Conservative Party of Canada Musing New Copyright Policy

Pop Culture
Conservative Party of Canada Musing New Copyright Policy
By Hervé St-Louis
November 8, 2008 - 20:20

The Conservative Party of Canada is considering new measures on copyrights law at their 2008 Conservative party Convention. Resolution P-15, which is sponsored by riding association Central Nova, is proposing the following:

i) The Conservative Party believes that the objectives of copyright legislation should be:
a) to create opportunities for Canadian creators to enjoy the fruits of their labour to the greatest possible extent;
b) to ensure that the rights of Canadian creators are adequately protected by law;
c) that these rights are balanced with the opportunity for the public to use copyrighted works for teaching, researching and lifelong learning;
d) to continue to allow an individual to make copies of sound recordings of musical works for that person’s personal and individual use; and
e) that enforcement is applied fairly and in accordance with international standards.
ii) The Conservative Party believes that reasonable access to copyright works is a critical necessity for learning and teaching for Canadian students and teachers, and that access to copyrighted materials enriches life long learning and is an essential component of an innovative economy.
iii) A Conservative Government will give consideration to educational public policy goals within the copyright framework. A Conservative Government will work with industry to increase awareness and develop a public education campaign to better inform users and creators on the copyright laws in Canada.
iv) A Conservative Government will eliminate the levy on blank recording materials.

Much of the reform has to do with educational usage of copyrighted material. This point has been the main criticism levied against the federal government in the copyrights debates surrounding the various bills proposed since December 2007. Of note, this bill separates functionally educational usage from other types of usage by the public. Response from Canadian cultural critics has been negative due to the proposed removal of the levy on blank recording material.

The Comic Book Bin believes that the levy on blank recording material is detrimental to Canadians and although large corporate groups are responsible for lobbying against the levy, it is in the interest of Canadians that these levies be rescinded. The levies’ proponents assume mistakenly that all users of blank recording media record copyrighted materials that belongs to third parties. There are ample evidences that suggest that blank recording material, in Canada is used mainly to record private and business data belonging to the users of the recording media.

As for the emphasis on only allowing educational users to use copyrighted with reasonable access, The Comic Book Bin believes that this should be extended to all Canadians. At the time of publishing, it is not clear whether the Conservative Party of Canada has adopted this policy resolution.