The Supreme Court of Canada recently released an outrageously harmful ruling in a key case for Canadian copyright law. The court’s decision leaves Canada’s professional cultural workers with no workable legal remedies for protecting the value of their work.
I was engaged in this case for a decade. I testified at the original Federal Court trial, and intervened in both the lower court appeal and the Supreme Court appeals. Writers rights were protected by all lower courts in succession, until they were kneecapped and abandoned by the Supremes. It should not have happened that way. In my opinion, the SCC ruling was hasty, one-sided, ill-considered, and marred by the appearance of conflict. It damages Canada’s cultural sector and standing in the world, and it damages the reputation of the highest court.
For what? So universities won’t have to pay a $14.31 license fee when they copy published work. Such myopic nonsense.
I have many thoughts about the decision, and I let them flow in a very long Twitter thread you can access here: