Common Ground: Creative licence vs copyright law

Common Ground: Creative licence vs copyright law

Kimberly Baker

I first heard about Canada’s new Bill C-47 when I was printing off my artwork for this year’s graduation exhibition at the Emily Carr Institute. My artwork, the Transit Shelter Project, focuses on the current debates around the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and homelessness. As my artwork ran off the printer, the technician asked, “You know that these are illegal?” I replied that I had used different pantone colours and computer fonts so I wasn’t infringing upon any copyright laws.

“What I mean is VANOC has copyrighted the number 2010,” he added. I was completely floored and asked how anyone could copyright a number.

“I don’t know,” he retorted, “but they have. Didn’t you see the article in the front page of the Vancouver Sun that listed everything that you are not allowed to do? I suggest you look it up on the Internet.”

Sure enough, an investigation showed that Canada had passed Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympics Marks Act, legislation that provides the Vancouver Olympic organizers with extreme power over the symbols and language linked with the Olympics.