Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown (copyright)

Abstract

Crown copyright has been flagged for review by Canadian copyright stakeholders including federal departments and parliaments for more than thirty years. In that time, our federal government has implemented an Open Government Licence (for some data sets and select publications) and, somewhat paradoxically, removed countless born digital publications from its web servers (without alternate access points). This session will provide an introduction to the issue of Crown copyright with a focus on the advantages and disadvantages of keeping government publications out of the public domain. Suggestions for modifying section 12 of the Copyright Act will be offered (and solicited!) in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary review of the legislation.