I meant to write about this earlier in the summer, but there is still time. Industry Minister Tony Clement and Heritage Minister James Moore launched a public consultation process on copyright policy on July 20th. Following the government’s failed efforts to quietly revise Canadian copyright law last year through Bill C-61, Clement and Moore have opened up a broad public consultation process.
The Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences has put out a call to all scholarly researchers to take part in the online consultation process. Changes to copyright law have the potential to greatly improve or harm research and teaching at Canadian universities. If you’ve ever shown a video in your class, used an image in a lecture slide, or created a custom course reader, you have a very large stake in copyright law in this country.
To learn more about the consultation process and the state of Canadian copyright law, I encourage you to read through Professor Michael Geist’s (University of Ottawa) website, speakoutoncopyright.ca.
Visit the government’s copyright consultation page to voice your concerns and keep up with the debate.
And continue to check back on the Notes on Knowledge Mobilisation page for a continued discussion about copyright and other issues surrounding the mobilisation of research in the environmental history community in Canada.
