Copyright

Oh the Misinformation that is Canadian Copyright

Support Fair Copyright in CanadaA recent blog post on the Digital Copyright Canada Website pointed to another blog post on the creatorscopyright.ca website which suggests that Canadian Lawyer, and educator, Michael Geist is to blame for Hockey Night in Canada, failing to come to an agreement with the creator of their theme song.

There are a few things that bug me about this blog post, which I wish to share with the world...

Songwriters Association of Canada is Way Off Base

Jordan makes light musicThis morning I was listening to CJOB and heard an interview with someone from the Songwriters Association of Canada. I would love to post a link to the interview on the CJOB site, as well as the name of the songwriter that was interviewed, however they require Windows Media Player to listen to or even search their audio vault, and bening on a Mac I cannot access this content, but that is another post for another day.

Anyway, I was slightly surprised by some of the things being said by this gentleman, and thought it was worth a listen. He made some good points and I was suprised that the Songwriters were actually admitting that something different had to be done. Their proposal however is flawed on many levels.

1. getting ISPs to agree to collect and manage this "tax" is highly unlikely.

How to Interpret a Copyright Notice

I just posted a link to a story on the indychannel.com and while doing so, read their copyright notice at the bottom of their page and found something interesting and at the same time confusing.

Their copyright message reads..."Copyright 2008 by
TheIndyChannel.com
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed."

Ford Car Sales Too High

Ford car sales must be too high this year! I mean why else would they tell an enthusiast group who owns Black Mustangs that they can't print a calendar with pictures of their members cars?

The only thing I can think of is they can't keep up to orders and therefore don't want their cars promoted!

According to Boing Boing Ford is actually worried about misuse of their Trademark. Now being uneducated in the legalities of Trademark Law, I would have assumed that a trademark was meant to prevent someone from copying a word or design in their own product, not to prevent someone from printing a calendar with pictures of their own cars!

Besides this not making sense from a corporate point of view, and the fact that car sales are slagging, plants are closing, and people are losing their jobs, wouldn't it make more sense for a company like Ford to say, "thanks for showing off your cars, we are glad you like them! Hopefully it will convince more people to buy our cars!"

This is just another reason why is is important for us as Canadians to be so concerned about the impending copyright legislation, so silly acts like these do not become more commonplace!

Original Story Here

UPDATE: All is ok, you can go ahead and order your calendar now... more on what went down

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