A review of Canadian Copyright: A CITIZEN'S GUIDE by Laura J. Murray & Samuel E. Trosow

Canadian Copyright: A CITIZEN'S GUIDE, Laura J. Murray & Samuel E. Trosow (Between the Lines, 2007; $24.95)

"When did copyright law become sexy?"

So asked the Globe and Mail's Ivor Tossel in a piece headlined How did copyright become cool?

Tossel was reporting on a stunning about face by Canada's industry minister, Jim Prentice, when he backed down from tabling new copyright legislation "that could have completely changed the relationship between Canadians and their digital media."

Most Canadians give the issue of copyright very little thought although it is an issue that touches every one of us and most of the time we are completely oblivious to how deep it reaches.

For instance, almost all of us are copyright holders. Vacation pictures, grocery lists, doodles, and that great essay you wrote in grade ten, are all covered by copyright law. It is not even incumbent upon a person to do anything but take the picture, make the list, scratch the scribble, or write the paper to have created a work covered by copyright.

We are also all users of copyright. From software, to movies, books, magazines, music, sewing patterns, library books, school handouts, and hockey games on television — we all consume information created by someone else for which there apply not just a copyright but potentially layers of copyright.

The reason most Canadians know so little about a subject that means so much to them is possibly because they perceive the issue as incomprehensibly complicated. And for anyone who has ever read a software EULA (End User License Agreement), it is a reasonable perception.

To lift the shroud of mystery from copyright, Sam Trosow, an associate professor of law and media studies at the University Western Ontario (UWO), in London, and Laura Murray, an associate professor of English at Queen's University in Kingston, joined forces to provide Canadians with a guide to understanding copyright.

Canadian Copyright is a plain language guide to understanding copyright in Canada. The book is written not for lawyers or academics but for the rest of us who both create and use works covered by copyright.

For a complete understanding beyond what is legal and illegal, the authors divide their book into four parts covering the origins and philosophy behind copyright; Canadian law and how it is set apart from US and British law; the practice of copyright which answers questions like "is downloading legal"; and finally government policy and the future of copyright law in Canada.

To further aid the reader in understanding copyright and its application in everyday life, the book has been complimented with real-world examples, quick reference tables, questions and answers, and commentary from both creators and users.

The very readable and insightful book also makes for a handy reference for when in doubt. For example, is downloading music legal? Yes, if it is for private use. What about uploading? Well, that's murkier.

One important emphasis of Canadian Copyright is user rights. Often when we think of copyright we think of it as something that gives rights to industry at our own expense. But Canadian Copyright wants us to know we have rights as users. We have rights to use the products and materials we have licensed or purchased. This includes copying, communicating, even, at times, appropriating for the purpose of parody or creating new art. That is not to say that users have unlimited rights to do as they please with someone else's work, but that rights and responsibilities are not a one way street with industry or creators enjoying all the rights while users are saddled with all the responsibilities.

In fact, it is user rights that enable us to borrow books, cite another's work in our own, learn about culture in newspapers and newscasts, and make backups of expensive software media.

If Canadian Copyright has a weakness it also the books strength.

Copyright law in Canada is due for an overhaul and lobbyists and vested interests have the ear of the government. There is a fear that Canada will travel down the same road as the United States by implementing a version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which greatly upset the balance of rights in favour of industry interests and gave us the curse of DRM (Digital Rights Management) that severely curtails how a user may use what has been acquired through entirely legal means. Luckily, in the United States, DRM has proven so restrictive and unpopular even major record companies have begun to abandon its application.

But the potential for a new law in Canada means Canadian Copyright could be obsolete sooner rather than later. But that makes the book's publishing so vital to the debate that is yet to happen in Canada — it provides readers with the knowledge and the understanding of why copyright is just too important to be left to the backrooms of power without a full and open public debate.

Everyone who reads, who loves learning, who innovates, who shares information, and who loves music, ought to read this book. It will become clear why copyright has become sexy, cool, as characterized by the Globe and Mail, and why an Internet campaign forced Canada's industry minister to back down from tabling proposed legislation. It might even encourage a reader to join the debate.

Resources:

• Sam Trosow's blog
• Laura Murray's Blog
• Digital Copyright Canada
• Michael Geist
• Facebook Page

Disclosure: I regard Sam Trosow as a personal friend. The review was written of my own accord and without consultation. I highly recommend this book not because he co-authored it, but because I enjoyed reading it and because it accomplishes what it set out to do which is to enable readers to "'practise copyright' attuned to the big issues of culture and democracy."