Marina Mann

Free software, free Internet content, free mobile applications versus the world of paid software, pay-per-use content, and regional coding. As all sorts of corporations are delivering products via the Internet and as such they often include DRM in one way or another.

But how can corporations protect their content without surveillance and copyright protection. How do they face the question:  Do you want to sue your customers?  And more importantly will your customers want to sue you? Add branded-content and user-generated content models and there’s a slew of issues to consider in terms of the balance between rights we protect and the interests of the customer to engage with the protected works. “So the limits are equally important as the rights we create.” There in lies the dilemma.

In June 12, 2008 Canada’s Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced copyright reform legislation which triggered considerable debate over the future of Canadian copyright policy. Michael Geist, leader in the cause, is the research chair of Internet and e-Commerce at the University of Ottawa. By summer 2008, Geist had 90,000 people join his “Fair Copyright” group on Facebook  and in so doing, started a grass roots movement to debate the issue.  YouTube, Wikis, bloggers and even Boing Boing picked up the cause and sprouted international media stories about Canadian copyright reform. In this documentary Geist goes to the people to try to explain “Why copyright emerged as such an important issue to Canadians today?”