12 Aug Tories’ copyright ‘consultation’ sneaks into Halifax

The Harper Government’s consultation on proposed changes to Canada’s copyright laws snuck into Halifax Monday for a secretive session with groups representing only industry’s side of the copyright debate.

There was no advance publicity, news release, or announcement, only private invitations to industry reps favoring greater copyright restrictions. The media and the public were barred, no dissenting voices were heard.

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, Canada’s foremost expert on copyright reform, calls the closed-door Halifax session “by far the most one-sided of the consultation, with no voices representing users, libraries, education, or consumer groups.”

Instead, AFM and SAC got their second invites of the series along with CMPDA, ACTRA, Microsoft, the CPCC, NRCC, and CRIA/CMPDA lobbyist Barry Sookman. (The repeat invitations raises questions about why some groups get two opportunities but there was no space for groups like the CMCC or Appropriation Art along with experts like Howard Knopf.)

Read Geist’s full post about this travesty on the special website he has set up to keep the public informed about the proposed legislation. As contrarian previously noted, Geist has singlehandedly done more to publicize the sessions than the entire communications apparatus of the federal government.

Although the Harper Government made sure you couldn’t attend its only session in Atlantic Canada, you can listen to the belatedly released podcast.

For an antidote, don’t miss TechDirt’s excellent summary of the need for a balanced approach to copyright.

[N]o one is saying [creators] shouldn’t get paid; this is a total  straw man. The question is how these laws should work to protect user rights, and how to make sure the laws actually live up to their key point: which is to act as incentive, not as some sort of welfare system or crutch for those too uncreative to come up with business models that recognize the role of abundance in a market. Copyright isn’t a war. It’s not us vs. them. It’s about creating a system where society is best off and key incentives are in place to create more content.