General Recommendations

  • The requirement for copyright reform is critical. The current Copyright Act is inadequate to deal with current and future developments of intellectual property, reproduction technologies and new media.

  • Amendment to the Copyright Act must be technology and industry neutral. Equal respect and treatment for all copyright works is crucial to the development of the Information Highway. A misguided attempt to fabricate a "multimedia industry" through weakening the ability of authors to control reproduction of their works in multimedia will ultimately result in a general disregard for intellectual property of all kinds.

  • The inclusion of "Digital Works" in the Copyright Act will provide equivalency of protection to all forms of electronic information.

  • Phase II revision to the Copyright Act should include statutorydamages.

  • The federal government should act as a model user and holder of copyright. The federal government should encourage provincial jurisdictions to follow suit.

  • Canada's copyright reforms should be guided by the principle of creating a creator friendly environment to permit maximum benefit to Canadians from the development of the global Information Highway. Harmonization with other nations' copyright laws should be congruent with this central principle.

  • Government policy should be compatible with the rapid introduction of high-speed data transfer capability to all Canadians.

    Index Copyright and the Information Highway