Googling May Break Copyright in Canada

twray writes "From The Globe&Mail: Could it be possible that Canada will make Google or any other Internet search and archiving engines illegal? Bill C-60, which amends the Copyright Act and received its first reading in the House of Commons on June 20, suggests it could be illegal for anyone to provide copyrighted information through "information-location tools," which includes search engines."

Comments

Why bother w/this then?

[garcia]

The bill defines information location tools as "any instrument through which one can locate information that is available by means of the Internet or any other digital network."

Would that mean that library networks that allow you to find copyrighted material are illegal too? All of the libraries I've been in recently have an online card catalogue which is usually accessable in-house and over the web... Granted they might not be caching materials and making thumbnails but who knows? Maybe the libraries even use site:library.org with Google to do searches.

But, cautions Mr. Knopf, Bill C-60 has received first reading only, and that "there"s a lot of time for them to take this out or to fix it."

He warns that "we shouldn't cripple the Googles of the world by imposing copyright chill on the very basis of their architecture. In fact, they perform a very useful service to copyright owners by enabling easy detection of infringement. The owners should go after the actual infringer, rather than effectively shooting the messenger."

Then why even bother to draft it? This seems like an awful waste of time and energy if you know the bill could cripple the search engine industry and that's not what you want.

Short and sweet

[Alex P Keaton in da]

Short and sweet: This is what happens when legislation can't keep up with tech, and legislators don't understand tech
Look at some of the stuff here in the states- I mean, a bunch of 200 year old Supreme court judges making laws about P2P when they dont even use email????
I thought Canadians had a reputation for being reasonable....
If Google is outlawed, only Outlaws will Google.
I have to go, I need to google tyrany.

Thats it....back in my day...!

[ryg0r]

I'm sick of all this crap. I'm gonna go back to how we old skoolers used to do it:

Surfing random IP Addresses.

For the ones that have decent content, I'll carve the number into my wooden desk.

Re:Thats it....back in my day...!

[The New Andy]

Great, so now your desk is in violation of copyright law.

Lawmaking and The Internet

[LowbrowDeluxe]

It seems to me, that lawmakers are having to rush to catch up with the internet in much the same way the automobile revolution caught them with their pants down. Early on their were laws restricting cars to 4 miles per hour in some cities and townships, and at least one place where a person had to walk in front of the car with a lantern to warn people. Traffic law went through a lot of permutations as society tried to deal with the sudden ability for people and goods to be moved from place to place with ease. I think that's a pretty fair analogy of where we are at now with intellectual property.
Except the analogy breaks down when confronted with the fact that there are companies in position to achieve, or at least maintain, obscene profit levels by preventing the expansion of intellectual traffic flow.

Re:Think for a second.

[Snarfangel]

I think they're aiming at things such as torrent & eMule search engines not Google and Yahoo.

Good thing lawyers and businesses always follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it.

Random?

[abb3w]

For the ones that have decent content, I'll carve the number into my wooden desk.

Check out 64.233.179.104 -- there's all sorts of neat stuff there. Better hurry before the cops shut it down.

Re:Take that, Canucks

[xQx]

Maybe it's part of some Free-Trade negotiations...

America: No, You didn't support us in our silly War that we're still stuck in. We are going to Tariff you!
Canada: How about we pass some silly laws so yours look less silly? you know, people are talking...
America: Can you start a war with Albania for no reason so our voting public can be annoyed at you and forget about Iraq?
Canada: Maybe... but lets just start with the silly laws.
America: Okay, have a cigar.

Re:Take that, Canucks

[JohnnyNoSPAM]

I concur. As corporations globalize, their lobbying efforts will globalize proportionally.

Over at Groklaw, PJ touches on this in an article about Internet Archive being sued article She makes good points such as recommending that site owners utilize subscriptions to protect content that they do not wish to be open to the public domain. The is also a discussion of the robots.txt file that many sites use and search engines honor voluntarily.

Search engines are tremendously effective tools for bringing visitors to web content. Without them, many web sites would go unnoticed. I don't see that attacking the search engines will be effective. I believe that simple solutions such as those PJ has touched on are readily available and easy to implement rather than resorting to such extensive legislation, and I agree that this is what we as citizens need to convey this to our respective governments.

Re:Canada vs. Google

[patio11]

When asked, Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, said of the matter: "Go for it, I've got no use for them anyway. All the worst parts of France and America with none of the food or guts that redeem them. I've been trying to pawn them off on another noble for thirty years but the only one who was interested was that grand-nephew six degrees removed from the Duke of Luxenbourg and he was far too decent of a chap to stick with them."

Asked about the impending transfer of soverignty from her ex-Majesty to Google, Canada was rather disappointed but unwilling to cause a fuss. Quebec was outraged but plans to observe the traditional proprieties with a full surrender ceremony.