Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utcsri!uthub!thomson
From: thomson@uthub.toronto.edu (Brian Thomson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: Copyright laws
Message-ID: <693@uthub.toronto.edu>
Date: 8 Feb 88 16:02:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: uthub.693
Posted: Mon Feb  8 11:02:44 1988
References: <11687@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: thomson@uthub.UUCP (Brian Thomson)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 34

In article <11687@brl-adm.ARPA> keld@uunet.uu.NET writes:
>... as USA has not ratified
>the Berner convention, as most of the European countries have, and
>Canada has done it too. 
>     
> ...
>
>One special thing is that it is legal to copy any copyrighted
>material if this is for *private* use. This covers music played on
>the radio which is tapped on your tape recorder, and it also covers
>software which is published on the net and thus governed by copyright
>rules.

Surely, this last bit is overstated.  I cannot believe that it is
permissible to borrow a book from a friend, or from the library, and
photocopy the entire thing "for private use".

I do know that there has been a great deal of discussion here at the
University of Toronto about photocopying.  Legal minds here disagree
on just which kinds of copying are permitted and which are not,
but I do seem to remember a consensus that there is no explicit provision
in Canadian law corresponding to the U.S. "fair use" doctrine.
This is the U.S. rule which permits limited copying and extraction from
copyrighted works for reviews, "scholarly works", and similar uses.

There is even talk of a photocopying tax, the proceeds of which would
be divided among the holders of copyrights of certain kinds of publications
(such as scientific journals).  One argument against it is that this
fund would pay to foreign copyright holders, even though other countries
do not have similar plans benefitting Canadians.
-- 
		    Brian Thomson,	    CSRI Univ. of Toronto
		    utcsri!uthub!thomson, thomson@hub.toronto.edu