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

[Jeff Williams]

Manon and all,

 I have to agree with Bruce Stockfish on hacking and/or breaking
encryption as a much needed part of the canadian law/legislation.
It would solve legislatively allot of concerns from copyright holders
of their intellectual property and still allow for innovation.

  However it is also a strange concept that if a copyright holder
is so concerned about piracy of said property, why have it
even available on the public internet at all, or employ already
commercially available methods or systems that will and do
provide more than adequate for that property.  Indeed such
would have a cost factor that would impact sales or otherwise
use of said property, yet that is a cost that should be factored
in the decision of using the public internet for displaying or
selling your work, or work product that is copy written.

Manon Ress wrote:

> 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
>
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
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