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A Satire & Parody Right Needs Legislation

By Howard Knopf, Esq.

The memo that David Akin has unearthed to the former Minister of Industry Jim Prentice confirms what I have been saying - namely that a parody right cannot be left to the Courts.

If we do that, we will probably not have a satire parody right in Canada. Just because a law professor says that the Michelin "no longer seems to be good law" doesn't make it so and certainly is unlikely to have much effect on a Court.

Courts don't make laws. They interpret the law. And in this case, they are sticking with the Michelin decision, for better or worse.

As for satire and parody, we need an explicit black and white amendment to bring Canada in line with the USA, France, Australia and where the UK is headed.

If anyone has a good argument against such an amendment, I'd like to here it.

HK

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on August 03, 2009 (boomark / email).