Archived - Goldberg, Martin

Dear Sir/Madam,

Copyright should exist to protect producers and creators and to provide them with incentives to contribute to Canada's rich body of original content. Copyright law should ensure that the people who worked so hard to produce works are compensated when others use them.

I have spent most of my adult life in various senior positions with Canadian educational publishers. My livelihood and that of my family are dependent on honouring principles of ownership related to intellectual property. The advent of copiers and now digital technology should not be allowed to override the right to fair compensation for those involved in developing intellectual property.

Innovation in reproduction technology should not legitimate unfair use of IP regardless of how easy that new technology is to purchase and use. We accept and honor the principles of ownership in virtually every other form of property development and use the law to protect producers and owners despite the methods available to override ownership.

Virtually everyone involved in the learning enterprise — principals, teachers, custodial staff, administrative staff — are compensated for their efforts. Commercial producers of IP for educational purposes should be treated no less fairly.

It seems especially inconsistent to have virtually everyone involved in the illegal — photocopied, digitally copied — copying of IP be compensated. Teachers get paid for their time, copy machine manufacturers are paid for their equipment, paper and ink suppliers and are paid for their goods, electrical suppliers are paid to run the equipment — but the producer of the IP is not paid. That imbalance needs to be understood and dealt with adequately so that the developer of intellectual property and the the people who work to develop, manufacture, market and sell the IP are compensated fairly.

Sincerely,

Martin Goldberg
Toronto.
Ontario