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Contribution to Book
User-Generated Content and Music File-Sharing: A Look at Some of the More Interesting Aspects of Bill C-32
From "Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright" : Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda (2010)
  • Daniel J Gervais, Vanderbilt University
Abstract

This chapter is not intended as an update, but rather as an addendum to my chapter in Professor Geist’s previous book on Canadian copy- right reform. In that chapter, I suggested that the upcoming reform should focus on excludability of Internet-based uses, that is the exercise of exclusive copyright to prevent online uses of copyright material. I also suggested that this excludability was technologically problematic. Users empowered by social norms and ever-changing technological tools going well beyond peer-to-peer software, and even relying on the old USENET, circumvent technological protection measures (TPMs), and ultimately access millions of MP3s. Proxies and anonymous clients make the activity increasingly hard to detect and track. Finding more intrusive ways to track Internet usage is not just a technological challenge; it also pits copyright against other rights, including users’ privacy rights and interests. It made sense in the context of that chapter to suggest that more online uses should be permitted (and licensed), where appropriate using a collective model providing licensed access to a repertory of works or other protected subject matter.In this chapter I return to the issue of music file-sharing to see how much progress we have made.

Keywords
  • Copyright reform,
  • Canada,
  • user-generated content,
  • file-sharing,
  • music
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall October 14, 2010
Editor
Daniel Gervais
Publisher
Irwin Law
Citation Information
Daniel J Gervais. "User-Generated Content and Music File-Sharing: A Look at Some of the More Interesting Aspects of Bill C-32" TorontoFrom "Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright" : Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/daniel_gervais/25/