August 28, 2021
The following policies have been approved by the Political Council and will be sent to the membership to be voted on: -All government copyright ("crown copyright") will be released under a Creative Commons Non-commercial licence.
Crown Copyright
Establish Compulsory Licences for all Copyright and Patents
August 28, 2021
The following policies have been approved by the Political Council and will be sent to the membership to be voted on:
-We will establish a system of automatic licences for copyright and patents. Innovators will be able to pay a flat fee for the right to use works of intellectual property held by another. This is similar to the provisions made for 'cover songs' in the music industry.
-As the intellectual property holders will not be able to reject an automatic licence request we will set...
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Strengthening the Moral Rights of Authors
April 8, 2022
While the economic aspects of copyright is widely recognized to be damaging, the rights of an author to the attribution and integrity of their work are not. We will strengthen these rights and separate them from the economic considerations of copyright.
The following policies have been approved by the Political Council and will be sent to the membership to be voted on:
-An artist has the right to have their work attributed to them when used by another where it is reasonable to do so unless this...
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End the Copyright Levy
April 20, 2022
Blank CDs and DVDs represent an important tool for new artists to sell their music at concerts and events. However they, along with the general public, are charged 19 cents for each CD or DVD. This money is divided among major artists based on sales, not actual levels of piracy. As a result new artists just starting out are both unfairly taxed and denied access to funds from the levy. We believe this is both structurally unfair to new artists and a cash grab by the major labels. This corporate w...
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Unbundle Technology
April 20, 2022
The bundling of services with hardware has created artificial barriers to entry in a number of markets in the last decade. To ensure that innovation is possible and to improve competition we would aim to introduce a requirement that the providers of bundled services, software and hardware products price and offer each component individually as well as in a bundle.
We will treat locking of electronic devices, whether the locking of software to hardware or hardware to a service, as an anti-compet...
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Implement an Open Source Action Plan
April 20, 2022
An Open Source Action Plan will be implemented across federal government departments, and will be promoted to the public and private sectors. The Action Plan will encourage the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), saving money where practical and economically viable. Third party contractor shall not retain ownership of the source code from a government project.
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The following policies have been approved by the Political Council and will be sent to the membership to be voted on:
-An Open...
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Create an Open Government License
April 20, 2022
The Open Government Licence will include all government funded data and material. All maps, statistics and other data that have been created or collated by the government will be released in open formats, giving the public access to research for which they have already paid. The sole exception relating to information that would invade the privacy of others and the national security, integrity and legal interests of the Government of Canada and it's allies. Content that no longer threaten Natio...
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Limit Digital Rights Management
April 20, 2022
There is an urgent need to raise public awareness about Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. We believe the public needs to be protected from products that can be remotely turned off by the manufacturer, products that 'phone home' and would therefore stop working if the manufacturer went bankrupt, or products that are 'region coded'. We will require that any product sold in Canada that includes a DRM mechanism is stored without DRM in escrow against a time where access to DRM versions is ...
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More Rights Over Media
April 20, 2022
We will legalise the use of copyright works where no money changes hands, which will return to the people various rights including:
A right to “format shift” (for example, buying a CD then copying it to a portable media player such as an MP3 player or phone);
A right to share files between friends and peers (which provides free advertising that is essential for less well-known artists);
We will help create an environment in which we can all enjoy and share our cultural heritage free from the...
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Reduce Copyright Terms
April 20, 2022
The Pirate Party of Canada seeks a copyright term length that optimizes both economic advantage and social benefit. It is the party's stance that, at present, copyright terms are too long to fulfill these criteria and that terms must be shortened until the optimum copyright term is found, even if it means no copyright at all.
We will reduce the duration of copyright to 10 years, closer to the original duration of 14 years, reflecting the much greater ease with which works can now be made and di...
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