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International Law

: Excess Copyright

Canada, Israel, DMCA and Sovereignty

By Howard Knopf

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Michael Geist points to a very perceptive post by Ariel Katz who is at U of T about Israel's recent new copyright law.

According to Ariel:

Israel's new act has revealed its copyright priorities. Overall, Israel decided to increase the flexibility of its copyright law and make it more open and friendlier to users, educators and innovators. It decided to reduce the ways in which copyright law can work to restrict competition. For the time being, it decided not to enact anticircumvention rules that have the potential to work in the other direction. This choice is compatible with Israel's innovative and creative record. This choice is essential for a small economy whose citizens' brain is the only natural resource. Canada should seriously consider doing the same.

(emphasis added)

At the risk of being politically incorrect, let me point out something obvious here. If any country would seem to need to be beholden to the USA, it would probably be Israel. Yet Israel fiercely asserts its independence from the USA in many ways, and wariness of the DMCA approach is apparently one of them. Mazel Tov to Israel! Doubtless, this overall spirit of independence is one of the reasons why successive American administrations seriously respect Israel.

Canada is not nearly so dependent on the USA as Israel. Canada's very survival is not at stake. (Actually, it is in the long run as a result of the kind of pro-American pandering that we may soon see on this file, but not in the immediate day to day sense that Israel faces). However, Canada has forgotten that we won the war of 1812, which I was proudly taught way back when was the only war America has ever lost. That, of course, was well before Vietnam.

So - if Israel can call time out on the DMCA and assert copyright sovereignty, what is the matter with Canada?

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on December 09, 2007 (boomark / email).