On March 8, 2016, the Federal Court of Canada issued a Decision in the CSA vs. P.S. Knight case which alters the common and historic understanding of the ownership of Federal and provincial law.
The Court ruled that text submitted to government by non-government parties for inclusion within legislation remains the private intellectual property of the originator or copyright assignment holder for that text, provided that the drafting of that text was not conducted under the direction of government.
As most legislation includes text voluntarily drafted by interested parties and their representatives, the text covered by the Court ruling represents the majority of Federal and provincial legislation in Canada.
[…]
Beyond PS Knight’s interests, the Ruling means that every publication which quotes from legislation that incorporates the contributions of citizens, lobbyists, etc. is now violating the private property rights of those persons who had contributed to that legislation.
Every legal publishing house in Canada is affected. Carswell Publishers, LexisNexis, Thompson Reuters, Evan Ross, Martins -all of these extensively quote from domestic law in their commentaries on domestic law.
Somehow, I don’t think they’ll be held to the same standard.
This entire P.S. Knight vs. CSA thing is very depressing, and it reinforces in my mind why we need more of Trump’s approach and very much less of the typical political establishment.
I used the Knight books for years when doing wiring in my house, and they were a gem.
The Conservatives should be ashamed of themselves for not having sorted out this mess before they lost power.
I feel for the folks at Knight…they are fighting an uphill battle, and what is so appalling about it all is they shouldn’t have to.
The Federal Court is full of lunatics.
Oregon tried the same thing. They produce outrageously expensive binders containing printed versions of the Oregon Revised Statutes. Someone tired of the rip off put the entire thing online. The state sued him, claiming copyright go the law.
The case went as far as the Oregon Supreme Court, who basically told the legislature to FOAD (in almost those terms), that there was no way they could claim copyright on something their employers, the people of Oregon, had paid them to produce.
The Oregon revised statutes are now available online, directly from the government.
The countervailing test case seems obvious: P S Knight sues the crap out of anyone quoting electrical law that contains their copyrighted material, and when they get turned down in court, they turn around and use that precedent to kill the original ruling.
Then again, we’re so far down the rabbit hole on this one I wouldn’t bet money on that.
This is bad news.
I could be wrong, but I believe that in Ontario at least court transcripts are not the property of the court but the property of the court stenographer who creates them, which is kind of the same thing and equally crazy to my mind.
Because all civil employees (Supreme Court included) are paid by the people, the copyright is owned equally by all taxpaying citizens as all the governments of whatever work for us (a fact that they forget with surprising regularity). The SCOC has forgotten that they answer to us, not themselves or their private agendas. And this ruling flies in the face of all the Jason Moore statements of previous years.
Time to slap the SCOC upside the head and reduce their mandate. They are having trouble remembering whom they serve.
I believe this was a decision by the Federal Court, separate from the SCOC but your comment applies just the same.
The courts in this country have become a law unto themselves with no regard to the implications of their woolly-headed decisions.
“The Conservatives should be ashamed of themselves for not having sorted out this mess before they lost power.”
Ain’t that the truth.
I’ll go further than that. I have a letter from James Moore in my files. All that prick did was wash his hands of the matter by lying – he said there was nothing he could (would)do about the CSA thing. So it wasn’t just a matter of overlooking or forgetting about things – the Conservatives actively shirked their duties on this one…and others.
So it’s one of two things: a matter of following the money, or, doing something about the rotten CSA would have had the potential of exposing some rotten connections that the PCs would rather keep hidden. And you can bet that the other parties are equally compromised on this – otherwise they would have dragged it out during the campaign.
The current Federal Court of Canada:
http://cas-cdc-www02.cas-satj.gc.ca/portal/page/portal/fc_cf_en/Bio
Headed by the Hon Paul Crampton 41 judges of which 7 who are supernumerary or temperary and an additional 7 who are prothonotaries or clerks sit in various judgement on issues ranging from the CSA debacle to patent law, the internet and beyond.
Are they doing a good job?
Not if the CSA decision is any measure.
Excellent court decision.
So laws we are legally obliged to conform to by Provincial legislation are Private Property.
So the legal obligation is null and void.
The law is not gazzetted for public perusal, there fore the public cannot be held accountable for ignorance of said law.
I do believe that Magna Carta thingy came about because of this kind of stupidity.
More proof we are governed by Kleptocrats.
CSA exists by government order.
Everything they do and are belongs to the government.
Government supposedly belongs to the citizen.
This ruling entitles government bureaucrats to impose private law and individual rulings at will.
There is no law.
Kill the parasites, would seem the only logical conclusion.
parasites
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goodness gracious. see how fast they spread when let be?
whatever can we shrinking minority of sensible citizens do?
SCOC must decide!
First thing to do, recognize your freeloaders as what they be.
Not civil servants, not public service, not government service.
But thieves,fools and bandits.
Then realize who are the true fools.
We who vote 60% for rob us some more.
40% for rob us a little less.
Near zero percent for kill the infestation.
Fire the useless,clueless and sponges .
Private Law = Secret Law
The support for either shows the court to be an ass.
When the court is an ass, nothing shows it up better as being an ass than for the citizenry at large to ignore it, mock, and just go on living.
I fully agree with you, the legal, moral, and civic obligation of every citizen to follow a private law or secret is null and void, regardless of any court ruling.