Wednesday, December 05, 2007

CAUT Copyright Position

The CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) has sent a very good letter dated November 30, 2007 about copyright reform to Ministers Prentice and Verner and several influential MPs.

CAUT, which represents Canada’s university professors, calls for:

1. Inclusive treatment of fair dealing, i.e. clarifying that listed exceptions are not meant to be exhaustive.

2. No new sector specific exceptions, i.e. educational internet exception not necessary because fair dealing is more equitable and less complex.

3. Anticircumvention provisions to apply only to infringing activity and not be aimed at devices.

4. Notice and Notice regime for ISPs

5. Good faith belief in fair dealing as a defence to statutory damages

6. Standard form contracts not to override statutory users’ rights

7. No term extension.

When there is a link to this letter, I’ll provide it.

Update: here's the letter.

HK

1 comment:

  1. Good article. I am very happy to see the CAUT take this position, and I appreciate your having posted the information. It is a bit surprising that this had not had more play in the usual print media.

    FYI I posted a link to this article on my own blog at: http://www.dudek.org/blog//89

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