Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Source Publication

From Radical Extremism to Balanced Copyright: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda. Toronto, ON: Irwin Law, 2010.

Keywords

Canada; Copyright; Fair Dealing; legal reform; technological protection measures

Abstract

This chapter examines the potential impact of the proposed fair dealing and anti-circumvention provisions in Canada’s most recent copyright reform bill, Bill C-32. I suggest that the minimal expansion of the fair dealing defence to cover “new” purposes, as well as the addition of a few new user exceptions, while welcome, is insufficient to ensure the breadth of user defences that the copyright balance demands. Moreover, the extensive protection of technological protection measures without any regard for lawful uses of copyright material has the potential to effectively eviscerate fair dealing in the digital age. Many acts permitted in relation to owned content can be prevented by the use of TPMs, and would be rendered unlawful by the proposed anti-circumvention provisions. To extend legal protection to TPMs in a manner that fails to guard the contours of fair dealing and user rights from technological encroachment is to undermine the social goals of the copyright system, and to relinquish the policy balancing act performed in their name.

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