From "Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright" : Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda
Chapter Eleven
How Virtue Ethics Might Help Erase C-32’s Conceptual Incoherence
David Lametti
The proposed changes to the Canadian Copyright Act set out in Bill C-32 illuminate the conceptual incoherence of what has come to be commonly known as “copyright plus” or “paracopyright.” In terms of copyright re- form, the new provisions in C-32 seek to strike a balance between the interests of right-holders and the interests of users. A number of the pro- posed changes are welcome, and reflect the legitimate—or at least what ought to be the legitimate — expectations of copyright-holders and users. The non-copyright aspects of the Bill—the protection of digital locks, for example—have their grounding in other normative paradigms and are more problematic when juxtaposed against the traditional copyright provisions contained in the Bill and in the rest of the Copyright Act. They represent a serious conceptual flaw or incoherence in the Bill. This cen- tral conceptual flaw could overwhelm the copyright balances struck in the other parts of C-32, in Canadian jurisprudence, and in copyright theory and history generally.

