PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
PIRATE PROPOSES A BETTER COPYRIGHT POLICY IN PLACE OF THE NEW EXTENSION
Winnipeg, Manitoba – 2015 April 27
The Government of Canada recently included a copyright extension in their budget. It appears that the goal is to ratify a contentious provision from the secret and controversial Transatlantic Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty. Leaked versions of the TPP are facing lots of opposition across the world. This extension will effectively keep creative works out of the public domain for 70 years. Inserting the bill into a budget denies Canadians a chance to make an informed decision. The Pirate Party calls for this unnecessary extension to be withdrawn. The party supports shortening the copyright term while preserving the artist’s moral rights and ability to continuously earn income from their work.
“Our government could improve and revitalize our public broadcaster to provide a medium for showcasing independent artist’s works. We could offer the artist a direct-to-artist monetization platform at base cost. Not only will this act as a non-profit launching pad with worldwide marketing reach, it will also give creators a defacto copyright registration without cost.” says Ric Lim, Leader of the Pirate Party. “This is one solution that is better than the old copyright cartel of surrendering the artist’s copyright to a few conglomerates, which is more suitable for an era where production and distribution costs were prohibitive. People want access to the new technological capability of unlimited and realtime access that reflects the new lower cost. Our aim should be to allow greater creative and innovative freedom.”
The copyright monopolists tend to use the few millionaire artists they’ve promoted to claim this ever expanding extension is good for artists. But the larger base of hard working and talented independent artists are not served well by this old model. The Pirate Party is working to fix the increasing abuses in our “intellectual property” laws by plugging the loophole that allows copyright trolls to extort money from Canadians (via threat of unfounded litigation), expanding and clarifying the non-commercial sharing and fair use clauses, and supporting Open Science to benefit all researchers regardless of their background.
The Pirate Party of Canada is a federal political party focused on thoughtful information policy reform, genuine democracy, civil liberties, and the freedom of the Internet. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .
Media Contacts: Shawn Vulliez 1-(877) 978-2023 [email protected]