Crown Copyright by Amanda Wakaruk
Unpublished
government publications are protected by perpetual terms with protection for published works lasting 50 years. The Access to
Information Act also protects content as necessary or appropriate.
Does this verge on
censorship in a democratic society?
1. Very few
publications have been assigned open government licence
2. Terms of use
create a disincentive for reuse and exclude stewardship
Problem of multiple
3. Lack of guidance
for making legacy materials available, halting many good digitization projects leading to the potential loss
of valuable materials being available to the public.
Crown Copyright can be seen as a significant barrier. Many advocacy efforts including the writing of briefs, requesting review or removal of
Crown copyright on publications. Unfortunately there is no counter argument
which is rare in government committees.
Kelsey Merkle - “government
documents should be placed in the public domain at the time of publishing”. Bill C-440 seeks to
abolish crown copyright for future documents, as well as past documents.
Next steps:
- Industry Committee report will hopefully include recommendations
- Stakeholders continue to advocate
- Impact of PMb C-440 and influence if any of SCC Keatley v. Teranet
No comments:
Post a Comment