Links relating to Canadian culture, intellectual property, and digital archives

James Moore, minister of Canadian Heritage announced funding for Athabasca University's "Connecting Canadians: Canada's Multicultural Newspapers" project.

Discussing The Music Council of Australia's Policy on Fair Use vs. Fair Dealing, Time-Shifting, Blank Media Levy, Activities of Libraries and Like Institutions, And Orphan Works.

Eyez on the Prize documentary (23 honors, 2 Peabody awards) now out of circulation because of expired copyright licenses. Copyright costs are too high for low budget filmmakers to pay fees, thus "unwieldy copyright laws and extortionate royalty fees are forever changing history".

A Michael Geist slide show outlining his argument for implementing Fair Use in Canada opposed to Fair Dealing.

Youtube's Content ID system and instability "continues to frustrate community members, video makers are forced to adapt".

Discussion of being in the Internet age, and that when it comes to public information, for educational purposes, "we need to reconceive the public domain as the Digital Public Domain". Making information more accessible brings in the benefits of digitization, as "mass digitization of the public domain promotes the goals of universal access, improved learning, and the progress of science".

"A Fair(y) Use Tale," a video clip composed of all Disney films to emphasize the concept of Fair Use and Fair Dealing by implementing them firsthand.

Where CCH is weak, and the possible solutions or alternatives to Canadian Fair Dealing standards.

Fair Use vs. Fair Dealing and CCH's hierarchy of factors and new found flexibility.

Ben Goldacre used a news clip in his "Bad Science" blog as constructive journalism, criticizing a large news corporation for divulging faulty information on public airwaves. However, the corporation claimed that the news clip was an infringement of their copyright and declared that they were "reserving their rights". Discussion of when "reserving rights" becomes in conflict with the right of free speech and what constitutes fair dealing in news reporting.

Discussing EFF's stance on the automated filtering systems, like Youtube's Content ID system, which are "still primitive and unable to distinguish a tranformative remix from copyright infringement".

Taking the stance that "Canada remains woefully behind the rest of the developed world...in adopting critical legislation that will facilitate the development of a healthy online marketplace for copyright materials," and mention of the IIPA designation as "absurd".

This standard provides general guidance for the preparation of archival descriptions. It is to be used in conjunction with existing national standards or as the basis for the development of national standards.

A link to the Rules for Archival Description (RAD), the Canadian Standard. Also attached is a 700-page PDF of the complete standard.

Project objectives are:

• to document the diversity of principles, interpretations, and actions arising in response to IP issues in cultural heritage worldwide;
• to analyze the many implications of these situations;
• to generate more robust theoretical understandings as well as norms of best practices; and
• to make these findings available to stakeholders—from Aboriginal communities to professional organizations to government agencies—to develop and refine their own theories, principles, policies and practices.

Document published by National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage

In depth discussions and recommendations for digital archives and preservationists, on important topics such as Intellectual Property/ Rights Management, and best practices for the digitization and preservation of text, images and moving images.

"The following list provides links to specific Internet resources organized by medium. Many organizations and web sites provide preservation resources for video, audio, film, and digital media; the following selective list is intended to point the reader to particularly robust medium-specific links."

The Digital Dilemma Report:

"In one of its most far-reaching projects to date, the Council is beginning to tackle the challenges of archiving digital motion picture materials by researching current practices both inside and outside the film industry. The report, published in fall 2007, investigates the implications of digital technology for the industry‘s long-term preservation needs and includes case studies of motion pictures that used digital processes for production and mastering."

"The mission of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is to develop a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital content, especially materials that are created only in digital formats, for current and future generations."

A good all around resource for all things to be digitally preserved. Interesting articles about current trends, preservation pioneers and best practices.

About:
Conceived to deter 'splog' content theft this plugin places digital fingerprint into original user/author's blog post. It is visible only in the RSS feed. Once embedded in the post the plugin allows for user to search of the blogosphere using Google Blogsearch, BlogPulse, and Sphere and of the web for the fingerprint itself via Google, Yahoo! and MSN.