Bid to End Crown Copyright is Back: MP Brian Masse’s Bill C-374 Would Remove Copyright from Government Works
Crown copyright, which grants the government exclusive copyright in any any work that is, or has been, prepared or published by or under the direction or control, has long been the focus on copyright and open government advocates who have called for its elimination. Under the current system of crown copyright that dates back for decades, government departments can use copyright to limit the publication or distribution of public works. While the government moved away from paid licensing to a non-commercial licence in 2010, commercial uses are still subject to permission and licence. The issue was one of the most controversial at the 2019 copyright review with the committee split on the issue: the government supported the creation of an open licence, while both the Conservatives and NDP backed its elimination altogether.
While debate over crown copyright continues (this 2019 Law Bytes podcast episode with Amanda Wakaruk and Jeremy de Beer focused on it), NDP MP Brian Masse has been a consistent advocate in favour of its elimination. There have been bills to eliminate crown copyright that date back to the 1990s, but Masse has introduced several crown copyright bills in recent years. Last week, he did it again with Bill C-374. The bill features a single provision reversing Section 12 of the Copyright Act on crown copyright:
Section 12 of the Copyright Act is replaced by the following:
No copyright — His Majesty
12 Without prejudice to any rights or privileges of the Crown, no copyright subsists in any work that is, or has been, prepared or published by or under the direction or control of His Majesty or any government department.
Given the government’s one-time emphasis on open government, reversing crown copyright once seemed like an obvious reform. While it still hasn’t happened, Masse continues to place the issue on the legislative radar screen in the hope that government put an end to the outdated practice of using copyright to exert control over government works paid for with public dollars.
Post originally appeared at https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2024/02/bid-to-end-crown-copyright-is-back-mp-brian-masses-bill-c-374-would-remove-copyright-from-government-works/
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Seems like the slow creep of Government subversion and overtones of the beginnings of censorship over what should rightly be public content . Am I wrong ? Seems like most governments these days.