Copyright Talk: Patterns and Pitfalls in Canadian Policy Discourses

Chapter 1

COPYRIGHT TALK:
PATTERNS AND PITFALLS IN CANADIAN POLICY DISCOURSES
Laura J. Murray

The rhetoric of copyright discussion makes itself felt not only through the legislation it may seek to generate or influence, but directly, because it always envelops and infuses the law, and because for most Canadians it is the law. It is thus unfortunate that the predominant rhetoric, or discourse, of Canadian copyright reform can barely pretend to be tethered to credible intellectual, empirical, or legal underpinnings.

This study places government copyright discourse from 2001 to 2005 in the context of the broader debate, where a general panic about digital technology is fostered by copyright-owner groups. Repeated claims that copyright-owners have, or ought to have, the right to control not only copying but access to and use of their works are being given credence by the Canadian Heritage Department, Minister, and Committee, taking Canada down a radical path away from the historic and appropriate scope of copyright protection. The Ministry of Industry has a different approach but has not articulated it publicly. In Canada’s dominant copyright discourse, unauthorized use of copyrighted materials is vilified, copyright-owner control after the point of sale is normalized, and the principle of access has been hijacked. At the same time, the goal of "balance" is much touted. If Canada is to achieve real balance in copyright law, Members of Parliament and policy-makers will need to rearticulate "access" and "use" to discourses of democracy, citizenship, and the public interest.

About the Author:

Laura J. Murray, Ph.D. (Cornell) 1993, is Associate Professor in the English Department at Queen’s University, where she teaches American literature and literary theory. The proprietor of www.faircopyright.ca, an information and advocacy resource, she has also written “Protecting Ourselves to Death: Canada, Copyright, & the Internet” (First Monday, October 2004: www.firstmonday.org), and spoken on the history and rhetoric of copyright at many American and Canadian universities. She has published articles on exploration literature, early American literature, Aboriginal literature, and the history of the book and is the editor of To Do Good to My Indian Brethren: The Writings of Joseph Johnson, 1751–1776 (U. Massachusetts, 1998) and (with Keren Rice) Talking on the Page: Editing Aboriginal Oral Texts (U. Toronto, 1999).

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