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| Credits: Government of Canada - © Copyright - Her Majesty the Queen who had nothing to do with taking this picture... |
The New Government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
may introduce new legislation to change the current copyrights law regime in
Canada to make it closer to the United States.
These laws would break from the Canadian tradition of balancing copyrights'
laws with public interests and fair usage. Copyrights in Canada are not
absolute rights given to copyrights owners. Owners, often are not even the
original creators of the rights they adamantly protect.
The traditional spirit of Canadian copyrights' legislation, gives creators a
license to benefit from their creation during their lifetimes, and their heirs
a period of 50 years. After this period, rights revert to the public.
The Harper's government new proposed laws would probably increase the period
after the life of the creator to 70 years. In the United States and other
countries, large media groups who own copyrights to material that should have
already fallen into the public domain have constantly lobbied the political
class for extensions. It seems that these lobbyists have finally found a
friendly ear in Canada, in the form of Stephen Harper's "New Government."
Other changes in the Canadian copyrights' laws would prohibit users from tampering
with protection technology. They would
continue to impose stiff levies on blank
medias and allow large corporate groups to sue and obtain the identity of users
manipulating copyrights' contents. Other provisions, such as beefing up the
ability of schools to use contents under fair uses, or enhanced protection for
parodies would continue to be ignored.
In light of this, Prime Minister Harper's new legislation would be more
draconian than those of the United States. It would make Canada a virtual
police state where all but the thoughts of citizens and consumers would come
under the monitoring of either the government or corporations.
This position is a far cry from the
laissez-faire approaches that Prime
Minister Stephen Harper claims he adheres to and counter late Prime
Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who once said that "
The government has no business in the
bedrooms of the nation."
