CopyRIGHT

Introduction

There is a hot issue being argued right now in North America. It’s all about stealing, and it isn’t a loaf of bread that is at stake. It’s our cultural heritage that is under threat, the intellectual achievements of the past, photographs, paintings, literary, musical, and historical works, in other words, the building blocks of our civilisation. By law they belong to the public at large, but a growing number of custodians have assumed ownership of these cultural treasures, and they want you to pay illegal fees for access to them. They must be stopped.

One purpose of this website is to inform the public about the above issue in particular, beginning with the copyright battle that we (staff of the Social Studies/Native Studies Department, Frontier School Division) waged with the National Gallery of Canada over a photograph that was essential to complete an educational project.

A second purpose is to increase public awareness of the broader questions surrounding Copyright Law in North America today. Unrestricted access to our heritage is under attack everywhere, and we need to keep abreast of developments; therefore, we will provide Internet links as we find them to informative articles and books on copyright and to websites where public access is being discussed. In this way, we hope to counteract a trend in institutional procedures and government legislation that either by accident or design is effectively excluding all but the rich and well-connected to the icons of our civilisation. See below.

For the Want of a Picture: A brief account of why the SS/NS Department, Frontier School Division became involved in the Copyright issue.

A Threat to the Public Domain? How the National Gallery of Canada limits Access to Canadian Heritage through "Cost Recovery.": The detailed history of FSD's struggle to obtain a Public Domain image of Paul Kane from the National Gallery of Canada.

If you have any comments concerning this webpage, or any of the above associated pages, please email us.

Last updated : 20 May 2008

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