Canada to Hold Public Hearings on Digital Copyright

Christopher Whitt writes: "It looks like the Canadian government is going to hold public hearings on the Copyright Act reform in progress. I responded to the Call for comments on the Consultation Paper On Digital Copyright Issues mentioned in a 2001-09-06 slashdot article. I received the notice below in my email this morning. I won't be able to make the hearings myself, so I hope some other Canadian readers can get out and make the fair use message heard!" Read on for the details from the notice.

February 19, 2002
NOTICE

As part of the ongoing consultative process to reform the Copyright Act, the departments of Industry and Canadian Heritage are planning cross-country consultations on the issues outlined in the Consultation Paper on Digital Issues published in June 2001. These full day consultation sessions will be held in the following cities on the following dates:

• Halifax on March 8, 2002;
• Vancouver on March 15, 2002;
• Montreal on March 21, 2002;
• Toronto on March 26, 2002;
• Ottawa on April 11, 2002.

Our intention is to present a forum for soliciting your views and concerns on the issues identified in the discussion paper and therefore your continued participation is important to the success of this round of copyright reform.

We will be sending you a formal invitation shortly which provides further details, along with relevant documentation.

We thank you very much for the time and interest which you are committing to our initiative and we look forward to meeting with you at these consultations."