Word from on high…
but not final

Depending on how one reads it, Bill C-60, which amends Canada's Copyright Act and was introduced in the House of Commons on June 20, could make it illegal to provide copyrighted information through "information-location tools," including search engines, writes the Globe and Mail (via Slashdot).

At first glance, a seemingly helpful provision of the bill limits the remedy available to a copyright owner, who may seek only an injunction against the search engine - but the bill works on the assumption that merely by indexing or archiving copyrighted material a search engine could be infringing on a copyright.

Section 40.3 (1) of the bill states that "the owner of copyright in a work or other subject-matter is not entitled to any remedy other than an injunction against a provider of information location tools who infringes that copyright by making or caching a reproduction of the work or other subject matter."

The bill defines information location tools as "any instrument through which one can locate information that is available by means of the Internet or any other digital network."

But Bill C-60 has received only its first reading and would likely be altered to make Parliament's intentions clearer.