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June 12, 2008: Federal government introduces copyright bill
The federal government has today introduced a bill aimed at amending and reforming the Copyright Act to bring it into line with the digital age.
See the government's press release on the subject here.
Analysis of, and response to the bill will be tracked by this blog. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: A series of "fact sheets" about the bill are on the Industry Ministry site.
And here's the actual piece of legislation, Bill C-61, as a PDF download.

June 10, 2008: Honoured magazine writer decries rates from the NMA stage
Charles Oberdorf, longtime magazine writer and teacher of the craft, received the National Magazine Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement at last Friday's swishy National Magazine Awards ceremony in Toronto.
As this online report documents, Oberdorf took the opportunity of his stage-time to suggest that magazine freelance rates need some modernizing:
"The editors already know this, but to their employers I would just like to point out that most Canadian consumer magazines still pay freelance writers about what they were paying 35 years ago when I was a young freelancer," he said.

June 03, 2008: Scholarship to honour slain Alberta freelancer
According to various reports, including a notice on the Canadian Magazines blog:
"The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA) is creating an arts and journalism scholarship to honour the memory of Amber Bowerman, killed last week in a multiple murder-suicide in Calgary."
Ms. Bowerman wrote for a number of Alberta publications, including Alberta Views and Avenue Magazine. Details of this horrendous crime can be found in various media reports.
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