Last week was a bad week for the government on the copyright front. The government recently tabled legislation to reform copyright and the man in charge of the file, Heritage Minister James Moore, gave a speech at the International Chamber of Commerce in which he decried those who questioned the bill as “radical extremists.” The [...]
Entries from the “free culture” category
Minister Moore and the Myth of Market Forces
Canada’s Digital Economy Strategy: Two quick actions you can take
For those interested – or better still, up till now uninterested – in Canada’s digital economy strategy I wanted to write a quick post about some things you can do to help ensure the country moves in the right direction. First, there are a few proposals on the digital economy strategy consultation website that could [...]
Learning from Libraries: The Literacy Challenge of Open Data
We didn’t build libraries for a literate citizenry. We built libraries to help citizens become literate. Today we build open data portals not because we have public policy literate citizens, we build them so that citizens may become literate in public policy. Yesterday, in a brilliant article on The Guardian website, Charles Arthur argued that [...]
Mick Jagger & why copyright doesn’t always help artists
I recently read this wonderful interview with Mick Jagger on the BBC website which had this fantastic extract about the impact of the internet on the music industry. What I love about this interview is that Mick Jagger is, of course, about as old a legend as you can find in the music industry. …I’m [...]
Canada 3.0 & The Collapse of Complex Business Models
If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage everyone to go read Clay Shirky’s The Collapse of Complex Business Models. I just read it while finishing up this piece and it articulates much of what underpins it in the usual brilliant Shirky manner. I’ve been reflecting a lot on Canada 3.0 (think SXSWi meets government and [...]


