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Discuss “Respect citizens’ rights regardless of their idle drawings”

Imagine being an artist with an idea for a project.

Now imagine sketching out your plan, heading to Canada for the Cultural Capital Festival in New Brunswick to present your project, and being stopped on the way back by Customs and Border Protection agents because you were suspected of copyright infringement for a creative project that you’d thought of on your own.

This is exactly what happened to artist and Fordham University professor Jerilea Zempel, who was detained at the border between New Brunswick, Canada and Houlton, Maine this past summer because her sketchbook contained a sketch of a typical sport utility vehicle (SUV).

Zempel was originally found to be suspicious because she had traveled to so many other countries, but what the...

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