It seems we have well informed readers! A helpful visitor to Art Threat posted a link to the newly created Copyright Consultations 2009 website detailing this summer’s public hearings into copyright legislation in Canada. Depending on where you live, you have between 1 and 36 days to get ready. Here is a quick list of events:
July 20: Vancouver – Round Table
July 21: Calgary – Round Table (today)
July 29: Gatineau – Round Table
July 30: Montreal – Town Hall
August 5: Winnipeg – Round Table
August 27: Toronto – Town Hall
You have to register for the Town Halls in Toronto and Montreal, which you can do at the website.
The website also offers links to the Copyright Act, Bills C60 and C61, a brief history of copyright law in Canada, and various Parliamentary reports on intellectual property. Some other resources that might be helpful:
The Creative Commons
Michael Geist’s Blog
RIP A Remix Manifesto
Does the haphazard way these events are being promoted, and their taking place during the the traditional high season for summer vacationing in Canada, suggest a somewhat cynical interest in public opinion on copyright law? A case could be made. One wonders what the government expects to get from Canadians with so few hearings and on such short notice.
The public – unlike industry lobbyists – do not get paid for participating in these processes and must research and prepare on their own time. And, to get a little grumbly, one wonders why the government is so uninterested in opinions outside of a few urban centers. There is not even one hearing in Atlantic Canada or in the North.
And what about Quebec City? Hamilton? Edmonton? Victoria? Ottawa? Regina? Moncton? Lethbridge? Kingston? Abbottsford? Grand Prairie? Saint John? Yellowknife? Halifax? Nanaimo? Brampton? Charlottetown? Kitchener? Saskatoon? St. John’s? Burlington? Thunder Bay? Windsor? Whitehorse? And so on.
They are what they are, however. Spread the word if you happen to be lucky enough to live in a city where the hearings will take place. Make your voice heard on copyright law in Canada.
- Copyright controversy returns to Canada: Conservatives to hold public hearings this Summer but won’t tell anyone where and when!
- 29¢ for your thought(crime)s? Copyright Board rewards music industry paranoia
- CRTC to decide fate of the internet this week
- Remixing RiP: Two blogs debate the hit copyright documentary
- Big City Mayors Bash Bill C-10
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the post. I just finished a piece on yesterday's launch of this process in Vancouver http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/1759 and wrote a couple of reflections on the copyright consultation website http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/dawn/2799.
Perhaps some alternative hearings are in order. Round table on CopyLeft? Public discussion on expanding the Creative Commons? Or just alternative copyright hearings in smaller communities…
That's a great suggestion! Alternatives to copyright that protect the artist but allow cultural sharing are still not widely known — be great to spread the word. Copyright laws as they are mostly benefit publishers and distributors, with the artists (in the vast majority of cases) getting the slimmest piece of the pie. Thanks for the suggestion.