Canada Is Walking Into a Copyright Trap Warn Advocates
Content creators and everyday Canadians will pay the price for continued mishandling of copyright policy from government, as unaddressed Notice and Notice loophole continues to expose Canadians to abuse
[OpenMedia Press Release, Link, (CC-BY-NC-SA)] Canadians got an unpleasant surprise in the budget yesterday when the government announced that it would be extending copyright for sound recordings by 20 years, up from Canada’s current term of life of the creator plus 50 years. The move comes after the flawed implementation of Canada’s Notice and Notice system, which has left Canadians exposed to abusive and misleading copyright notices from foreign media giants.
Copyright expert Michael Geist warns that the move looks like a concession to U.S. demands aimed at sleepwalking Canada into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed international deal that could make the Internet more expensive, censored, and policed. International copyright experts and numerous studies suggest that copyright term extensions benefit neither content producers nor customers, and create major costs for society as a whole.
Responding to the news, OpenMedia campaigner Meghan Sali said, “Countless experts and independent studies have panned copyright extensions as little more than a cash grab for huge media conglomerates – offering no major benefits to the creators they’re supposed to protect. Everyday Canadians will end up footing the bill, by being forced to spend millions of dollars to pay for content that otherwise would have ended up in the public domain.”
Sali continued: “It’s unacceptable that Canadian laws are being shaped by U.S. priorities in the vain hope that these costly concessions will please Big Media giants and Hollywood lobbyists. We’re walking into a copyright trap.”
Revelations of copyright term extensions come amidst increasing pressure from U.S. Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators who seek to establish a longer standard for copyright terms amongst all 12 countries participating in the controversial agreement, with recent reports indicating that their lobbying has been successful. If passed, experts warn that the TPP could pose significant threats to free expression online.
Canadians are speaking out to demand government take decisive action on unfair copyright practices at https://OpenMedia.ca/shakedown
About OpenMedia
OpenMedia is an award-winning community-based organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy by engaging hundreds of thousands of people in protecting our online rights.
Through campaigns such as StopTheMeter.ca and StopSpying.ca, OpenMedia.ca has engaged over half-a-million Canadians, and has influenced public policy and federal law.
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Contact:
Meghan Sali
Campaigns Coordinator, OpenMedia
1-604-363-7607
meghan@openmedia.ca
