Conservative Party Platform on Copyright

Today's Conservative Party platform states:

A re-elected Conservative Government led by Stephen Harper will reintroduce federal copyright legislation that strikes the appropriate balance among the rights of musicians, artists, programmers and other creators and brings Canada's intellectual property protection in line with that of other industrialized countries, but also protects consumers who want to access copyright works for their personal use.

We will also introduce tougher laws on counterfeiting and piracy and give our customs and law enforcement services the resources to enforce them. This will protect consumers from phoney and sometimes dangerous products that are passed off as reliable brand-name goods.

(emphasis added)

It's unclear whether a Conservative government would simply "reintroduce" Bill C-61 "as is", or whether it would come up with something that, unlike Bill C-61, actually does strike "the appropriate balance among the rights of musicians, artists, programmers and other creators and brings Canada's intellectual property protection in line with that of other industrialized countries, but also protects consumers who want to access copyright works for their personal use."

That's not a bad mission statement for a new copyright bill - but does not explicitly take into account that fact that the Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that commercial parties, too, have a right as users to access works for research purposes in a manner consistent with fair dealing.

The reference to "customs and law enforcement services" suggests that the still secret ACTA draft treaty is on the mind of the Conservative Party.

Thus far, the Conservatives and NDP have explicitly referred to copyright in their platform. The Liberal Party has not done so.

HK