Intellectual Property Law

Not Satisfied with Copying Policy, Canadian Think-Tank Copies Verbatim

By Posted by Alan Wexelblat

This kind of thing is too good not to snark about, so excuse me for a moment. According to Matt Hartley's story in Toronto's Globe And Mail online site, the Conference Board of Canada got caught plagiarizing.

Why is this funny? Well, the reports (plural, three of them) that had to be withdrawn were supposed to be giving the Ottowa government advice on how to update Canadian copyright laws. So, yes, the Board copied its copyright reports. But wait, it gets better. Who did they copy from? Apparently, they copied from a Cartel lobby group, the International Intellectual Property Alliance.

It's entirely possible that Canada's laws could use an update. And it's further possible that the Conference Board has some good ideas for updates. But this kind of intellectual black eye isn't helping anything other than my schadenfreude quotient. Maybe this will serve as an object lesson for them.

Full post as published by Copyfight - The Politics of IP on May 29, 2009 (boomark / email).