Friday, September 25, 2009

copyrightconsultation.ca

In reading through the submissions, one of my favorites would be this one:

Goos, Aaron

“1. How do Canada’s copyright laws affect you? How should existing laws be modernized?

Satire and parody are essential for democracy. Whether it’s legal or not, it will be done by many so it’s better to be on the right side of history on this issue. Also, fair dealing should be changed to fair use so people won’t be confused.

2. Based on Canadian values and interests, how should copyright changes be made in order to withstand the test of time

Remember that copyright was originally designed to be 7 years and expired. That was enough for the creator to make a profit before others could start too. A liberal and expansive copyright promotes innovation.”

—Aaron Goos

(I so admire people who can say so much in so few words!)

Mr. Goos reminds us that copyright originally expired after seven years. In my submission I thought copyright term reduction to twenty years would be good, but really, seven years is probably plenty long.

Canadians were asked to submit our thoughts, feelings and advice to our government’s Copyright Consultation process. This is why so many of us put so very much effort into our submissions. This was to be participatory democracy at its finest.

Thousands contributed.

Putting thoughts into words is easy for some but not most of us.

(This is why politicians hire speech writers).

Yet the copyright consultation website where industry canada is posting these submissions seems to have missed quite a few. I know that mine went in just in the nick of time. I personally know of two other submissions I’ve read that are also not evident on the September 14th page Nor is it on the page following.

I was led to believe that my government actually wanted to hear what I had to say.

We were led to believe that our government would actually listen.

The very few submissions posted on the site for the last few days open for submissions seem to have footnotes. If this is something that they want to do, fine. But only AFTER all of the submissions are posted. Considering that email submissions are submitted electronically, I don’t understand what is taking so long.

Canadians want to be sure that our submissions were received, not lost or inadvertently destroyed.

If they have been damaged or misplaced, we will want the opportunity to re-submit, because we have all put in a lot of work on this. We want to make sure that we are heard.

Luckily so many of us have posted online.

Google found me these insightful copycon submissions:

Blaise Alleyne: Unity Behind Diversity

Denver Gingerich: A Better World

Scott Elcomb: Libertatia Canada

Andrew Currie: Scribd

Todd Howe: Aleatoric

Cory Doctorow: Submission to the Canadian Copyright Consultation

Cory Doctorow’s reference to the “You wouldn’t steal a car” shorts put me in mind of this very funny anti-piracy parody clip from Britain’s Channel 4 comedy series “The I.T.Crowd”

I hope that they will make some kind of announcement as to why so many copycon submissions are not visible. Perhaps the best thing at this point would be for the government to let Professor Geist know what’s happening so that he can spread the word,

O Canada copyright consultation

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