Access Copyright fiasco
p2p news view / p2pnet: I’ve been wondering if it would be worthwhile to post an article each day with an aspect of Canadian Copyright law or practises that the lawyers at Access Copyright got wrong. While Michael Geist and others have pointed out that they seem to have missed PART VIII: Private Copying entirely, there are many other errors on their site.
As you read each of these, consider this important question: Is our current Copyright Act simple enough to be reasonably understood and discussed by students before high-school age? Is it reasonable for Access Copyright to have created Lessons for grades 1-8 considering that it is questionable whether high-school students can reasonably understand these complex issues as part of a law course, where legal scholars are still debating many aspects of this area of law.
Yesterday Wallace brought up registering copyright on his Public Domain BLOG. Access Copyright asks students a question about registering copyright with the Copyright Board of Canada. Their answer is that you don’t need to register with the Copyright Board.
While technically correct, the whole question is wrong since copyright registration is done with the Copyright Office, directed by the Registrar of Copyrights, which part of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), an agency of Industry Canada.
The Copyright Board is a board established by PART VII of the Canadian Copyright Act to deal with the collective management of copyright and collective societies. They are a quasi-judicial body that sets rates for extended and statutory licenses, as well as other procedural regulations.
To read correct information about registering copyright in Canada, please see A Guide to Copyrights: Registration of Copyright offered by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
I can only hope that any educator that does decide to discuss copyright in the classroom that they will use sources other than Access Copyright given there is a need to fact-check their material for the large number of errors.
Russell McOrmond – p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons). He's also the CLUE policy coordinator.]
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NOTE: AC is deservedly being pilloried for this ridiculous attempt to brainwash Canadian children and suborn teachers as unpaid copyright propagandists.
An Australian p2pnet reader told us about Darryl Moore’s Private Infringer, blather over in Ireland has its own version, there’s a great comic book parody, Boing Boing, slashdot and Ars Technica have all picked it up, and you can bet there’s more – a lot more – to come.
Definitely stay tuned.
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June 5th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
From: Rattus, Cucaracha, & Rottweiler, attorneys at law. Specializing in IP and copyright protection scams, er, I mean litigation…
Attn P2P scum, who shall be referred to as “you people” from now on.
“Dick Tracy Chin” is COPYRIGHT. This post is a cease and desist order to “you people” to stop using, referring to, show images of, or even think about “Dick Tracy Chin”. Any further use of “Dick Tracy Chin” will result in the immediate filing of a frivolous but very expensive lawsuit against as many of “you people” as possible, if you catch my drift…
That is all,
XXXOOO,
Rattus, Cucaracha, & Rottweiler, attorneys at law.
June 5th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
BRAINWASH them while they’re YOUNG! What male bovine fecal material this sordid state of affairs is!
June 6th, 2006 at 3:37 am
By all means posture away and try to make Access Copyright a bigger joke than it already is, but the reality is it’ll fall on deaf ears, ’cause no one really gives a shit. In a week or two everyone will have forgotten about Captain Copyright, just like the collective masses have forgotten about that stupid cartoon ferret the BSA created a few years back.
June 6th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
To answer a posed question: Yes. It is reasonable for Access Copyright to make up lessons and lesson plans. So can anyone. Pushing any old idea.
What is not reasonable, and is likely not happening, is for a teacher to use them.
I am busy and don’t have time to download their nonsense, but I did manage to read the comic, and wonder if anyone, anywhere in Canada found a bookstore which publishes illegal copies of University textbooks.
I sure as heck never found any. And can’t believe there is a way to make money doing it.
Yahoo!