©opy talk

Well, the old Internet tubes are jammed with copyright talk these days, as Canada prepares to have our say, legislatively speaking. Not too much optimism out there, and for all sorts of different reasons.

Here's Wayne MacPhail over at rabble.ca taking the "it's really all about consumers" line.

Of course, it's NOT all about consumers. It's some about consumers, some about tensions between traditional and emerging businesses, and a whole lot about the creators whose livelihood depends on copyright. It's sad then that once again in a fear-filled and sensational article about the coming Americanization of our copyright law -- they sue grandmothers, don't they? -- MacPhail writes not a single word about how necessary copyright is for professional creativity.

Well, I'll keep at it then:

Another letter to the Hill Times

And to clarify, I also think suing your fans is an untenable business model, and that unlocked technology is preferable to the locked kind. On these topics, the musician Leslie Feist and I agree. I just happen to think that one of the ways we avoid those things is by having clear, strong and widely-respected copyright. For more on that -- see the discussion from this earlier post.

To find out other points of agreement between me and Feist, Leslie Feist should contact me and we'll have lunch. That would be fun.