About Fair Duty:
No Parliamentary action is needed to bring balance to copyright – what is needed is a better understanding that the system of copyright is composed of a set of limited rights. Just as we each ought to recognize the intellectual property rights embodied in the work of previous or current creators, so too should they share their work as necessary to foster future works. Said another way, fair dealing mandates fair duty for all parties concerned.
About Me:
I received my Ph.D. from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. My formal education began with a B.Sc. in Mathematics at this same institution. The decade in-between was spent as co-partner of a small consulting firm, facilitating the transfer of intellectual property between academia and industry.
My doctoral dissertation, From Fair Dealing To Fair Duty: The Necessary Margins Of Canadian Copyright Law, explored the implementation and atmosphere of copyright in Canada, through the writings of Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952). There is merit to the system of intellectual property, provided it remains a system.
Current work: Canada and Israel share a history of British birth, American influence, multiculturalism, bijural copyright law, a noted delay in addressing copyright during the digital age, and a fair use moment offered by each of their High Courts. It remains to be seen how far either country will go in cultivating fairness of use. A working paper on this subject is available courtesy of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at the Washington College of Law at American University.
A few bragging rights and chatter:
Awarded an Azrieli Postdoctoral International Fellowship for 2012-13. My thanks to the Azrieli Foundation for supporting my work, Professor Menahem Blondheim of Hebrew University for his interest in my coupling of Harold Innis and Israeli copyright development, and Professor Brian Lewis (currently Dean of Arts and Science at Concordia University) for invaluable guidance that began with my graduate studies and continues to this day.
Invited speaker for Out of the Shadows, hosted by the BC Librarians Association, 2 November 2011. [A repeat performance given by request for the BCLA 2012 annual conference.] My remarks concerned the role of Access Copyright in educational licensing. See here for details.
“Fair Dealing at a Crossroads,” in ed. Michael Geist, From “Radical Extremism” to “Balanced Copyright”: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2010).
“Copyright and Ethics – An Innisian Exploration,” in Global Media Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, November 2009, p.23-39.
“A Faustian Bargain, Copyright Retold,” keynote speaker for Interrogation Techniques: Law, Texts, Culture, hosted by the Department of English, Simon Fraser University, May 29, 2009.
“The Copyright Act of 1889 – A Canadian Declaration of Independence,” in The Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 90, Issue 1, March 2009. p.1-28. Nominated for the 2010 Peter Oliver Prize of The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
And, the most viewed blog entry: my request for Fair Use (Canadian style) in An Open Letter to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper.
