it’s not, it ought to be protected. Copyright law is very clear about the ability to use work fairly â “fair dealing” in this country, “fair use” in the United States â certainly merely linking to content ought not to raise any sort of copyright concerns. Publishing excerpted content of work should also not raise significant concerns. Where there are wholesale copying of full articles, there are really two questions that have to be asked and that is: ‘Is the licence that the author has used one that would permit that kind of copying?’ and increasingly we find that it is in many, many blogs and other online sources use creative commons licensing, which does permit the non-commercial use typically with attribution with work.
When there are full articles copied, the question becomes: ‘Well, is it something that’s permitted?’ and in many cases it is and then of course there are attribution issues that run outside copyright but are important issues nevertheless to ensure the person is appropriately credited.
Q: You have your own site and if you do a search on your name, you’ll find your pieces on other sites. What do you think about that?
Geist: I use a creative commons licence and I encourage people to use it so long as they do it with attribution. I think people on the internet increase the public’s understanding on how we build upon prior knowledge and prior work. Think of a site like Wikipedia, a collaborative effort which has become an indispensable source for so many on the internet, where it isn’t copyright that’s behind that. It’s creativity, it’s people’s desire and willingness to create but it’s also premised on the ability to build upon what others have been doing.
When I look at my own work, I’m very happy for people to build upon that work. In fact, I’ve put some of that in ‘wiki’-style and encourage people to add to it. If someone were to take my work and call it their own with attribution, that would cause concerns.
And finally:
Q: Copyright reform looks to be on the horizon in Canada. What should we be looking out for from the government?
Geist: We should be looking first and foremost for the prospect of what may be a real backward step with respect to copyright and in terms of copyright legislation. My view is we ought to be embracing the potential the internet provides and the government in many respects needs to get out of the way. We’ve got the copyright laws that already deal with these issues. There are certainly some groups that are seeking to entrench some outdated business models and are seeking government protection to do that through legislation. Canadians I think increasingly need to recognize that so many of the benefits that they are realizing with respect to the internet and new technologies could be jeopardized by the some of the proposed copyright reforms that we may see later this fall.
Also See:
CBC – Q&A on copyright with Michael Geist, October 23, 2006
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