Sask Party Violates Copyright Law
So the SaskParty website has a series of negative quotes about the NDP on thier web page overlayed on top of different pictures of Lorne Calvert. (The yellow boxes in the screen shots below)
The problem is that all those photos come from the Sask NDP website which has a copyright notice at the bottom of the screen. (Hard to see from my screen shot but go and look yourself) Note: I particularly like the last image from the SP that has the Sask NDP logo in it and is obviously from the NDP convention.
Now I know what all the right-wingers are going to say - "fair use", "fair use"
One small problem
The Copyright Act lays out permissible exceptions to copyright infringement in its section on fair dealing. “The Copyright Act provides that any "fair dealing" with a work for purposes of private study or research, or for criticism, review or news reporting is not infringement. However, in the case of criticism, review, or news reporting, the user is required to give the source and the author's, performer's, sound recording maker's or broadcaster's name, if known” (Canadian Intellectual Property Office). If you read the Copyright Act, you’ll notice that there are no specifics about how much of a work can be used for these purposes, such as a particular number of lines or paragraphs.
If you want to read the relevant section in the Canadian Law it is here
I don't see the Sask Party site citing the source anywhere, do you?
More importantly, how lazy and stupid of a political party do you have to be to not have your own pictures of the opposition to use?
5 comments:
Weak.
But it wouldn't kill the Sask Party to cite their source for the image, like I did when I 'shopped a Calvert graphic with a pothole.
GPM, once again you think yourself a lawyer, but you are in fact simply twisting law to suit your argument.
Had you delved further into Canadian copyright law and read the ENTIRE articles relating to "fair dealing" (yes, Canadian law calls it fair dealing), you would find that Canadian copyright law is a tad vague with respect to
1) Derivitive works: the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the entire work; and, the effect of the derived work on the market for the original.
2) transformative works: A transformative use is a use by which a work is used to create a new work possessing its own merits. That new work then enjoys its own copyright. However, the new work may infringe on the original.
So, since the base images were photoshopped, and the base image is only a small portion of the entire final work, and that the base image has been substantially modified to make the base image a diminuative part of the entire work as a whole, the new work could be considered a derivitive or transformational work. Thus, the Sask Party could (if they wanted to) legally claim copyright on the new images for themselves.
But, the entire point of copyright may be entirely moot. Following CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada, granting of copyright may infringe on individual's consitutional rights to freedom of expression. This particular argument remains untested in the courts, none the less some in the legal community question if such restrictions are justified in a free and democratic society.
Furthermore, you make the assumption (flawed) that the image is copyright of the NDP. Copyright of the images lies with the photographer, not the web site. Simply slapping the circled 'C' on a web site does not mean that all items on the page(s) are protected by copyright as you cannot claim copyright of someone else's work. Only the photographer can file a claim. Unless you are prepared to provide evidence that the NDP produced the images themselves, the claim that the images are the intellectual property of the NDP is about as weak as your attempts to be a legal beagle.
The long and short of it is, you know jack shit about IP law, and if the NDP really think they have grounds to file a claim of infringement, go ahead and fill your boots.
All those photographs were taken by NDP provincial office staff using company equipment on company time, thus they DO have copyright over the pictures.
And again, if you actually read my post, my final comment wasn't that the Sask Party is violating copyright law that is the worst part, it is that they are too lazy and/or stupid to have their own photos to use like the NDP do with the Sask Party pictures that they put up.
I don't think the NDP should file a copyright claim, I think people should mock the Sask Party.
I mock them for stealing garbage!
transformational and dirivitive. Other than that, suck it up.
I don't hear the Marijuanna party crying that the NDP stole their free drugs platform.
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