by John Degen
Wow, it did not take long at all after the recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions around certain tiny aspects of educational fair dealing for a brand new educational fair dealing handbook to be published.
by Rachel Gladstone-Gelman
Muhammad Khurshid is a Pakistani journalist from Bajaur Agency, who reports from and barely survives on the Pak-Afghan border. In response to his plea for help, I interviewed him and his wife to further illuminate and help bring relief from his on-going and torturous struggle against the prevalent corruption in that region.
RGG:
by Luke Allnut
To some, unscrupulous rabble-rousers; to others, the Robin Hoods of the Internet. The hacker collective Anonymous defies characterization. Parmy Olson, the London bureau chief for Forbes, has written a new book, We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency, which looks in detail at the movement, its schisms, and its evolving tactics. I spoke to Olson by phone about her new book.
RFE/RL:
How would you characterize Anonymous, as they've been described as a movement, a meme, an organization?
by John Degen
On June 12, a letter was sent to the administration and governance heads of universities and colleges across Canada, expressing support for the recent model collective licences signed by university and college organizations. It is a remarkable document, representing a broad coalition of writer and publisher groups and individuals. You can see for yourself that many of the individuals who signed the letter (including world-renowned author, Margaret Atwood and Canada's current Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Fred Wah) are post-secondary instructors as well as cultural workers.
Including all the signatories and organizations involved in creating the message, this letter represents the collective opinion of thousands of individual cultural workers in Canada. There can be no doubt that Canadian writers and publishers want their rights collectively represented in the educational market, and that they see collective licensing as the best solution for everyone in the licensing arrangement, educators and students included.
by John Gordon Miller, Ryerson University
Canada's information commissioner made headlines this week when she handed out low grades to most federal government departments for how they respond to requests for information from members of the public.
Of the 18 departments Suzanne Legault rated, four received Cs (average), four received Ds (below average) and three gots Fs (failure). Legault warned that budget cuts could make the situation worse next year.
by Jason Salzman
When you ask conservatives for proof of the "liberal media bias" they are so concerned about, you often get a response along the lines of, "The media are liberal because we say so! It's obvious."
So I was happy to find a case where the familiar band of conservatives was saying they had actual proof, hard evidence, of how the media favors the other side over their own.
by John Gordon Miller, Ryerson University
I know of no Canadian journalist who has gotten more blowback on a story than Jan Wong.
Nor have many of us paid such a steep price: Prime Minister Harper condemned her publicly as "grossly irresponsible" and "prejudiced," the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion demanding that she apologize to the people of Quebec, she got racist letters and a death threat, her newspaper turned against her, she lost her job and she very nearly lost her mind.
Thankfully, she lived to write about it, and it's wonderful to see her emerge with her customary courage and determination intact.
from Jan Wong with YouTube video
References
Jon Wong website
Safeguarding copyright protects university revenues too.
by John Degen
Should professors retain their copyright? To someone who thinks copyright is one of freedom's great rewards (that would be me), the question seems a no-brainer. Of course, every single writer should retain her copyright as much as possible and for as long as possible. To me, it's like asking should professors continue to eat nutritious foods? Should they seek the advice of doctors? Avoid smoking in bed? Take care of their pets?
Short answer to all questions… yes, they should, and they especially should take a more proprietary role in the safeguarding of their copyright.
In a new questionnaire about the future of press councils in Canada, we are asked, "In your opinion, how accountable are news organizations to the publics they serve?"
I suspect almost no one will answer "very accountable."
About the only useful thing you can do if you object to something published in a newspaper these days is (a) write a letter to the editor, or (b) sue them. Success depends on (a) whether they decide to publish it, and (b) whether you've got a lot of time and money and don't mind losing.
