Yeah, yeah they keep saying so.

But copyright legislation was mentioned in the Throne Speech, and there are hints a bill is imminent.

Several issues in the air: how much will this pro-business but also pro-competition government give the recorded music industry the digital-rights-management and other anti-copying powers it wants; will the scatter-shot private copying levy (the levy on blank tape to compensate those whose work is copied onto tape) be replaced; and, will the government give provincial departments of education the broad exemption from copyright obligations they yearn for. The educators particularly want PAM (”publicly available material”) meaning “if it’s on the internet, it’ s free for use.”

Rumour has it Josee Verner, the Minister of Culture, is sympathetic to Quebec’s (and Quebec creators’) arguments that education does not need a free ride on the backs of those who produce the content it requires (Quebec alone does not support the other provinces’ campaigns for educational exemptions).