By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Access Copyright Claims Copyright Reforms May Be On Hold Indefinitely
With some luck, the proposed copyright legislation - that would introduce Draconian DMCA-style restrictions on Canadians - may be postponed indefinitely. In the meantime, proponents of the legislation - mostly non-Canadian publishing interests - are ramping up their lobbying efforts. More...
14 février 2020
Access Copyright Claims Copyright Reforms May Be On Hold Indefinitely
New Copyright Law Starts Web Storm
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Copyright Law Starts Web Storm
Short article documenting the online criticism mounted against proposed copyright legislation in Canada. The legislation will likely "mirror the DMCA with strong anti-circumvention legislation - far beyond what is needed to comply with the WIPO Internet treaties," according to michael geist. It will likely contain no protection for "flexible fair dealing. No parody exception. No time shifting exception. No device shifting exception. No expanded backup provision. Nothing". More...
07 février 2020
Canada'S New Copyright Act May Be Most Restrictive Yet
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canada'S New Copyright Act May Be Most Restrictive Yet
You sort of hope for the best, even when people are telling you that the worst possible news is coming down the pipe. That's what seems to be happening with regard to copyright legislation here in Canada. Michael Geist writes, "There is every indication (see the Globe's latest coverage) this legislation will be a complete sell-out to U.S. government and lobbyist demands. The industry may be abandoning DRM, the evidence may show a correlation between file sharing and music purchasing, Statistics Canada may say that music industry profits are doing fine, Canadian musicians, filmmakers, and artists may warn against this copyright approach, and the reality may be that Canadian copyright law is stronger in some areas than U.S. law, yet none of that seems to matter. More...
31 janvier 2020
TrustDR - Trust in Digital Repositories
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. TrustDR - Trust in Digital Repositories
"This institutional development pack for managing IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in e-learning is intended to support those who wish to update and clarify their institutional policies and infrastructures to help get the best out of using technology to support teaching and learning." This really is everything someone in an institutional context could want on the question of rights in digital repositories. A comprehensive set of resources. More...
21 janvier 2020
Fearing Legalized P2P Downloading, CRIA Declares War On Private Copying Levy
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Fearing Legalized P2P Downloading, CRIA Declares War On Private Copying Levy
The Canadian recording industry has lobbied for many years for a 'private copying levy', successfully adding a tax to all blank media sold in Canada. Now it has realized - all of a sudden - that this levy makes actually using the media to copy content legal. Because that's what we paid for when we paid the levy. Here's the reality that results from this: "the Copyright Board has developed jurisprudence that provides a strong argument that downloading music on peer-to-peer networks is lawful in Canada". More...
29 décembre 2019
De l’usage des logiciels librement téléchargeables
Tous les logiciels : graphiques, générateurs de cours, générateurs de questionnaires…sont protégés par le droit d'auteur, généralement au titre du droit des logiciels et/ou du droit des bases de données et toutes les ressources pédagogiques sont également protégées par le droit d'auteur (quel que soit leur contenu pédagogique). Plus...29 novembre 2019
This Time Viacom Is Accused of Violating Copyright
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. This Time Viacom Is Accused of Violating Copyright
You create a video and post it on your website. A big company - Viacom, say - copies your video without permission and uses it on a TV show. The big company then turns around and says your video violates copyright and must be taken down. Could it happen? Yes. In fact, it did. More...
22 novembre 2019
Court Ruling Gives Novell Copyright in Unix System
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Court Ruling Gives Novell Copyright in Unix System
Today's big news is a ruling against SCO in its ongoing lawsuit to obtain royalties for Linux, the open source operating system. According to the judge, the rights claimed by SCO are actually owned by Novell, and were only licensed to SCO. Groklaw triumphs, Court Rules: Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights! Novell has right to waive! Well, maybe. But is better for Linux to be owned by Novell? Well, mostly - Novell has pretty clearly licensed the software as open source. More...
17 novembre 2019
Droit d'auteur : une réforme controversée de la directive européenne
Le 12 septembre 2018, le Parlement européen a voté en faveur de l'ouverture de négociations en vue d'adopter la directive sur le droit d'auteur dans le marché unique numérique ("directive copyright"). Plus...15 novembre 2019
Content Makers Are Accused of Exaggerating Copyright
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Content Makers Are Accused of Exaggerating Copyright
A Battle Royale is shaping up between Google and content poducers such as sports leagues and other media companies over the warnings broadcast by those agencies (the now familiar "any use of the pictures or accounts of this game are strictly prohibited"). Google claims, accurately, that these warnings attempt to prohibit uses allowed under fair use or fail dealing provisions. "It is an attempt to convince Americans that they don't have rights that they do in fact have." The content producers - looking at things like Google video - argue that what Google wants is to be able to use content for free. More...
