Locking Out Lawful Users: Fair Dealing and Anti-Circumvention in Bill C-32

FROM RADICAL EXTREMISM TO BALANCED COPYRIGHT: CANADIAN COPYRIGHT AND THE DIGITAL AGENDA, pp. 177-203, Michael Geist, ed., Irwin Law: Toronto, 2010

29 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2011

See all articles by Carys J. Craig

Carys J. Craig

Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto

Date Written: August 6, 2010

Abstract

This chapter examines the potential impact of the proposed fair dealing and anti-circumvention provisions in Canada’s most recent copyright reform bill, Bill C-32. I suggest that the minimal expansion of the fair dealing defence to cover “new” purposes, as well as the addition of a few new user exceptions, while welcome, is insufficient to ensure the breadth of user defences that the copyright balance demands. Moreover, the extensive protection of technological protection measures without any regard for lawful uses of copyright material has the potential to effectively eviscerate fair dealing in the digital age. Many acts permitted in relation to owned content can be prevented by the use of TPMs, and would be rendered unlawful by the proposed anti-circumvention provisions. To extend legal protection to TPMs in a manner that fails to guard the contours of fair dealing and user rights from technological encroachment is to undermine the social goals of the copyright system, and to relinquish the policy balancing act performed in their name.

Keywords: copyright, fair dealing, technological protection measures, legal reform, Canada

JEL Classification: K19, K39, O33, O34, O38

Suggested Citation

Craig, Carys J., Locking Out Lawful Users: Fair Dealing and Anti-Circumvention in Bill C-32 (August 6, 2010). FROM RADICAL EXTREMISM TO BALANCED COPYRIGHT: CANADIAN COPYRIGHT AND THE DIGITAL AGENDA, pp. 177-203, Michael Geist, ed., Irwin Law: Toronto, 2010 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1781001

Carys J. Craig (Contact Author)

Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto ( email )

4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
416 736 5189 (Phone)
416 736 5736 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
292
Abstract Views
1,864
Rank
190,194
PlumX Metrics