Reactions to Canadian Copyright Reform Proposals

This is a follow-up to last week's item "Government Announces Proposed Copyright Amendments".

So far, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has welcomed the government proposals.

CARL is pleased with the recommendations to allow interlibrary loans through secure digital transmission direct to the desktop of the user and the use of copyright works for the purpose of remote learning, without incurring additional copyright liability. It also likes the proposal to allow libraries to make copies of materials in digital format for preservation purposes.

And University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist added his learned two cents in his regular copyright column last week (updated over the weekend). Geist calls the proposals a "genuine attempt at balance" and a "move away from the one-sided Heritage Committee recommendations" of last year.

Geist concludes: "(N)o one should be under the illusion that this issue is done. As I conclude in the column, once the legislation is introduced, compromise and balance will be forced to withstand the voracious array of well-funded lobby interests who will undoubtedly seek the return to a one-sided slate of reforms. Ottawa may have presented its plan, but the copyright battle is far from over".