Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.
Lisa Macklem
PhD candidate, Faculty of Law
Building a Better Mousetrap: Finding A More Nuanced Approach to Fostering Culture in the Digital Age
Don’t mess with the mouse is a cautionary tale about Disney’s intellectual property. Creation, education, and access are the public interest goals of copyright. Ownership of copyrighted material most often resides in corporate hands who wish to maximize their own profit through artificial scarcity and lobbying legislation and trade deals. Canadian courts have long been champions of users’ rights, which are also human rights. However liberally Canadian courts interpret copyright, access to content can still be controlled via distribution. Broadcasting and telecommunications regulations in Canada have been increasingly at odds with supporting Canadian creators. Canadian policy needs to see Canadian creators supported in a more holistic way that encompasses the needs of creators, users, and owners. Canadian policy makers need to borrow a page from Canadian creators and write a new way forward.
Comments