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: Michael Geist

61 Reforms to C-61, Day 47: Education Harms - Lessons Include Special Infringement Provision

By Michael Geist

The new lesson provisions are extremely limited, yet they come with an astonishing number of conditions and limitations. In fact, Bill C-61 includes a special new infringement provision specifically for lessons.  Under the bill:

It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do any of the following acts with respect to anything that the person knows or should have known is a lesson, as defined in subsection 30.01(1), or a fixation of one:

(a) to sell it or to rent it out;
(b) to distribute it to an extent that the owner of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter that is included in the lesson is prejudicially affected;
(c) by way of trade, to distribute it, expose or offer it for sale or rental or exhibit it in public;
(d) to possess it for the purpose of doing anything referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (c);
(e) to communicate it by telecommunication to any person other than a person referred to in paragraph 30.01(3)(a); or
(f) to circumvent or contravene any measure taken in conformity with paragraph 30.01(5)(b), (c) or (d).

Why the government felt it was necessary to create a new liability provision only for lessons is not clear.  Infringement is infringement, yet Bill C-61 establishes an entire new class of infringement specifically for lessons.  This provision should be dropped from the bill.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on August 26, 2008 (boomark / email).