Comment Changing Legislation Changes Court Interpretation (Score 1) 149
you've already addressed pt.2 - yes michael geist is canada's closest equivalent to lawrence lessig in the u.s., even to the extent of aping lessig's powerpoint presentations with white buzzword text on black backgrounds.
once you've enshrined this in legislation as an 'exception', then everything else becomes a fair target. yes, the court decisions have provided for fair dealing for research purposes, but that was given the legislation at the time. if another court challenge arises, the court would have to consider the new case in light of the new version of the legislation and, seeing the exception, could rule in a different fashion than before. this is unlikely in this situation, given the unanimity of the CCH decision, but just like the RIAA lawsuits, media will attempt to provide 'balanced coverage', highlighting the illegality of what is actually legal just to make sure the corporate perspective is presented. that media kerfluffle will be enough to convince some in society that downloaded and printing from the internet might not be worth the potential legal trouble.
once you've enshrined this in legislation as an 'exception', then everything else becomes a fair target. yes, the court decisions have provided for fair dealing for research purposes, but that was given the legislation at the time. if another court challenge arises, the court would have to consider the new case in light of the new version of the legislation and, seeing the exception, could rule in a different fashion than before. this is unlikely in this situation, given the unanimity of the CCH decision, but just like the RIAA lawsuits, media will attempt to provide 'balanced coverage', highlighting the illegality of what is actually legal just to make sure the corporate perspective is presented. that media kerfluffle will be enough to convince some in society that downloaded and printing from the internet might not be worth the potential legal trouble.
