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01/07/2004 Archived Entry: "Steal This Blog Entry!"
This Magazine, veteran of the lefty mag press, has written some interesting and informative articles about copyright from a Canadian perspective.
Copyright is, by definition, designed to give the right to the expression of an idea to a single copyright holder. But whatever is copyrightable is simultaneously protected by section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees every Canadian “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Nothing in the Charter suggests that section 2(b) does not apply if an expression has previously been published by someone else.
To make the point as clearly as possible: If someone holds a copyright to a certain work, they can prevent you from making use of that expression in various ways. Copyright takes certain forms of expression off the market, so to speak. And that would appear to violate your constitutional rights.
One of the articles talks about digital copying of music and the idiocy of independent musicians trying to stop it instead of encouraging the copying of their music.
...internet conduits offering unmediated connections between cultural producers and a potential audience are actually a giant step forward, a way to take culture out of the capitalist system and return it to the community where it belongs.
Altogether a very interesting set of articles. Check them out.