[CivicAccess-discuss] ask the Copyright Consultation for Crown Copyright reform

[Russell McOrmond]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009, Glen Newton wrote:

> I agree with Tracey: you are conflating copyright and licensing.

   While it is nice to have policy which allows for public licensing of 
specific data sets, government culture seems to be against that.  Yes, 
there are some enlightened projects within specific departments, but as a 
whole the government tends towards secrecy -- and will always attend to 
misinterpret copyright as a tool towards that end.

   I still don't see simple postal code geodata that is important for sites 
trying to get citizens more civically engaged.   While electoral district 
shapefiles are available, neithor postal code to EDID or raw postal code 
shapes are available.   I still don't know the "license" for the results 
of an ATIP request, and whether we are allowed to republish or even write 
about what we received.  I can't even get in writing what I was told over 
the phone from someone at the Access comissioners office that I'm allowed 
to republish -- suggesting no copyright restrictions.


   I agree that abolishing Crown Copyright won't be easy, but neither will 
any of the other proposals we are making to try to turn from many decades 
of bad copyright policy towards something reasonable.   Abolishing crown 
copyright should be something we constantly ask for, even recognizing it 
is not a short term goal.  It causes politicians to think about the uses 
and abuses of copyright by the government, and will push them towards 
supporting licensing which at least makes crown copyright stomach-able.



Note: I included abolishing crown copyright in my submission at 
http://flora.ca/copyright2009/ .  I also included reducing copyright term 
to a fixed number of years from the data of creation/publication, as well 
as moving towards a registry/renewal system with a short unregistered 
period.  I don't expect to see any of these in the next copyright bill, 
but do hope that I also won't see any more term extensions.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/     http://KillBillC61.ca

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry control over my camcorder, computer,
   home theatre, or portable media player from my cold dead hands!"