The Protection of Rights Management Information: Modernization or Cup Half Full?

Abstract

Many papers in this collection discuss the history and development of Bill C-32, 'An Act to Amend the Copyright Act', introduced into the Canadian Parliament on 2 June 2010, so that analysis will not be duplicated here. Among the failures of copyright reform has been the lack of addressing the required 'balancing' of proprietary rights on the one hand, with user rights and the public domain on the other. Rights Management Information (RMI) can aid in this balancing. The RMI of a work is simply data that provide identification of rights related to that work, either directly or indirectly. Although the Bill aims to address the perceived lack of compliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaties, the drafters may not have seen WIPO's own Scoping Study.