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Sunday, March 31, 2019

Canadian copyright extension buried in trade deal

IPPro Magazine | The Great White North: How Canada is matching US IP system changes | ippromagazine.com - Ben Wadecki:

March 6, 2019 - "The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement USMCA, touted by US president Donald Trump as a 'great deal for all three countries', is a reorganisation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and will shape trade and IP relations between the three countries for years to come....

"In relation to copyright, Paul Smith, senior partner at Smiths IP, remarks that under USMCA, the extension of the copyright terms from the life of the author +50 years will become the life of the author +70 years.... Smith points out that the change has been criticised as a curtailment of Canadian heritage and as a significant increase in the cost of education in Canada, all apparently to benefit a handful of large US-based entertainment companies."
Read more: http://www.ippromagazine.com/specialistfeatures/specialistfeature.php?specialist_id=50

New NAFTA Would Harm Canadian Copyright Reform and Shrink the Public Domain - Creative Commons - Timothy Vollmer:

October 1, 2018 - "The extension of already-lengthy copyright terms will discourage new creativity in Canada. It will further prevent Canadians from accessing and using the rich pool of resources in the public domain, which means they can be used free of any copyright protections. Creativity always builds upon the past, and the public domain is our shared cultural commons used to create new works of art and science....

"Before these negotiations took place, an increase in copyright term was not  on the agenda for the Canadian reform. Last year, Canadian ministers responsible for the copyright review indicated some support of the public domain, stating that an updated law 'should ensure […] that users benefit from a public domain.' In our submission to the public consultation, we wrote:

"'We believe that Canada has been right to push back against any extension of copyright term or expansion of the scope. The copyright term of life of the author + 50 years is already far too long. Extremely long copyright terms prevent works from entering the public domain, where they may be used by anyone — including CC licensors — without restriction as the raw material for additional creative works.' If the USMCA is adopted, it will clearly violate the direction of the Canadian copyright reform....

"The USMCA text shows the powerful hand of U.S. copyright interests. A copyright term extension was floated in earlier versions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Creative Commons joined with dozens of other organisations to push back on it then.... But USMCA shows a swing back in the other direction, almost surely a result of U.S. pressure to ratchet up copyright protection and enforcement measures....

"There is no reason for any more copyright term extensions, which would harm the commons and are contrary to the policies and values supported by the Creative Commons community."

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