The reason it's preferable is essentially for the reasons Mr. Hayes gave around the text and data mining exception, because you don't have to constantly update the list of things that need flexibility or that you need breathing room or safety valves for. Rather than saying “Fair dealing for the purposes of” one, two, three, four, five or six things, which if we look at the pattern of reform have become increasingly specific and technical, you say “Fair dealing for purposes such as” some of the things we have is not an infringement of copyright.
The thing about innovation is that it is by definition disruptive and unpredictable. We want innovation, but you don't know what is going to happen. That's the point of innovation. You can't create a list of specific exceptions to enable things that you haven't thought of yet. The U.S. approach solves that with one swipe.
The argument you hear against that position is that it's too unpredictable, that it's too disruptive to settle Canadian practice. I don't believe that at all. In fact, we can have the best of both worlds by simply doing what Mr. Knopf suggests, called the “such as” solution. Just put in those two words, “such as”. It would give us the breathing room that the Americans have to drive innovation and not stifle it.