A Measure of What Exactly?
Recently, a number of reports were delivered to the House of Commons as a follow up to a Liberal MP's question about the use or abuse of Government Copyright.
While it may be good to know what our various government bureaucracies are doing with materials we tax payers are paying for, it seems that demanding a status report on copyright issues from every last agency is more than a little high handed. Not to mention ... most likely counter productive.
First off, I really don't believe that policing the use copyright material is a proper function or responsibility of the agencies.
Secondly, any material that is produced should be considered the property of the taxpayer and available for free and unrestricted use.
There are terms of use posted with any government sourced material that usually prohibit unauthorized reproduction and especially reproduction for commercial purposes.
Personally though, I see little reason to complain about anyone making it simpler to access maps. charts and data that are provided on government web sites for public use. The reason being that most of this material is obscured by inefficient or even non-functioning search engines and incomprehensible data base structures.
If anyone wants to copy National Film Board movies, I say fill your boots. This stuff is supposed to be in the public domain. Hurry up and get it ALL on You Tube.
Archives of public documents? What are we protecting here? If it is not already classified, there is no good reason to be restricting access or use.
So ... Just What Is The Deal? Well, for one thing I find it kind of coincidental that the demand for reporting only goes back to January 2006 ... the end of Liberal governance. Perhaps an opportunity to manufacture another faux controversy?
I can just imagine the sort of sensational headlines in the G&M and breathless ledes at CBC etal....
"Conservatives Fail to Secure Public Property" or some such drivel. Of course ... no question about the status of this property previous Liberal governments!
Watch for it .... if the media catch on to this POS effort to abuse our government for imagined failings of bureaucrats ... you will see and hear a load.
Ottawa Cracks Down
OMMAG
While it may be good to know what our various government bureaucracies are doing with materials we tax payers are paying for, it seems that demanding a status report on copyright issues from every last agency is more than a little high handed. Not to mention ... most likely counter productive.
First off, I really don't believe that policing the use copyright material is a proper function or responsibility of the agencies.
Secondly, any material that is produced should be considered the property of the taxpayer and available for free and unrestricted use.
There are terms of use posted with any government sourced material that usually prohibit unauthorized reproduction and especially reproduction for commercial purposes.
Personally though, I see little reason to complain about anyone making it simpler to access maps. charts and data that are provided on government web sites for public use. The reason being that most of this material is obscured by inefficient or even non-functioning search engines and incomprehensible data base structures.
If anyone wants to copy National Film Board movies, I say fill your boots. This stuff is supposed to be in the public domain. Hurry up and get it ALL on You Tube.
Archives of public documents? What are we protecting here? If it is not already classified, there is no good reason to be restricting access or use.
So ... Just What Is The Deal? Well, for one thing I find it kind of coincidental that the demand for reporting only goes back to January 2006 ... the end of Liberal governance. Perhaps an opportunity to manufacture another faux controversy?
I can just imagine the sort of sensational headlines in the G&M and breathless ledes at CBC etal....
"Conservatives Fail to Secure Public Property" or some such drivel. Of course ... no question about the status of this property previous Liberal governments!
Watch for it .... if the media catch on to this POS effort to abuse our government for imagined failings of bureaucrats ... you will see and hear a load.
Ottawa Cracks Down
OMMAG
posted by OMMAG at 6:01 p.m.
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