Audio of VIFF Panel Discussion on Orphan works

 

As noted in an earlier post, on October 10, 2014 I had the pleasure of appearing on  a panel with Professor Joel Bakan of UBC Law and Professor Colin Browne of SFU as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival to discuss the subject of “orphan works” The connection to VIFF was that the classic Canadian film “Bye Bye Blues” was being screened at the festival only because Section 77 of our Copyright Act creates a process whereby works whose  owners cannot be located can be the subject of a licence issued by the Copyright Board. “Bye Bye Blues” is in fact the first film to have been the subject of a section 77 proceeding. Moreover, Canada is one of the few countries in the world where such a legal provision exists and where anyone can make such an application. On its face there is nothing that prevents Section 77 from applying to video games. Given that there are probably a good number of  vintage games whose ownership is untraceable, it’s hard not to wonder if the section will someday be applied in  this way. The accommodation afforded by Section 77 seems quite farsighted especially when held up to relatively recent lens of “users rights” as applied through the Supreme Court of Canada’s “copyright pentalogy” of cases from August 2012.

Unfortunately for technical reasons only the audio of the panel discussion is currently available. It can be found above.

jon