[Ecommerce] Story on Canadian educators "caught in copyright web"

[Manon Ress]

Toby Cohen in Ottaw Sun
September 21, 2004

Educators across the country are gearing up for a battle, fearing
proposed changes to Canadian copyright law could hinder Internet use in
the classroom. They say extended blanket licensing, as proposed by the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last spring, could
create a costly pay-per-use system that might cause schools to deny
students access to the Internet entirely.

Pitted against the powerful lobbies of the publishing and recording
industries, six national educational organizations have teamed up to
ensure legislators are aware of the potential consequences to learning
before they introduce amendments to the Copyright Act as early as this
fall.

"Our call is for some balance in the act that allows users and owners to
benefit from the act," said Paul Jones of the Canadian Association of
University Teachers. "If you lock down information too much and make it
hard to access it and distribute it, you're really gumming up the
innovation process."

SNIP

Bruce Stockfish of Heritage Canada's copyright policy branch said the
committee is still "wrestling" with the issue of balancing the rights of
the creators who want to be compensated for their work and the needs of
the education community that require such resources to promote innovation.

One thing that is missing from copyright legislation, he said, is a
"break and enter" provision that would essentially make breaking an
encryption an offence under the Copyright Act.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2004/09/22/638608.html

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176